Who wants to bet that the parents of that 15-year-old-eighth-grader who pulled a "lookalike pistol" on his local SWAT Team, and got blown away, will file a lawsuit?

The parental units' lawyer is already saying that they "warned" the authorities that the pistol was probably a fake.  Yeah, that's the ticket.  Some kid whips out a pistol on me and I'm gonna hold off because it is "probably a fake".

Now we know why the kid turned out the way he did.

yeah, i dunno. this damn story depresses the hell outta me. not just because this poor emotionally disturbed kid got killed, but because people just seem to get so excited and enthusiastic whenever there's a mis-use of police power in this country. makes me nervous what's happening to america.

yeah, i dunno. this damn story depresses the hell outta me. not just because this poor emotionally disturbed kid got killed, but because people just seem to get so excited and enthusiastic whenever there's a mis-use of police power in this country. makes me nervous what's happening to america.


Misuse of Police power?  Let me elaborate.

This "kid" was carrying a pellet gun that was specifically manufactured to look IDENTICAL to a Beretta 9mm semiauto.  BY LAW it is required to have a bright orange marking at the end of the barrel, so that people can tell that it is a "non lethal" weapon.

However... the 15-year-old-eight-grader painted over the orange marking with black paint, so that you could not tell that it was a fake.

What would you suggest the officer was supposed to do when Junior pulled this weapon on him?  ???

[quote author=Ły

From what I read, it sounds like a textbook case of "suicide by cop."  The article did say that his parents told the police that the gun wasn't real, and I thought that law enforcement agencies were supposed to be trained how to use non-lethal methods to subdue people in these kinds of situations and to use deadly force as a last resort. I don't know the whole story, and in all likelihood the SWAT team member reacted properly in order to protect his fellow officer, but this thread has a "the punk had it coming" tone to it, and I don't think that's right.

yeah, obviously it's a MISuse of police power, the question is whether it's understandable given the circumstances. obviously it seems to have been, but it gives me pause how quickly people -- particularly rightists -- are to jump on this poor kid. i mean, hello? he's brain dead? anyone care to conjure up an ounce of compassion????

From what I read, it sounds like a textbook case of "suicide by cop."  The article did say that his parents told the police that the gun wasn't real, and I thought that law enforcement agencies were supposed to be trained how to use non-lethal methods to subdue people in these kinds of situations and to use deadly force as a last resort. I don't know the whole story, and in all likelihood the SWAT team member reacted properly in order to protect his fellow officer, but this thread has a "the punk had it coming" tone to it, and I don't think that's right.


Hey, I'm all for non-lethal means too.  But the bottom line here is that in a split second, the kid pulled what looked like a pistol (with the orange markings painted over) on a cop.  In this split second the cop did what he had to do.  he probably feels rotten about it himself.

People did not take Dylan Klebold seriously either, and look what happened.

Was this "suicide by cop"?  Good chance that it was.