John Crawford shooting: It's open carry for whites, open season on blacks

[gollygee]

Hosts: I hope you see this as about racism and police shootings and not just as a gun thread.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2014/08/john_crawford_shooting_open_carry_for_whites_open_season_on_blacks.html

John Crawford III was shot in a Wal-Mart after police received a 911 call alerting them that a man with a rifle was walking around the store. Officers arrived on the scene and, after a brief encounter, shot the 22-year-old man, who later died of a gunshot wound to the torso. As we now know, Crawford was holding a Crosman MK-177 air pump rifle—a nonlethal replica air rifle, intended for a child—and sold at the very store where he was shot while carrying it. Much of the focus of the discussions around this case has been on this fact: Why would police shoot a man holding a child’s replica gun in the store that sold it? A fair question, to be sure, but I wish to raise another.

Ohio is an “open carry” state. So even if Crawford were carrying a real, fully loaded rifle, why would that raise any alarms? How could that possibly be a reason to kill him?

I’ll let that marinate for a second while I give you a little background on what open carry actually means. It varies from state to state, but Ohio’s open-carry laws mean an individual can possess a firearm without a permit in most public spaces (including stores) so long as it is fully visible. In fact, in Ohio, you only need a permit if you wish to conceal a handgun. That means if you want to walk around with an AK-47, AR-15 or even a Remington 870 pump-action shotgun, no problem—so long as you don’t conceal it and/or go around threatening people with it.

Which brings me back to John Crawford. He was holding a toy gun in the store that sold it, and even if he were holding an honest-to-goodness rifle loaded with real bullets, he was well within his Ohioan rights to do so. Who was he threatening? We’ve seen open-carry activists all over the country walk around in public and visit major chain stores without so much as a police scolding, let alone a confrontation with police or an actual shooting.

[valerief]

1. The standard reason is, "He was resisting arrest and he tried to take my (the cop's) gun,"

isn't it? Even though it makes no sense for the cop to say that, it doesn't mean they won't. Although, with the way things are going in America today, they may just say, "Because he was black," and get away with that.

[gollygee]

2. Well there's video of this

The store had a video security system.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/08/attorney_surveillance_video_shows_john_crawford_iii_being_shot_on_sight.html

John Crawford III did not even have the BB gun pointed in the air. In fact, he wasn’t even facing the officers who shot him.

At least, that’s what his family’s attorney has said after being allowed to review surveillance video from the fateful Aug. 5 incident at an Ohio Wal-Mart, the Raw Story reports.

According to attorney Michael Wright, the surveillance video showed Crawford leaning against the unpackaged pellet rifle, supporting his body, while he spoke on the phone, with his back turned to the police.

“John was doing nothing wrong in Wal-Mart—nothing more, nothing less than shopping,” Wright said of the video, which the state’s attorney general permitted him to see, according to the report.

[valerief]

4. Then they'll have to "misplace" the video so it's not included as evidence.

Or have their Congress pass a bill banning store video footage from criminal trials. The latter should be a cinch for them. Congress only costs money, nothing else, and the "Kill black people on sight" funders have plenty of money. Racism makes sure the robber barons aren't the enemy.

[Red State Rebel]

3. It was mainly the fault of the numbnuts who called in the report.

He lied saying the guy was pointing it at people and was loading bullets into it. This what he was telling the 911 operator so naturally the officer who responded was in hyper alert mode.

[valerief]

5. It was the fault of the police. Period. nt