reminds me of the "where are all the muslims condemning terrorists" bit

I don't mean coward in the way that people use coward as a generic insult. I think it's the most important factor. These police are terrified, and especially of Black people. It's why their finger is on the trigger so quickly.

Yeah seems most likely this cop told the guy to pull out his ID, then panicked and thought he told him to take his hands up. Racism is mostly driven by fear.

I think the culture among cops is worse than ever because of their militarization. A wall is up between the cops and communities, especially the Black communities. It fosters dehumanization. The cops have an attitude so incredibly hyper-focused on their safety that it leads to hails of bullets when people reach for their cell phones.

Yes, cops need to be prosecuted so they don't have a feeling of immunity, but more than that, they need to stop acting like an occupying force. They need to get out of their cars, peel off their layers of bullet proof clothing, keep their hands off their guns when they are talking to citizens and be part of the communities.

I am pretty sure Falcon heights is a very safe, mostly-white suburb, correct? I get the impression some of these small-town cops just want an easy, secure job with good benefits - but are scared to death of actually doing anything remotely dangerous. Like they are totally untrained and/or psychologically unfit for the career they chose.

I just can't imagine this cop in an actual dangerous situation, with an actual armed criminal. Does he just start shooting into the crowd randomly?

Yet somehow this guy lives. Hold on a second there sir, let's just calm down.

Funny how we have endless youtoobs of white people not acting properly with law enforcement and somehow not ending up executed. But hey, I'm sure if you just informed the black community that they should comply with the police, we would avoid all of these executions.

Do you have a link to the story where this same cop kills and unarmed black man in a similar situation because if not I can't see how that picture is remotely relevant

This. Even at local Friday night high school football games the police that are there for security are not in normal police uniforms. They are wearing camo, combat boots, and body armor.

What? The relevance is that if this dude was black with his hand on his gun in front of a cop, he's probably dead before this picture can even be taken.

Cops want the benefit of the doubt for "putting their lives on the line" out there to protect us, but yeah, they can't even do off-duty security work without looking like Robocop and every couple of weeks they kill a black guy because they "got scared".

It's unacceptable. The culture needs to change. We wouldn't accept this **** from a fireman, "Yo man I really did want to go into that house and save your child, but as I got close I noticed that **** was ON FIRE and I was afraid I'd get burned".

Oblivious person from UK here... this isn't a real photo of everyday life right?

Oh it's real. Red states ftw. I've seen that fedora guy in a few of these. He seems to be something of a camera hog.

So in your dream world every cop that sees a black man with a gun gets shot.

What in the living **** are you talking about? So we've moved from unarmed black guy to all armed black guys - somehow making a difference on this yahoo not being shot. Your responses are so incoherent I honestly can't figure out your point. You realize t-shirt guy is not a cop right?

Hint: the hand on the gun is the key here.

Why don't you become a police officer then and start changing your community instead of ranting on an Internet forum all day long solving absolutely nothing?

You have no idea what is going on there. They are on a beach in the middle of the day. One still picture of a white guy touching holstered gun isn't making any kind of point

reztes- LOL what. I can't criticize the police unless I personally am a cop? Man these Trump voters have some A+ persuasion skills, three sigma A-B testing.

Depending on the department, cops can get in trouble for making the department look bad on Facebook, particularly if they are accessing the LEEDS database to do it. If he was posting info that wasn't publicly available, he's in trouble if you want him to be.

The girlfriend was from there, but that's not where the shooting was. She said it was the RoseSomething department.

These are open carry activists. Just sort of nutjobs who walk around in broad daylight carrying long barrel weapons to antagonize police and intimidate people around them. Of course, in the US, they're pretty safe because they're white. When black people have toy guns in the same situations, cops shoot first and ask questions later.

Yeah well fortunately the rest of the world isn't as obtuse/raise by wolves as you.

No one seriously thinks a black guy would live through that. Feel free to show me evidence of a black guy open-carrying in front of a cop with his hand on his gun in a threatening manner, and the cop is just saying like "woah, let's slow down there champ".

Criticize all you want. Nothing changes. I was offering you a solution to start changing things you want changed in your community

Your probably right. That situation has never happened with a black man and if it did he's probably dead. There can't possibly be

Lol what does "on a beach" or "in the middle of the day" have to do with anything?

That guy seems a lot more dangerous than Tamir Rice, no?

FWIW I support the police in general and think there are many good ones. Who knows, maybe the cop in this pic is one of them. But that doesn't mean there aren't bad ones also, as recent news shows.

The only way to fix this is to start putting the bad ones in jail when they murder innocent people, instead of instinctively trying to cover it up. You can only imagine the "official story" had there been no video or witnesses to this Minnesota shooting.

Reztes apparently stroked out in anger about the idea black people getting executed just might be because of racism before he could finish his thought.