Police shoot pregnant woman dead (USA)

[SuddenlyOld]

Ok America, since when did it become normal for police officers to point guns at pregnant women accused of shoplifting?
She didn't have a weapon or get violent. Turns out she hadn't stolen anything either.
If I was black in America I'd be scared to go out 😪😪😪
This is probably the worst thing I've seen ever.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66690408

the hun culture is so strange, confusing and scary, but nothing will change as Americans love their guns more than their kids or their lives s it seems.

The gun culture is why you have trigger happy cops, you can't separate them. But as above nothing will change.

Article I read said one cop has his arm though the window so that was assault or something and one cop she hit with the car bonnet. So then copper at the front fired once. Paramedics where called within 10 seconds blah blah blah.

police claim they where called to suspected shoplifting. Family say she wasn’t as would everyone’s family I don’t think that’s been proven either way has it?

I’ll be honest the cop should of shot a tire if he was trying to stop her driving off but like others if a officer told me to stop I’d be stopped especially with a gun pointed at me.

She was petrified you can hear it her voice. What a frightening place to live, I want to the visit the US but every time I see something like this I think I can’t. RIP Ti’Kiya Young and your little baby, only 21. Two babies at home and one on the way. What a devastating situation.

It seems if you’re black in America, any interaction with the police may result in your death.

Logically however, doing what they ask should make that less likely outcome. But fear often overrides logic.

I think fear is also what causes these officers to draw guns when they don’t need to. They’re afraid of getting shot as well.

America, land of the free.

Even if she had stolen something… police are not state sanctioned executioners!
And anyway how many women on here have said that after Sarah Everard they would no longer get out of a car if told to by the police. Should they all be shot too?

Please understand, I am not in any way defending this or any other police shooting in the States but people, police and civilians, are thousands of times more likely to be shot in the states than in the UK just because of guns.

I knew before I opened the thread the woman would be black.

No pregnant, white woman in the US would be shot by the police

Horrifically racist and violent place.

YANBU.

If you are black in America at this stage a cop pointing a gun at you is the same as if a murderer were to point a gun at you. You would be terrified and not necessarily act as you would expect. Why would their guns even be out of their holsters for intercepting an unarmed woman accused of shoplifting complete overreaction and I cant understand why more isn't being done about it.

Shoot to kill should never ever ever be the first port of call.

But that is the first port of call because of the stupid gun culture. It will never change

@SuddenlyOld

I thought same as you - horrified - and started a thread on NEWS section.

I can't understand those who are saying you are being unreasonable. ie @Poppyblush

Victim blaming in the extreme! There are a few of those on the thread I started also.

Unbelievable that people are saying 'It's the woman's fault - she was stupid'

Drawing a gun on someone for shoplifting - yep - that's what is stupid. Maybe consider that.

This

You need to expand on that.

Ah yes, but remember on MN that only counts for white women

If an officer was pointing a gun at me, I hope I'd have the sense put my hands up where he could see them. I'd not try to drive off.

Having said that, I've been held up at gunpoint in real life in South Africa (not by a police officer) and my first reaction was to run. I didn't calmly consider my options. fear & instinct took over instantly.

Was the officer following their training? If police protocol says an officer should open fire if someone refuses to stop immediately, then that protocol needs changing. If an officer can't shoot out a tyre from 6 feet then they really shouldn't be carrying a gun.

It's horrifying but in a society that insists on the right to carry a gun, mistakes happen. Officers have to assume everyone is armed. I would want to know more. Did the owner of the car have a history of gun crime? What else had happened?

Honestly, you couldn't pay me enough to live in the US or SA, and I'm white.

So are you saying she deserved to die?

This is the problem of a society where guns are everywhere. The US police have to assume that everybody is armed and may try to shoot them at any time. Hence the drawn guns for what is a straightforward incident.

Yeah - whatever.

Of course it's just silly nonsense being hyped by the media

I’ll be honest the cop should of shot a tire if he was trying to stop her driving off but like others if a officer told me to stop I’d be stopped especially with a gun pointed at me.

this. If they were trying stop her getting away they could have shot the tires. They Aimed to kill.

Surely people are not saying that even if she wasn’t innocent she deserved to be shot without trial. I can only hope that these people are too dense to think that through, and not actually that vile.

Did she even know they were police (not that that seems to count for much in the US)

That's broadly been the direction of travel in more recent cases

Not that it stops the aggression & use of weapons towards Black Americans, unfortunately

She was 'innocent' of doing anything that warranted being shot dead.

Christ.

I thought I had seen everything on mn but the level of victim blaming on this thread, matched by a callous attitude that is hard to read too, is on another level.

Agreed!
ok imagine she’d shoplifted- she deserved to be fatally shot?!!

It says in the article the police were already at the parking lot for an unrelated call.
So how the fuck did that poor women end up in their firing line? Who alleged she'd been shoplifting & why the fuck would they even think drawing their weapons on a pregnant women (for allegedly shoplifting) is in anyway justifiable.
Murdering pigs!