Quote Originally Posted by Pancho View Post
I'd still very strongly suggest to be law abiding as most of us are. Folks say things happen for a reason and most of the time that reason is their own stupidity or simply making a decision to be a law breaker. I respect your opinion but that split second should always go in the officer's favor until proven otherwise. Folks are some mighty strong drugs these days and are capable of almost anything.
I agree with almost everything, the question is about that "split second decision". If a cop yells "hands up!" and the person yanks a hand out of a hoodie pocket and the cop thinks there's a gun and shoots, then OK I can understand the cop even if the guy was only holding his phone. BUT, if you yell "hands up!" and the guy just stares at you, there isn't enough credible threat there to shoot. "But what if he had a gun in there, and what if he drew it!, well that applies to every civilian ever- we all could have a gun somewhere hidden and an intent to shoot the cop. If we allow them shooting people because of what that civilian MIGHT do -and not what it reasonably appears they ARE doing- then they can dust anyone ever and still keep their job. Again, why can't UPS drivers or road construction workers just start shooting drivers because they "could swerve into me!"? It's the same logic.

Like civilians have the right to self defense too. If someone pulls a gun on you, you can shoot them. but you can't shoot people because they had hands in their pockets and you thought they MIGHT want to harm you, you'll go to jail 9/10 times. Why should we expect us civilians to have better trigger discipline than cops? If anything, it's the opposite.