Police shoot, kill man holding hairbrush
Never underestimate some people's fear of having their hair messed up.
Officers shot and killed an 18-year-old man who they believed to be armed, New York police said, but witnesses said Tuesday he was only holding a hairbrush.
Ok, well, never underestimate the stupidity and trigger-happiness of NYPD.
The Monday night shooting followed a 911 call from the man's mother. Police described the situation as "a family dispute with a gun."
"Or hairbrush, not sure which, call was kind of fuzzy."
After officers arrived, the teen refused to halt as he approached police, prompting them to open fire, The Associated Press reported.
No warning shot? How much you want to bet they shot him like seventeen times?
Police told The New York Times they believed the teen, Khiel Coppin, had a gun, but after five officers fired 20 shots they realized he was holding only a hairbrush.
They then fired another 15 times.
"The boy didn't have no gun, he had a brush on him," said Andre Wildman, a neighbor who told CNN that he saw the shooting.
He was black, I bet you he was black. Cops don't kill white people with hairbrushes. They only kill white people that are hanging out with black people.
Another neighbor, Wayne Holder, said police should be required to see a weapon before opening fire on a suspect.
What? Hearing a rumor of a weapon's not good enough to reenact Robocop?
"At least see a gun before you start to discharge it," Holder said. Police "don't even have to see it, [if] they think you got one, you're going to get shot."
This is why they have that put-your-hands-where-I-can-see-them thing. Whenever the cops come to see me, (which is pretty often. I have friends who are cops. What, you think I'm a trouble maker?) I always wrap my hands in Christmas lights and hold them over my head with my fingers outstretched just so there are no "misunderstandings" that may cause me to enter the world beyond just like Tupac.
The AP reported that the teen had a history of mental illness and his mother had tried to have him hospitalized earlier in the day.
Kid crazy? Can't get him hospitalized? Scared of his erratic behavior? Call the cops, tell them he has a gun and the situation should handle itself.
A bystander who said he saw the shooting told CNN affiliate WABC-TV that the man was unarmed. "He dropped the brush," said the bystander, Dyshawn Gibson. "He put his hands up. Police just started firing."
Good thing the guy didn't have a wallet or the shooting would have been worse.
Officers shot and killed an 18-year-old man who they believed to be armed, New York police said, but witnesses said Tuesday he was only holding a hairbrush.
Ok, well, never underestimate the stupidity and trigger-happiness of NYPD.
The Monday night shooting followed a 911 call from the man's mother. Police described the situation as "a family dispute with a gun."
"Or hairbrush, not sure which, call was kind of fuzzy."
After officers arrived, the teen refused to halt as he approached police, prompting them to open fire, The Associated Press reported.
No warning shot? How much you want to bet they shot him like seventeen times?
Police told The New York Times they believed the teen, Khiel Coppin, had a gun, but after five officers fired 20 shots they realized he was holding only a hairbrush.
They then fired another 15 times.
"The boy didn't have no gun, he had a brush on him," said Andre Wildman, a neighbor who told CNN that he saw the shooting.
He was black, I bet you he was black. Cops don't kill white people with hairbrushes. They only kill white people that are hanging out with black people.
Another neighbor, Wayne Holder, said police should be required to see a weapon before opening fire on a suspect.
What? Hearing a rumor of a weapon's not good enough to reenact Robocop?
"At least see a gun before you start to discharge it," Holder said. Police "don't even have to see it, [if] they think you got one, you're going to get shot."
This is why they have that put-your-hands-where-I-can-see-them thing. Whenever the cops come to see me, (which is pretty often. I have friends who are cops. What, you think I'm a trouble maker?) I always wrap my hands in Christmas lights and hold them over my head with my fingers outstretched just so there are no "misunderstandings" that may cause me to enter the world beyond just like Tupac.
The AP reported that the teen had a history of mental illness and his mother had tried to have him hospitalized earlier in the day.
Kid crazy? Can't get him hospitalized? Scared of his erratic behavior? Call the cops, tell them he has a gun and the situation should handle itself.
A bystander who said he saw the shooting told CNN affiliate WABC-TV that the man was unarmed. "He dropped the brush," said the bystander, Dyshawn Gibson. "He put his hands up. Police just started firing."
Good thing the guy didn't have a wallet or the shooting would have been worse.
posted by A Mad Man at 7:16 AM
6 Comments:
The Officers were 100% jutified. Read the laws. They did absolutely nothing wrong what-so-ever.
Everybody with a blog is an armchair police officer, huh? It's always easy to analyze this with 20/20 hindsight and in abstract terms. Why don't you go to the 79th precinct, suit up, and do some patrol work there. You would have reacted no differently confronted with this situation.
What a waste of space you people are whining about this dumb kid. Hey genius, did you ever think if he was hollering repeatedly about having a gun, even if he DID drop the hairbrush...he still had a gun, according to his OWN words. He must be treated like a split second deadly threat. If he is not obeying orders percisely and in a timely fashion, there is every reason to believe he means to grab his gun and shoot.
His mother told 911 he had a gun. On the 911 call you can hear him saying he had a gun. He repeatedly told police at the scene that he had a gun.
Hmm, I wonder why they thought he had a gun?
I think most of you have mistaken this blog entry for a serious discussion about police procedure. Sounds like some people have cops in the family and feel very strongly about whether or not OTHER people getting gunned down by police was justifiable or not. Roles reversed, different story.
Playing devils advocate for a second, if the hairbrush was dropped and a claim was made that the man was in possession of a weapon, that is not justification for opening fire. A threatening move must be made. I've seen men claiming to have a weapon, with their hands in their pockets brought down with mace and a few well executed tackles. But again, I wasn't present so I don't know the details of the situation.
Whether or not the shooting was justified, and I'll go on record saying that it probably was, as more information has been released since the original article I did the story on, is not what I'm commentating on.
What I am commentating on is the situation. A young man was shot 20 times. He had a hairbrush. Note the title and theme of the blog. Damnit! Earth. Commentating on the fucked up situations that occur on our planet. Whether or not the shooting was justified is irrelevant. The situation is sad, downright tragic, and THAT is what I'm commenting on.
Sorry so many of you feel I'm standing up for a mentally ill individual with a hairbrush over police officers. Honestly, I couldn't care less about the situation.
But if you're upset that I took a sarcastic look at police actions then while I'm reading up on law you go ahead and read up on your history and we can have this discussion again.
I grew up in NYC...calm down fucknuts...these are the same screwballs that killed a guy for flashing his wallet. Lets call it what it is, the level of intelligence has fallen off a cliff
on the NYPD. All the low-lives who were headbangers & fuckups in school now have a reason to carry a gun & USE it...What would these idiots be doing, if they weren't working on NYPD...most likly be in Iraq...OH wait! no way they shoot back there...forget it
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