Smagmuck_ said:
Your ignorance, it makes my head explode. First thing, SWAT doesn't just pull people in off the streets and train them, you have to qualify first, you have to have had six years on patrol as a police officer and seven years in the Police Department, and what would you have done in that situation? SWAT officers are drilled to the bone that when they see (In this instance) a man standing at the end of a dark hall way, with a civilian legal rifle you drop them Flat. Fuck. Dead. And only then do you move in, he had a fire arm, he may have had it pointed in the direction of a heavily armed officer of the law and he brought it on himself. The Ex-Marine was in the wrong in this situation and got himself killed which doesn't make it any less sad. And further more, Paramedics are NOT allowed into a Hot Zone until it is cleared. And they probably wouldn't have done much good anyways. He was a goner by the time he picked up his AR-15.
Okay, third time that intro gets used means creativity is bankrupt and we need a knew way to get the ball rolling. I, for example, opened with that because the initial statement was one of smug superiority. Repeating it to me just feels like a baseball bat to the face. And not in a good way.
Anyway.
Yes, I know that they were trained very thoroughly to go legally murder. I know. I understand how police work. I shockingly live in the US and have been exposed to police and how they are trained beyond movies. It's pretty surprising, I know.
What bothers me is how frantically you want to defend their actions.
They did not have solid proof to back up their warrant, seeing as how they were wrong about each house that they busted into to try and find pot. Which is sadly comical when you think about it, being so wrong about a drug that kids tend to use in college. I wonder if you would still defend them if they flew into a college dorm and nuked a couple kids for being stoned and holding an X-acto knife in a really threatening manner.
In the video, they kick in the door and idly stand about for a few seconds, then decide to just wildly shoot. One guy waits a bit, then starts shooting with a pistol as well. When they discover that his safety was on and that there is no pot, they then refuse to allow paramedics in for over an hour. Was that the right way to handle the situation?
The Ex-marine saw people break down his door and he wanted to protect his wife and child. He had a, as you put it, civilian legal weapon. But because he had a civilian legal weapon, he was cleared to be shot 70 times. Because the SWAT had a hunch. A hunch that was completely wrong.
So, let's recap:
Ex-marine serves to protect the country.
Ex-marine owns legal gun for protection.
Cops gather bad intel on possible pot.
Cops send SWAT to house.
Ex-marine wants to protect wife and son.
SWAT breaks down door with minimal effort to make their presence known.
SWAT kills ex-marine.
SWAT refuses to let the ex-marine get medical attention.
Cops seal documents once the press gets the story.
Cops begin changing story.
Yeah, they totally handled the situation well, and there are no problems with our law or how we handle everything. I bow to your infinitely superior wisdom and remind myself that the police are infallible wise beings that must always be respected, and that when they fuck up it is never their fault.
Remember: if they were forced to have solid proof of what they were breaking and entering over, this wouldn't have happened.