“Dashboard footage from a fatal police shooting in Bridgeton, New Jersey confirmeyewitness accounts that the victim was stepping out of the car with his arms raised when officers shot and killed him, the Press of Atlantic City reports.
Police in Bridgeton pulled over the car in which Jerame Reid was a passenger on December 30th. Prosecutors said that “during the course of the stop a handgun was revealed and later recovered,” but witnesses said that Officers Braheme Days and Roger Worley opened fire and killed Reid as he was peacefully exiting the vehicle.
Tahli Dawkins told the Press of Atlantic City that he watched the officers approaching the car yelling, “Don’t effing move!” and that they opened fire without provocation.”
Read More Here: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/video-shows-nj-cops-gunned-down-unarmed-black-man-as-he-tried-to-surrender-during-traffic-stop/
Ana Kasparian (http://www.twitter.com/anakasparian) and Dave Rubin (http://www.twitter.com/rubinreport) of The Young Turks discuss.
Tell us what you think in the comment section below.
Comments
i am a pretty firm supporter of the opinions aired on TYT and have the belief that the police have egregiously overstep their authority of late, but not this time. I am no expert but it seems the passenger of the vehicle at no point cooperated with the officer. Look at the driver, total cooperation. We don’t really know what went on on the passenger side.. But, it just seems he was not cooperating. So i think the headlines portrayed on TYT and other sites are somewhat misleading and not necessarily a good story to use as an abuse of power in the light of recent events. Just saying, keep it real and don’t let the emotions change the reality..
You can clearly hear the communication!
Officer “you reach for something you gonna be fuckin dead”
“I’m not reaching”
“I have no reason to reach for something, bro”
“I am getting out AND GETTIN ON THE GROUND”
and the officer replies “NO YOU WON’T”
“I’m getting out and getting on the ground”
If the gun was retrieved from the glove compartment the only thing he did wrong was to not comply and remain in the car.
He said to the office twice he would get out and get on the ground – the officer heard this because he replied “no you won’t”
Why is there a reason to shoot 4 times unless he had his hands ON the gun?
Getting out and on the ground is a form of compliance. It was the victims decision to do so because the officer repeatedly said he should stop reaching while he was replying “I’m not reching!”
In fear of being shot he tries to comply and then gets shot because of that.
The guy in the car (Jerame Reid) was known to the cop. (The cop refers to him by name over and over again.) He was a convicted felon who served over 10 years for his role in shooting three State Troopers. He was sitting in a car inches from an almost certainly illegal gun (look up NJ gun law if you need to) and then disobeyed the cop’s instructions to stay put, forcing his way out of the car in a manner that could have reasonably been construed as threatening.
Had he stayed put as instructed, he would probably not have been shot.
This situation parallels the Eric Garner murder in exactly no ways.
I almost NEVER defend police shootings in such murky or confusing situations, but I’d like to point out one important point – the vehicle’s occupants did NOT tell the officer about the presence of a weapon in the vehicle. You may have the right to carry a firearm in our country, but there is NO reason why either the driver’s or the passenger’s first words shouldn’t be “Officer, my registration is in my glove compartment, where I keep a gun. What would you like me to do?” At that point I’d offer to leave the vehicle and let the officer retrieve the gun, etc.
As a (in the past) marijuana smoker, I then have to think:
What if the guy has a bag of pot in there and that’s why he’s trying to hide it so he doesn’t want to get out, or let the cop retrieve the weapon himself?
I’d say don’t carry a damn gun in the car unless you’re willing to let the cop ensure his safety, including taking your stash.
A handgun in a glovebox in NJ is almost certainly illegal (NJ has very strict gun laws and it’s almost impossible to get a carry permit. Also, NJ law says that a gun being transported from Point A to Point B cannot be accessible from the passenger compartment, must be locked in a case and unloaded.) and Reid, as a convicted felon, would have been prohibited from having a gun.