Saturday, August 25, 2012

Watched the video of the suicide by cop in NYC

My personal opinion on it. Video on CBS here. Grabbed it and screen shot it.

I think most of the blowback online is due to the breathless reporting of "Mass Shooting at Empire State Building" when the actual story is ex-employee shoots boss, then draws on police. The actual shooting takes only a few seconds, from draw to gunman down.
 Here the suspect is starting to draw, with the police behind him.
 Here it looks like his gun is in hand.
 NYPD is moving to cover and shooting.
 Second officer moves away from first.
 Gunman starting to fall.
 Almost down.
And down.

You can see from the bus moving, this did not take very long- 8 seconds at most from the suspect turning to his fall to the ground. Yes, the police fired at a suspect, with a gun, in a crowd of people. It doesn't seem that the police randomly fired into the crowd. (UK Guardian headline) Yes, they did have people behind them get hit. They shot on a crowded street in one of the largest cities in the world. Unfortunately, the police are unable to choose the time and place of the shooting- they have to react, as anyone does, to the situation at hand.

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