I live in NYC, and I read this story yesterday, and they didn't shoot the guy for hopping the turnstile / not paying the $2.90, they chased him and tried to give him a $100-150 fine; but the guy lunged at them with a knife.

The cops panicked and began firing because they don't have H2H training, and their aim is obviously shit. It's so shit, that I think they missed their taser shot as well before hitting random people in the crowd with their sidearms.

Not defending the police but the meme's a gross oversimplification. Those guys need more training and probably a suspension until they finish a full course of training, or a dismissal (or perhaps even up to and including manslaughter charges) depending on if the bystanders live or not.

I wish shit like this wasn't as common as it is. So many innocent people and dogs die each month due to police incompetence.

[–] AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Not defending the police but the problem with them isn't that they're incompetent and they need more training, Joe Biden. It's that they need to not exist in the first place to terrorize people and chase them down for fare jumping to the point someone would be scared enough to brandish a knife. As if it's not unreasonable to fear for your life when a flock of pigs drop their candy crush and come at you because holy shit something happened.

[–] poinck@lemm.ee 0 points 2 months ago

Thx both of you. This meme seems to tell only one side of the story, but it seems to be very true.

Btw., you don't have to live in the US to experience police violence. I called the cops once to protect me from another cop.

[–] jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Escalating from a knife fight to a gun fight, especially with bystanders around, doesn't make it better.

[–] bob_lemon@feddit.org 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

A knife in close quarters is insanely dangerous. Using guns against an attacker with a knife is not really an escalation.

That said, the situation should never have escalated to the point where there is someone attacking with a knife.

[–] ouRKaoS 2 points 2 months ago

Studies show that an attacker with a knife in hand has the advantage over someone with a holstered gun from as far as 21 feet away.

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Isn't part of the controversy that its questionable there was even a knife involved?

[–] GarbageShootAlt2@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 months ago

Yeah, that part is bizarre

The police said on Sunday that a knife had been recovered and posted a picture on social media. The next day, however, it posted another message saying the knife had been taken from the crime scene by an unidentified man.

Officers recovered a different knife from the scene, thinking it was the one that the suspect had been carrying, according to the Gothamist.

An NYPD spokesman told the news website that the knife they picked up must have been left behind by another subway rider.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93y74xl1wvo

So they just accidentally recovered some unrelated knife, thinking it was the suspect's knife, while failing to recover his actual knife that he charged them with. I don't know what the truth is, but that story is genuinely ridiculous.

[–] Rooskie91@discuss.online -2 points 2 months ago

Stuff like this makes me think memes like this are some kind of new form of propaganda where the idea is to make you made at a situation, but for the situation to appear to have no solutions. So you're just upset about stuff and want someone to do something about it.