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

You step back and let the person drive off. Take their registration and call it in.

Because the potential of Tesco losing out on the profit of two steaks and a bag of potatoes (or whatever) is absolutely nothing. It does not equate to being deserving of death for a woman and her baby.

That is just so scary. Yet there would be riots if the “right to bear arms” amendment were repealed.

I'm new to MN and didn't know there was a news section 😬

As for the poppy posters, I get the feeling they are here simply to rouse dissent in order to induce a robust debate. You get them on all of the AIBU threads. Usually the 1st or 2nd post.

However I don't think we need devil's advocates in this case, the footage speaks for itself

She wasn't just blindly panicking - she was right to be terrified that he was going to kill her.

Gun drawn. Finger on the trigger. I don't know how much pressure it takes but it looks like he was ready to shoot.

Just because she didn't get out of the car. I was expecting a car racing at the police from the comments. Not 2 policemen with guns pointed whilst the woman sat in the car talking to them.

Haven't US police learnt anything?

I wonder if she refused to get out as she was worried about being thrown to the floor at 7 months pregnant.

How are you so confident of innocence/guilt as Floyd and this woman were killed before being arrested, charged or tried. You can’t be seriously trying to suggest there’s no racial element to the vastly different treatment people in USA receive from the police? Highlighting this is actually what you want the media to do unless you’re suggesting that white men and women are regularly being killed by the police in similar circumstances but the media choose not to report it? It can be unsettling to be confronted with institutional, and your own racism, but in the long run it’s worth coming to terms with reality.

Parts of America ...

It's abhorrent & the gun violence is endemic & shocking. America is a place of great contrasts too, and not all of America is 'backward and violent'.

the normal cop reaction should be to stand in the path of the car and only dive away if she didn't stop? Assuming they a) know who she is and b) are capable of noting the registration on the car she would have been easy to trace.

As someone who is familiar with shooting they possibly could have shot out a tyre? So many less fatal ways of handling things - if she was white she'd still be alive to tell the tale i suspect.

You probably wouldnt make a good police officer if you just let everyone go who threatened you

I'm in Ireland. Absolutely it would be the case that it would be preferable to let the car drive off, and follow up later, than put either party at risk (given we've an unarmed Garda, the gun issue doesn't come into it).

Ridiculous statement.

@CassiniG

In the UK, a lot of people would have probably complied at the time if they were innocent. Then maybe made a complaint if the police got aggressive or made a complaint against the supermarket. But in America, where there is so much racism and black people are regularly shot by police, having them draw guns automatically, rugby tackle people when they are showing no signs of aggression, it must have been absolutely terrifying.

Imagine feeling the need to run from the police because even though you have done nothing wrong, the colour of your skin means that things could still go very badly for you. Things went very badly for her anyway but black people no doubt feel caught between a rock and a hard place with the police sometimes.

The gulf is so different. I remember years ago I had a summer job in a major tourist attraction. We had an issue one day with a drunk guy who was refused entry. He ranted and raved and came back with a council bin and tried to use it to ram the turnstyles.

The police were called and they physically restrained him and he was taken away. I was in charge of keeping visitors to the side out of the way whilst he was subdued and taken away. When things calmed down an American tourist asked by the police didn't used their guns, when we explained police here were not armed , they looked astonished - "but what of the man had had a gun?" they asked " but he wouldn't" was our response, "people here just don't have guns".

As an aside we did explain the concept of special armed police that could be called out by the "ordinary" police if they were deemed to be needed, they found it scary and hilarious in equal parts.

@Poppyblush

The fact that she felt unable to stop even though she was innocent speaks volumes

I know it isn't the point of the thread but a few people have brought it up.

Abortion isn't illegal in Ohio.
And her car had no plates.

@itsgettingweird the problem is cops do get shot at for random disturbances/shoplifting reports. Fear blinds the cops & fear blinds the victims.

They seem to go in with a "shoot or be shot" attitude which I doubt will ever change all the time carrying a gun is their legal right.

It cannot change unless gun culture changes.

Unless your own life is in mortal danger, why would you kill someone else?

The perception is their life is in danger because of bloody guns, that's the point!

I remain incredibly thankful that UK police don't have guns

Look at Jean Charles de Menezes He ran because he was likely petrified The police thought running made him dodgy. And then some people thought the police should have shot him in a leg instead. You shoot at the chest as it's the biggest area & if you think someone is going to blow you up you do not want to miss.

