California officer shoots and kills boy, 15, holding gardening tool

juicy@lemmy.todaybanned from community to News@lemmy.world – 762 points –
California officer shoots and kills boy, 15, holding gardening tool
theguardian.com
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It was a hoe. Capital punishment for an episode in the garden is probably a bad take

It's not a punishment. The cop was defending his own life from a legitimate threat. He could have done things better but this isn't the unjustifiable killing that people here are trying to make it be.

Lol what? A child having a mental health crisis holding anything short of a gun isn't a reason to shot. It's argue unless the child has fired that gun at someone still isn't a good reason to shoot.

You seem to be making an assumption that the cop was not in any significant danger here. I don't understand how you can read the article, watch the video and still reach that conclusion. Look at the pictures. The dude was an absolute stud.

I watched the body cam. The cop was retreating, wasn't cornered, and had size and age on the victim. I work in child care (as a camp counselor) and if I shot a kid every time one became violent (yes even with a "weapon" ) I would be shooting a kid every month. Time and time again it's been shown that police misjudge the age of minority children by over 5 years. Meaning, I saw a child having a mental health crisis, while this police officer saw a grown man attacking them. That doesn't mean the kid deserves to die and the police are exonerated. Are you saying every kid that swings a weapon at someone deserves to die? Because that's were we are headed.

I haven't claimed that shooting him was an optimal response. This is exactly what happens when the police don't have proper training. This situation would have been handled totally differently where I live. My point is that self-defence was, in my view, justified in this case. There are many people here in this thread implying that this is a perfect example of a racist cop murdering an innocent person. That is not a fair assesment of the situation in my mind.

Are you saying every kid that swings a weapon at someone deserves to die?

I hope this isn't a serious question.