Okay I will give you that, so to me the victim is about 1% to blame and the officer is 99% to blame. I also agree that he did something that warranted an increase in the officers stress level, but that is all he did, He did nothing to elevate this traffic stop to the point where shots should be fired. I guess that is why I am not backing down, I see a guy, who as Doc said, IS ALREADY OUTSIDE OF HIS VEHICLE, rolled up on by a police officer, for what imho, is a very, very, very, suspect "seat belt violation". I mean really I guess that the cop saw the driver when he was pulling out of the parking lot he was in because the truck you see at the beginning of the video is NOT the vehicle that is pulled over. The vehicle that is pulled over is an SUV, like a Nissan Xterra, because if you look at the bottom right of the video you can see the wheel well of the vehicle, and the back door that goes around it. The reason I think it is an Xterra is because I used to own one and that back door and beginning of the wheel well looks exactly like that. So I just don't understand why the cop is already in an "offensive" mindset as soon as he pulls up on a stopped vehicle, where the driver has already had a chance to step out of the vehicle. If the officer isn't already in an "offensive" mindset, and is more closely following proper procedure, this never happens, as the cop waits 2 seconds to see if the drivers hands are object free, this never happens. That is why in the blame game, I definitely can't give the drive much blame.
There is another South Carolina traffic stop that made the news because a cop pulled over Sam Montgomery of the Cincy Bengals for doing 89 in a 55, and the cop got fired because he threatened to use a taser on a cooperating suspect. He was fired because he did not follow proper procedure. Well with that stop I actually have more sympathy for the cop because it is the middle of the night, he is by himself, and this hulk of a human gets out of the vehicle. So to me he had reason to be a little more "offensive" in his actions versus the cop in the original video.
Now Montgomery almost appears to be a bit uncooperative, but it is because he is not understanding the cop's instructions, and that leads to the taser comment, but Montgomery is not being aggressive or resisting in the least bit and I think that is why the cop gets fired. So look at this video:
So I guess to me another big issue I have with the shooting is time and place, and the officer's actions from the start just don't fit the time and place of the traffic stop, and they ignore the unusual nature of the stop happening after the driver has exited the vehicle. The Montgomery officer has more cause to be in an offensive position from the get go, due to time and place and size of the driver, and I am not sure that his firing is justified. So I am not against the police, I just expect them to react appropriately to time and place and type of situation. Again I probably blame the driver 1% and the cop 99%, in the Montgomery situation, but I have a lot more sympathy for the Montgomery officer than I do the original video officer.
Article where cop being fired is mentioned:
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...tgomery-fired/
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