Yes he must have been terrified of the pregnant woman, poor thing.
Also why do US cops fatally shot people, why don’t they shoot the car wheels, at peoples feet to stop them.

Don't get me wrong, none of it warrants being shot dead. If she were a flight risk then shoot her tyres. But the image portrayed of an innocent woman just going about her business and being shot dead isn't accurate.

well I don’t know the details of this but if she wasn’t shoplifting she was actually an innocent person going about her business who was perhaps very tired as a pregnant mum of two being hauled up by the police for the x time? .

Heard of Sandra Bland? She died during a police stop /stay in custody. Her crime was moving home and travelling from one state to the other.

It makes sense this black woman didn’t want any further interaction with the police for a variety of reasons.

On another note, there is so much research and studies done to show white and black shoplift at an equally high rate but yet black people are profiled more for it .

How they are treated when they are caught is very different - black people are more likely to have the police called on them as a result.

I used to work in a shop and never called the police on anyone for shoplifting. I either asked them to put it back, ignored it or called a security staff. It’s never that serious honestly.

My mixed race best friend was caught shoplifting cheap makeup at age 14 and the staff called the police on her and she was then strip searched without her parents ever being called . I was horrified when she told me a few years later and informed her this should never have happened with the police strip searching her . She said yes she was beginning to realise that. I don’t know exactly how invasive the strip search was because she was reluctant to talk more about it and I didn’t push.

I’m also beginning to realise the police being called on a teen stealing was unusual too considering she had never heen caught stealing before -It’s not as if the staff knew her as a repeat offender . Didn’t happen to any of my white teenage friends who were caught stealing!

Why did the officer not shoot at the tyres to disable her from leaving? It beggars belief.

Yep. All these replies telling her to comply, how very privileged.

But the image portrayed of an innocent woman just going about her business and being shot dead isn't accurate.

Er, it is?

Regardless of what she potentially did, she didn't deserve to be shot dead.

At the point in time the police officers interacted with her, she was innocent. That's how it works (or should).

It doesn't matter if they knew she was pregnant.

It must have been terrifying to be facing two male police officers pointing guns at you, asking you to get out of the car. She even asks them if they are going to shoot her 😢

The whole situation is directly linked to the cycle of gun violence in the States. Guns are produced at the first instance, and unfortunately then lead to situations where impulsive actions like firing a shot at a moving car lead to death. The police violence is wrong & shocking but it's also borne out of a whole societal culture of gun carrying & use.

I’m in the US. Yeah it is normal now. If it isn’t cops it’s ordinary citizens. It’s gone way beyond instances of racism. (not to downplay violence against blacks by any means) It’s mindblowing how much my life has been impacted by gun violence, and I’m part of the privileged. I have too many stories. There was just an incident a few weeks ago in front of my house- my elderly neighbor was attacked by another neighbor with a gun. Thankfully he survived but now I’m scared to let my kids play outside. We literally have stepped over pools of blood while out at the park, and the library. And we live in a really nice place. I don’t understand how many of my peers have normalized this. They are like the frogs in the boiling pot. I’m saving up so we can move overseas asap.

Inexcusable.

I know black people are targeted in London by the Met, but at least the Met can't carry weapons. I can't imagine being black in America.

I think she was scared, they were shouting and she probably tried to protect herself.

No doubt the thug of a cop will be being paid whilst on leave. He should be charged with murder

They seem to go in with a "shoot or be shot" attitude which I doubt will ever change all the time carrying a gun is their legal right

For every video I've seen of police in the US shooting someone dead with no apparent cause (like in this one) - I've seen 5 more where police acting entirely appropriately and calmly with an apparently calm member of the public has suddenly been shot when the person they stopped whipped out a gun.

There's quite obviously no reason for this shooting. And racism clearly a problem. But I can fully understand why generally the 'shoot or be shot' mentality in some police is there. They're on their toes, and the very realistic possibility of being shot dead during their normal, boring working day is probably always at the front of their mind.

The problem is guns.

There’s a world of difference between cops in the UK and cops in the US. Far too many of the latter are sadistic bullies on a massive power trip, that will escalate for the slightest reason.

SHe did nothing to warrant being shot !!!