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Comment by stevewodil | Hacker News Reader

I'm not saying it's right but cops in America are trained to protect themselves and to shoot first. They won't wait to see if you had a gun or not, if you are reaching for your waistband you will likely be shot.

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I think yakz meant, that its easy to say "he reached for his waistband" whether he did or not, because you know, somebody shot him and lets just say there was a reason other than the officer was terrified and/or coked up so we don't have to prosecute one of our own.

The article says that NPR reported that the Deputy Police Chief said this, but is there video evidence of it? Was this Deputy Police Chief even on the scene? Finch was shot within seconds of stumbling out of the door with his hands up, lets not forget that.

Let me ask you something: It is perfectly legal for me, an ordinary civilian, to use a firearm in defense of my own life. In this respect my rights are no different than those of a member of the police force. If I shot a man in the street on the grounds that he was reaching for his wasteband, what do you think is the likely outcome?

Well since you're asking cops are in a position of authority. If they tell you not to move, then don't move. If you reach for your waistband while they have guns drawn and pointing at you then you're gonna have a bad time.

There are definitely cases when there are multiple officers shouting different instructions at you. If I was in a situation like this I would keep my hands up and slowly get on the ground face down with my hands on my head and hope I'm not shot at....it's pretty sad when it comes to that

Have you seen a felony police stop? Civilians caught up in them make a massive number of mistakes for the simple reason they aren't exactly used to someone pointing a gun at them and yelling. LivePD is rather illuminating because unlike COPS not all encounters end in an arrest so you see how innocents react with police encounters.

Its easy to say they should follow directions when you are safe and comfortable at home. Quite another when you don't know why angry police are pointing their guns at you and any false move could mean death.

> If you reach for your waistband while they have guns drawn and pointing at you then you're gonna have a bad time.

And if you had a bad time, well, they can always claim you reached for your waistband.

There was that case a while back where the guy did exactly that, just kept kneeling down on the floor sobbing. He reached for his pants that were falling and got shot with several assault rifles.

I'm in mobile, but there is body cam footage of the cop who shot him.

I'm not american, but this kind of detail is not encouraging me to think about living in the US.

You are only seeing egregious, extreme cases... as is typical with mass media these days.

99.9999% (more likely far more 9's) cases are your normal, everyday dealing with police (if you even encounter the police at all!).

They aren't out to kill, hurt, jail or ruin your day just for funsies.

An infinitesimally small percent of police are the "bad actors", while the overwhelming majority wake up each day and set out to help their community.

America is a big country, with a lot of people...

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