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Police officer justified in fatal mall shooting of black man: Alabama AG
Stories like this just terrify me.. A law-abiding citizen with a concealed handgun license was sitting in ready position after gunfire erupted in the mall. He also was in the Army and serving our country. The police saw him and immediately opened fire on him, assuming he was the shooter. After talking with a Sheriff Deputy in North Carolina where I took my North Carolina CHL class, he told me that deputies are trained to shoot first and ask questions later during a mass shooting. He said, for exaample, if there was a school shooting, he would engage and start shooting at anyone with a gun. I told him what if he killed a law-abiding citizen? He said it doesn't matter. This was shocking to me and a gross violation of our constitutional rights.
What I want is police to be held to the same standards as other law-abiding gun owners. If you kill an innocent person you should be subjugated to the same treatment as any other American citizen. We are suppose to be a free society with a civilian police force. If police are superior to normal citizens, we are in fact, a de facto police state. But, after taking an 8 hour concealed carry course that was taught by a senior deputy (who may end up being Sheriff of the county, himself one day), I am confident that what he told me was very likely a possibility in this Alabama mall shooting.
I hate to say this could have been any of us. Of course, I don't believe his race was any determining factor here. I believe the fact he was crouched down in a defensive position with a gun was more the reason the police decided to execute him and condemned him as guilty until proven innocent.
Just imagine if there was a shooting and one of us mistook a police officer (plain clothes) as the shooter. We would immediately be labelled a "cop-killer" and probably spend the rest of our lives in prison or at least financially ruined with court battles. It is just not right.
This man, Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford, Jr was a law-abiding citizen, a soldier and honorable person. He did not deserve to be gunned down. He was there trying to protect other people's lives and doing what any of us who had the will power and bravery would have done in such a situation. In my opinion, these cops should be convicted of manslaughter, but they are going about their lives and still getting paid, while this brave soul is now laid in his grave.
It also should make us think about what would happen if any of us were in this situation. Would you fear defending yourself and others more because of being shot by the police or by being killed by an assailant? Considering the police can kill you and get away scott free (unlike the assailant ) , a case of mistaken identity for them would not be as big of deal as for us, the peasants who have much less limited rights.
Stories like this just terrify me.. A law-abiding citizen with a concealed handgun license was sitting in ready position after gunfire erupted in the mall. He also was in the Army and serving our country. The police saw him and immediately opened fire on him, assuming he was the shooter. After talking with a Sheriff Deputy in North Carolina where I took my North Carolina CHL class, he told me that deputies are trained to shoot first and ask questions later during a mass shooting. He said, for exaample, if there was a school shooting, he would engage and start shooting at anyone with a gun. I told him what if he killed a law-abiding citizen? He said it doesn't matter. This was shocking to me and a gross violation of our constitutional rights.
What I want is police to be held to the same standards as other law-abiding gun owners. If you kill an innocent person you should be subjugated to the same treatment as any other American citizen. We are suppose to be a free society with a civilian police force. If police are superior to normal citizens, we are in fact, a de facto police state. But, after taking an 8 hour concealed carry course that was taught by a senior deputy (who may end up being Sheriff of the county, himself one day), I am confident that what he told me was very likely a possibility in this Alabama mall shooting.
I hate to say this could have been any of us. Of course, I don't believe his race was any determining factor here. I believe the fact he was crouched down in a defensive position with a gun was more the reason the police decided to execute him and condemned him as guilty until proven innocent.
Just imagine if there was a shooting and one of us mistook a police officer (plain clothes) as the shooter. We would immediately be labelled a "cop-killer" and probably spend the rest of our lives in prison or at least financially ruined with court battles. It is just not right.
This man, Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford, Jr was a law-abiding citizen, a soldier and honorable person. He did not deserve to be gunned down. He was there trying to protect other people's lives and doing what any of us who had the will power and bravery would have done in such a situation. In my opinion, these cops should be convicted of manslaughter, but they are going about their lives and still getting paid, while this brave soul is now laid in his grave.
It also should make us think about what would happen if any of us were in this situation. Would you fear defending yourself and others more because of being shot by the police or by being killed by an assailant? Considering the police can kill you and get away scott free (unlike the assailant ) , a case of mistaken identity for them would not be as big of deal as for us, the peasants who have much less limited rights.
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