Do you think there is something wrong with the police action in this video? Personally I think he should have been taken out by a police sniper when he exited the bank with the two hostages but thats just my opinion.

Yes I think there is something wrong with cops taking the role of judge, jury and executioner. Yes, I am an American and as an American there is something very wrong with your opinion on this. Perhaps you would feel much more comfortable living in China or another country where the cops are given free reign to blow away anyone they deem to be a criminal. You surely don't love American values and rule of law, the way you think. You should live in a dictatorship and work for the dictator.

That's quite a bit of lecturing on the role of police in american society from someone who has never tasked with the role or protecting the public.

The man exited the bank with two hostages and was reportedly armed with a gun and claimed to be armed with a hand grenade. Now in a circumstance like that he presents an immediate deadly threat to the hostages and officers arround him. Police are allowed to use deadly force to protect themselves and civilians arround them. It is reasonable to believe that if he is claiming to have an explosive devise then allowing him to escape will place the general public at risk, therefore it is reasonable for the police to use deadly force to effect his arrest.

Please don't try and lecture me on a topic you know very little about.

Reportedly and claimed, not had and did eh? So while he was riding away on a motorcycle did he throw a grenade or aim a gun at anyone? Didn't look like it to me. While he was riding away on the motorcycle was he putting the police or the civilians in harms way? Did the police use deadly force to protect people? Or did they mow him down with the car because they thought they were judge, jury and executioner? I guess it's no wonder there is so much police brutality if so many cops think like you do, sadly.

And I suppose if he had gotten down the street on his motorcycle and turned out to actually have a grenade and used it you would be the first to defend police hesitation to stop him??? It must be comfortable living in a nice safe little theoretical world of yours where your safety and security is provided by those you enjoy criticizing so much without even understanding what its like to be in a situation like that.

So how is the view up there in your Ivory tower all safe and cozy because of cops like me.

I'm safe because of the rule of law that cops like you must follow, even if you are blood thirsty and ready to condemn alleged criminals to death by your own hand without due process. It must be hard to be a cop with your way of thinking. The law must frustrate you so...

Its not a question of law, the law is more then likely on the side of the police in this case. Its a question of tactics. This man claimed he had a grenade, is it worth the lives of the police to go up to him and check?
Of course not, the lives of the police are infinetly more valuable then the lives of the suspect. Therefore he has to be stopped in a way that doesn't unnecessarily place police officers or innocent civilians at risk. The tactic used here is one way of accomplishing that task. Killing him with a police sniper is another valid tactic.

But I'm sure with all your Hollywood police experience you know better.

The same could be said; "It must be hard living in a society while ignoring and denying the evil that exist in it".
My newspapers remind me daily of all the rape, theft, murder and abuse that lies within our perfect little world.

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Anyone who thinks freedom comes cheap, please put the blindfold on and stand against the wall.

Many times I believe Americans will have to take back the country and start a new government.

Sam, I have no idea how you got to where you are, but I have watched you from when you showed up here as a fairly naïve young liberal, and have somehow progressed to an irrational die-hard anarchist. You travel from thread to thread, starting pissing contests without ever adding anything to the discussion except petty discord.

You hate the police, but will be the first to bitch if they don’t protect you from any and every boogeyman. You hate the dirty side of life, refuse to acknowledge it, and then condemn anyone that is willing to deal with it to keep you from having to. You have become the classic dissenter, publicly whining if you don’t get pampered, insulting others with no cause, and complaining about those that have dedicated their lives to your safety.

As you refuse to answer my previous question, I will answer it for you. You condemn the taking out of this violent felon, because you hate anything that you feel will crimp your style, but if that violent felon continued on his way and then ran over your young daughter in her baby buggy and killed her, you would be first in line to have the police vilified for failing to take sufficient action to stop him.

You have become a self-centered hypocrite, doing nothing to improve the Human Condition. On the contrary, you have become the stumbling block to progress, never adding, always subtracting. The Samantha that I found delightfully entertaining and stimulating is gone, replaced by a hollow shell of bile and spite. You have my sympathies.

Once-Buddy-Spad

P.S. Could you please find a different avatar, as I don't want to be associated with you any more, and I am the one that made it.

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And personally, if that had happened, I would not condemn it. If someone's robbing a bank, claiming to kill hostages, then the police have no choice but to shoot him (IF they can't take him alive, which may not have been possible in this case).

Despite my limited understanding of such issues, I somehow feel it would be real hard for the cops to convince a bank robber whose already taken hostages to surrender and thus take him alive, so there's no other option but to kill him.

What I am against is the horrific way in which the cops literally almost ran over this guy. There are better and less brutal ways of doing what they did.

Do you oppose it simply because it looks ugly on TV? Sometimes life is ugly, everything is not as clean cut and well acted out as the movies. This man was running from the police claiming to have an explosive device. Shooting a moving target, especially one moving on something like a motorcycle is extremely difficult and would send bullets flying all over the city. Hitting him with a car is probably one of the safest most humane ways of stopping someone whos own words proclaim him to be a threat to the general community.

What they did was the simplest and least destructive thing they could have done. It was an elegant solution. They simply put a vehicle in his path. It was far less brutal than anything he did, or planned to do.

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No. Because I don't support anyone ramming anyone else with a car. Plain and simple.

Are you insinuating I am saying everything should look pretty like the movies? Did I ever say it should? I would appreciate it if you could leave out the personal barbs. I never claimed to know more about this than you do, but I feel I have a right to voice my opinion.

So the ideal solution is to give him a bike to ride on, then ram him? This IMO is a crude and barbaric way of dealing with things.

I think it would have been better if they could have sent snipers into the building to take the guy out (if that was possible).

I beg to differ. If they had simply blocked his way, I wouldn't have said it was wrong.

They did NOT do this - they rammed into the guy full bore ... it was clearly apparent what their intentions were.

As for what he did, and planned to do, none of that happened so the point is moot as far as this discussion (on how this shoulda been handled) goes.

Go watch the video again. They just simply moved the car into his path where HE rammed the car. If the car rammed him it would have hit him with the front. As it is he hit the car in the side, therefore HE rammed the car. Semantics to be sure, but the chase was ended quickly, safely and without any innocents getting hurt. A classic win/win.

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