This is one of those stories with multiple layers and angles for consideration embedded.
Summary: Injured, innocuous (not black), man wraps hand in towel and waves down a cop for help. LAPD Cop gets out of vehicle shouting “put down the gun” (man never had gun) apparently anticipating a handgun under the towel. Confused man unable to comply (man never had gun); without compliance cop draws weapon and shoots man four times, once in the head. Now the man is really, really, injured – as the police roll him over in his blood (witness video) and handcuff him while waiting for ambulance. Rushed to the hospital in critical condition – original hand injury now irrelevant to his bullet to head injury.
NBC Summary Here – Another Link HERE
The victim is white. Of immediate -albeit funny (were it not for the seriousness of the issue)- note, is the primary concern of the media.
Severe congestion was caused after Los Feliz Boulevard was closed in the vicinity of Lowry Road due to the investigation. It finally reopened at 1:50 a.m. Saturday (link)
Generally speaking, and accepting the details are still sketchy, this event would customarily be viewed as a non-justified police use of deadly force (assuming facts as presented in the summary remain accurate).
However, an intellectually honest person will also see how the current national anti-cop sentiment, in combination with increased refusal to comply with LEO instructions, has created an environment where the police are consequentially twitchy.
This is a dangerous by-product of what happens when respect for law enforcement is undermined. Poor decisions by LEO flow as an unintended consequence to media-hyped lawless behavior; the reinforcement of the “FTP” movement by the Anarchists and professional leftists only exacerbates an already dangerous situation.
Unless and until proper and appropriate societal respect for the rule of law returns, we can expect more “accidental” police issues; as they work to ascertain the potential myriad of threats – and responses therein- during micro-seconds of decision-making.
In the interim, prudence dictates that everyone should think about adjusting their situational awareness to reflect this, hopefully temporary, “new normal”.
Calm heads, the removal of panic, increased attention to your situational awareness, and extreme lawfulness in the face of authority may help us all avoid these unintended consequences.
….. And if you accidentally cut off your finger in a lawnmower, don’t run toward the police with a towel wrapped around your hand in panic. (Especially if you are non-black).
