Yet another one — Cops gun down 20-yr-old black male near Las Vegas

[JJChambers]

40. I'm not sure I agree with your premise

I'm glad the cops didn't "take him down" sooner. It's refreshing to see police attempt to resolve the conflict using verbal mediation and NOT jumping into an immediate physical confrontation. It appears from what I've read that when their attempts to talk him down failed, that they did attempt less lethal (pepper spray) which was ineffective. After that failed, the confrontation became physical and according to at least one eyewitness, the man was "throwing" the cops around. The same witness says they tried to stun (tase?) the decedent.

"One driver says Berghardt did not listen to the officers, who ordered him to put up his hands and stop moving. The officers tried to stun Berghardt, David Reed told the Review-Journal, with no effect.

“They tried and tried,” Reed, 61, said. “I thought he was on drugs or something. He was that strong; he was throwing them around.”

Having personally been in a situation in which I have had to physically restrain someone who doesn't want to be restrained, I can assure you that even with three against one, it's still no cakewalk.

This is a tragic situation that indicates several failures of our society. I suspect that the decedent was either suffering from mental illness or drug / alcohol abuse -- both major problems that our country fails to adequately treat. Further, it appears that there were numerous bystanders who could have assisted with corralling the man, but instead chose to sit in their vehicles and watch. Perhaps the police would have turned them away, but we will never know. And of course they're not obligated to assist, but watching the video I was stuck by the callous nature of their commenting and filming from a safe distance. Maybe knowing what was coming influenced my thought process, but I wanted to yell at the camera man to go help!

Perhaps there were things that the officers could have done differently and the outcome change. But that's impossible to know for sure. What we do know is that they appeared to be reasonable, attempt communicate and slow to use force until absolutely necessary. I don't want to Monday-morning quarterback them without some indication of a notable error.