Asides

North Miami police shoot black man who said his hands were raised while he tried to help autistic group-home resident

What. The. Fuck.

I think we have enough evidence by now that “just do what they say and you won’t get hurt,” aside from being what you tell hostages instead of supposedly free citizens, isn’t even true.

And why did they even have weapons drawn if the caller thought the patient was threatening suicide? Don’t shoot yourself or we’ll shoot you? Really? Does that work?

This is a clear case where de-escalation was necessary — and someone was already doing that. They should have stayed back and let him, not get in the way, screw things up further, and handcuff the victim while he’s bleeding out. He’s lucky to be alive.

On Facebook

This is something that had been kicking around in my head as well, but @absurdistwords puts it into words better: “What is harrowing about this case is that clearly if the victim wasn’t there this would be about an autistic man killed with a toy truck.”

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So the official story is that the officer was trying to shoot the disabled man with the toy truck and missed. As if that makes it any better.

Note: I think this was the post after which my cousin unfriended me on Facebook.