Assisted suicide?

[Jackalope]

Unfuckingbelievable. I don't see a justification for a stop-and-talk, much less a fatal shooting.

That's right, because you can't see anything in that video. One possible reason to talk to the guy is that he resembled a wanted criminal. That sort of thing happens occasionally, unfortunately.

What happened next? We certainly can't tell from that video.

We can see that the "perp" was crossing a street whittling a piece of wood - which is, by the way, a completely harmless and legal activity.

We can't see what happened next, unfortunately. We can hear what happened next - what the officer said to the victim, the shots fired, and what was said by and to witnesses.

I'm going to use an example to illustrate a point, I'm not saying this is what happened. If you are engaged with a subject holding a knife, are alert for danger, and are ready to use force, how fast do you think you can respond when the subject attacks you? The subject has to be something like 30 feet from you if you'd like to avoid being stabbed. Again, not saying this guy had a knife.

I don't recall the exact figure. I've had extensive defensive firearm training and I do recall it's just about enough time to draw and fire. I assume that your point is that the suspect could have closed and delivered a deadly wound to the officer. Sure, yeah he could have. Except that we have no indication that there was any intent to do so.

Even the officers own words were damning in my opinion. To paraphrase "He was carving this board with his knife and wouldn't drop it." (in response to a witness asking why he shot him).

As I said, I've had extensive defensive firearm training, and while I do not know what the legal standards of lethal force for police officers, I do know what constitutes lawful lethal force for civilians. Ability, opportunity, jeopardy. The person one uses deadly force against must have the ability and opportunity to cause deadly harm, and there must be jeopardy to yourself or others. That third leg is, IMHO, not present. Would a civilian be justified in using deadly force here? From what I can see, no.

It occurs to me that there once was a time when someone whittling on a piece of wood in public wasn't dealt with as a law enforcement issue.

I'm just trying to make the point that a serious discussion of suicide by cop, which is way more common than you might think, doesn't have to devolve into cop bashing.

I'm not bashing cops in general, not at all. This one in particular, yes.

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I just get touchy when I perceive people to be acting like police officers are just going out looking for people to shoot.

You're jumping to conclusions here, I believe no such thing.

I see a case where it's likely that the officer saw a knife and shut off his brain.

From the article:

On the tape, Birk never tells fellow officers he was afraid and never says Williams was threatening anyone.

He does say a few other things - none of which would lead me to think there was a bona fide threat.

Hey, I might be mistaken. Wouldn't be the first time. Usually I'm willing to give police the benefit of the doubt until more facts come to light. In this particular case, not so much.