In Columbus, a cop shot a 15-year-old girl 10 SECONDS after he arrived on the scene

[Jirel]

221. I am APPALLED at DUers defending the cop here.

Apparently they have lost their damned minds.

1) No attempt at deescalation or finding out what's going on, when coming into a fight. Gun already drawn, looking for action. Apparently those things are just for white brawls.

2) The girl in pink was in little danger from Ma'Khia. As she had called for help, she felt she needed to defend herself. Whatever had happened at that moment, she had the knife in her hand and was swinging wildly, if at all. I've trained with knives for years. The first thing you learn - the first thing this kkkop should have learned - about people with knives, is that (a) the target is likely to get cut no matter how well they might defend, but (b) the likelihood of serious damage (hitting something vital versus needing stitches) from a knife wielded by someone just swinging it around is low, especially if the target has a chance to put distance between them. You put space between combatants if you're trying to deescalate.

3) The kkkop was putting the girl in pink in a hell of a lot more danger than Ma'Khia was. Ma'Khia might have put a few cuts on her, at the very worst. The kkkop was emptying his entire goddamned clip into Ma'Khia as she was partly between him and the girl in pink, and they were inches away, even touching, at the time. One slight miss, and she also would be dead or in surgery for a major bullet wound. Oh, and apparently he did miss - poor Ma'Khia was hit 4 times in the chest, and at least 1 bullet went elsewhere.

4) There is this thing called proportional use of force. A taser? Maybe reasonable. Emptying a clip into the chest of a youngster? That's pretty automatically a kill. One shot? Especially when the other girl was right behind her and possibly even in significant contact with Ma'Khia? Still grossly out of line. You don't try to "save" someone by putting them in much greater danger. That kkkop was out to kill Ma'Khia, not to help the girl in pink.

Finally, apparently people's worst selves are showing badly, along with their lack of empathy. Let's say YOU're at your house and get attacked. YOU grab a crow bar or shovel or knife to defend yourself. A moron kkkop responds to YOUR call for help, but sees that YOU're the one with the upper hand. Therefore YOU are now the "danger," and YOU automatically get a full clip emptied into YOUR chest without any warning or attempt to resolve what's going on. Got a problem with that now? You'd better.