Police in New York shoot and kill 13-year-old holding a pellet gun, authorities say

gedaliyah@lemmy.worldmod to News@lemmy.world – 341 points –
Police in New York shoot and kill 13-year-old holding a pellet gun, authorities say
pbs.org

An officer in upstate New York shot and killed a teen fleeing while pointing a replica gun, police said Saturday.

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Police are allowed to point weapons at you and not expect return fire. It's not considered self defense if you return fire even if the police burst into your home in the middle of the night and don't announce themselves. 2nd amendment rights are simply an advertisement for the gun industry to sell more weapons and ammunition and has nothing to do with self defense especially from the state.

Actually Breonna Taylor's boyfriend was acquitted for firing at them as self-defense. In very specific situations and with suitably embarrassing incidents for the police you might be able to avoid having the entire weight of the justice system come down on you. Assuming you survive the encounter in the first place.

He was not acquitted.

The charges were dropped once the massive pile of police incompetence met the shitstorm of public scrutiny.

First the charges were dismissed without prejudice so the prosecutor could dig and see if he could find some way to make it Walker's fault that cops killed his girlfriend. Then, when he couldn't (because of the aforementioned appalling incompetence), and public scrutiny didn't decrease to a point where he could quietly pressure Walker into a cell anyway, they were dismissed with prejudice.

It is important to not make shit up about this. If the public scrutiny hadn't been as intense, it is entirely possible that they would have dragged him to trial and pressured him into a plea bargain. He was lucky that the public managed to continue giving a shit for more than their usual 30-second attention span.