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jacquesm

Unbelievable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BugWAiIHTOw

Not for the faint of heart or those that can't deal with blood.

Deleting evidence in a situation like this should be in a special category all by itself.

Note that the couple's four year old daughter was also present.

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Jesus... did you notice how that girl manages to keep cool while the maniac with the gun is completely melting down? Scary.

Yes. Surreal. She is absolutely incredibly composed during the whole thing.

She's in shock.

I'd agree with you but she is composed enough to film the whole thing.

Some people are totally cool when crap hits the fan and don't freak out at all. Training and experience helps but it's not odd for someone to be able to pull it off naturally (see "bystander does something heroic" type stories).

x2 on the shock and fear thing as well.

If she freaks out, swears or makes any sudden movement she will be shot immediately. That's why she is "composed" - she is frozen in fear.

If you are black then you've lived under constant fear of police your whole life and you have plenty of experience in "assuming the position"

This just isn't true and should not be part of a productive discussion.

Edit: Do the downvotes really mean HN thinks the above is an accurate description of every black person's life in America? That would be surprising to me.

As a black person you are more likely to fear the police. This is fact.

Ignoring whether you are right or not, your statement is quite different from the one I replied to.

"People X are more likely to fear Y" is nowhere near the same assertion as "Every person X has always lived in fear of Y their whole lives".

Or do you think the two are equivalent?

Honest discussions don't require hyperbole.

Yes, I'm afraid it's true. I mean I don't think Obama lives in fear of being pulled over for a broken tail light - so if you wanted to you could invalidate everything I said because you can falsify it with one observation. Then you could believe that everything is okay and that it will be fixed soon.

Chris Rock was talking about how the very rich like him live in a completely different world. But he hasn't forgotten what the situation is.

It is perfectly normal for middle class African American parents to tell their children to keep the hell away from police. Innocence means nothing.

There are plenty of stories of upper class blacks being arrested and even beaten and killed without cause. Surely you are aware of this.

I am honestly surprised you aren't aware of how widespread this problem is. It's been going on since the days of slavery.

Why would it be logical to not fear the police ?

> Yes, I'm afraid it's true.

The idea that every black person has lived in fear of the police their entire lives is not true at all. I have friends who disagree with this vehemently, and even you point out counterexamples.

> if you wanted to you could invalidate everything I said because you can falsify it with one observation. Then you could believe that everything is okay and that it will be fixed soon.

This is a non sequitur. Just because there are counter examples doesn't mean I think everything is okay or will be fixed soon, it simply means I don't think the blanket 100% statement is true or useful to assert in this discussion (or any discussion). Why do you think me disagreeing with 100% means I think it is 0% (or close to it)? Maybe I think it's 99%. Maybe I think it's 1%. Maybe I'm in the middle. I don't think it's 100% though.

> I am honestly surprised you aren't aware of how widespread this problem is.

Why do you think I'm unaware of problems? I didn't say or imply I was...

> Why would it be logical to not fear the police ?

Who said otherwise?

Who are you arguing with?

And much more likely to be shot by another black person (not the police officer). That's also is fact.

Hah how is that relevant to the present conversation?

I find it very revealing indeed that whenever you say "black people disproportionately get shot by the police" someone always jumps out with "but they're more likely to be shot by another black person!". That knee jerk reaction suggests defensiveness. The question is: Why?

More likely is not equivalent to a blanket "constant fear".

She also had her child with her. That can change one's demeanor when you're trying to also not panic your child further. I think in one of the interviews with her she partly attributes her demeanor to this.

I think there's some sort of primal human psychological defense mechanism that takes over.

I'm normally a very high strung person, but when my mother collapsed in front of me with congestive heart failure, I was unbelievably calm (until the situation was under control, after which then I started to freak out). It was a unique experience. I would have expected myself to start freaking out in a situation like that.

I like to think that most people, in a real crisis situation, know that freaking out won't actually help.

I doubt that. You just have to look at plenty of footage that exists from plenty of horrifying situations. Most people in a real crisis freak out.

Destroying evidence is indeed a crime, and a severe one at that - but if they just withdrew it, unpublished it without deleting it, then it's a grey area at best. It's unlikely that anyone will face anything for this - just as unlikely that the officer who shot him will face any charges.

Isn’t even accessing her phone without a search warrant illegal? Surely it had nothing to do with the crime being committed (obviously, since the only crime that took place is the murder of an innocent man by the police)

You'd think, but I'd wager the offence that they do write up is driving with a broken tail light, which is apparently a capital offence.

It'd be nice to imagine that they'd look into the illegal search they carried out, but rather, they'll likely fixate on how he was actually definitely guilty of a crime and this was absolutely justified.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-p-sherouse/the-problem-wi...

Police in the US are above the law. As evidenced by recent unjustified police killings, they are allowed to execute people in the street with no repercussions. So I don't think accessing a phone without a warrant and deleting evidence is even going to register.

Anyone is isn't poor or works toward a corporate interest is above the law. The for profit prisons don't want to see community policing. That will cut into their bottom line.

I don't know about "destroying evidence" but accessing Facebook under someone else's account without their permission sounds like a contravention of the CFAA.

IANAL (obviously!) but I would think that this would rest on whether they thought they were permanently deleting the video, and therefore thought they were destroying the evidence. I'd say yes, but proving it? Difficult, I'd think.

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