Officer charged in shooting death of Black man in a Walmart

or, the Taser had no effect at all (see my post just above), and the deceased near collapse from whatever he was on.

True - that's a possibility, too. Good posts.

As a side note, in the 911 call, the store detective mentioned the guy was "trying to leave." I don't know if that means the store employees were stopping him? But...

In a big retail store where I once worked, we were not allowed to try to detain a shoplifter. We employees were told that the shopper hasn't stolen anything until he or she has walked out the door with it, and we were not allowed to follow a shoplifter outside. Instead, store detectives forwarded photos of shoplifters to the police.

If this guy had been in our store behaving that way, we would've called police, but no one would've tried to stop him from leaving. Our managers were far more concerned with lawsuits than shoplifting. If this store had had the same policy, maybe the man would be alive and the officer wouldn't be facing charges.

> In the past it was common for cops to get into physical altercations to disarm someone rather than shoot them. <

Yep. It would be foolhardy for a cop (or anyone else) to try to disarm a guy who was holding a bat over his head, ready to strike.

But that was evidently not the case here. In the video I saw the black guy had his bat pointed towards the floor. The far end of the bat was almost touching the floor. It was the perfect time to rush the guy.

Side note: I’m not an expert on this (or on anything else, according to my ex-wife). But I did spend years studying Chinese boxing. One of the things we practiced was unarmed combat against a person armed with a short staff. It’s a wee bit dangerous. But it’s doable.

I am tired to the MAX about being accused of ‘white privilege’.

MY white privilege goes back to being a child who did as I was told without any sassing back-—or I got my backside warmed up. I had chores on the farm-—and we didn’t get to eat our meals UNTIL all the animals were fed & watered & taken care of.

We had strict bedtimes-—and ALL of our homework had to be done by that time. We did have a black & white TV-—BUT—NO TV unless all homework done. There NO electronic games, etc. On snowy nights, we played penny ante poker with the entire family, and you can learn alot about math when playing cards. The pennies came from a jar & were all put back into the jar at night’s end. Cribbage is VERY good in teaching a kid how to do quick math.

We didn’t skip school. We didn’t get put back a year for not passing grades, nor were we passed ‘just because’.

We rode the school bus & if we misbehaved on that bus, the driver stopped the bus & didn’t move again until we all settled down. Peer pressure to not get a ‘Tardy’ on our
record.

We were taught that everything we learned THEN would shape what kind of life we would have...how good a job, etc. I went to high school with people who became well known successful farmers who won awards from their peers-—and with military members who served in Viet Nam with distinction. and (that I know of) classmates did highly secret stuff they still cannot talk about.

I did my homework & my chores. I took the tests & I passed with good grades. I had a part time job when a senior in high school. I got a good full time job at 17, and learned everything I could absorb, since that job did require some training. I didn’t skip a workday or ‘call in sick’. I wasn’t tardy & I didn’t leave early. I built a reputation of being dependable & fast & accurate in the accounting departments I worked in.

I often found jobs that paid more...I moved from Wisconsin to So Calif & I found a job the first Monday I was there. I started the very next day-—at a 20% pay increase.

I went to night school in the late 60’s—after working all day. I took all the accounting classes they offered and had a 4.0 average in every class. I PAID FOR ALL MY SCHOOL COSTS-—NO STUDENT LOANS....

I bought 4 houses in the following years. I rarely had any trouble finding work because of my reputation of being fast/accurate/and dependable.

When accounting jobs were not plentiful, I was a grocery cashier & I sold auto parts.

I became self-employed in about 1980. I carried as many as 19 clients at one time. I still do bookkeeping for one client-—this is the 51st year I have done his bookkeeping. Loyalty is a 2 way street.

I NEVER got into any trouble with the law. I have NEVER been arrested.

I kept my nose to the grindstone & did my work.

IF you cannot stay in school-—stay out of trouble-—find a job that appeals to you-—etc-—then you will end up in the headlines we are seeing today.

Blacks may choose to call it ‘white privilege’-—but it truly is WHITE WORK ETHIC.

There is a hell of a difference.

BTW- I am female & now over 80.

"Intent, means and opportunity at one time was what was taught at the agency that I work for. The use of force policy has since been updated so those three things are no longer the standard, but they are relevant."

Those concepts are incorporated, yes.

Again, the post I originally replied to only suggested that this officer being charged was "insane" because you can kill someone with a baseball bat. Not that the victim was actually doing anything with a bat. Just that bats are dangerous. Which is true, but so are many every day items, and many items found in that store. So simply being in possession of such an item does not mean it would be insane for someone to be charged for shooting you.

Now if one wanted to say that this victim was making deadly threats with that bat, that's another story. But that's not the comment I was responding to.

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