Last week police in Cleveland shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, claiming the boy tried to pull a (fake) gun out of his pants when ordered to put his hands up. The interaction was instigated by a 911 caller who said he saw someone with what was a "probably fake" gun.
Now surveillance video appears to contradict police claims, as it shows the police officer shooting Rice immediately after getting out of a moving patrol car. Watch below, via Cleveland.com:
There could be more than 300 million (real) guns in America, and an infinitesimally small proportion are used to commit crimes. Politically expedient fearmongering over guns, however, can lead to frivolous 911 calls that, in combination with trigger-happy yet largely immune cops, can be fatal.
Matt Yglesias says the cops' assumption Rice's toy gun was real "wasn't unreasonable." For someone that spends a lot of time arguing from authority, he doesn't hold the "experts" to a high standard. You can't be deferential to cops' judgment AND not expect them to make better judgments and then blame anything other than your attitude on the police violence that predictably follows. Boys, and girls, have been playing with toy guns for decades and somehow cops used to be able to handle it without arresting or shooting children.
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