Thursday, August 21, 2014

An Even More Shocking Police Action Shooting By St. Louis Police Caught On Video


A police action shooting that occurred in St. Louis only miles from where an 18-year old black man was shot to death in Ferguson, Missouri this past Tuesday is perhaps more shocking and questionable than the Ferguson shooting, and it was all captured on amateur video. A 911 call summoned police after a report that a 25-year old mentally disturbed man, Kajieme Powell, had stolen two soft drinks and a donut from a convenience store. When two police officers arrived, Powell approached the two officers with their guns drawn in a menacing fashion while holding a steak knife. Powell can be heard taunting the police officers to shoot him. Both officers fired multiple gunshots at Powell until he fell to the ground. Incredibly, the police officers then handcuffed the man as he laid dying as onlookers gathered and watched in total disbelief. The two police officers fired a total of 12 shots. The onlookers wondered why the police didn't use a less lethal means of apprehending Powell, such as the use of their Tasers. St. Louis authorities should consider themselves lucky that this more outrageous shooting didn't erupt in riots in their city as have been occurring in neighboring Ferguson following the Michael Brown shooting.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was a f-cking murder. Cops are f-cking murderers, and this sh-t is long past time.

This country is a sh-thole that is under military occupation and is in no way free.

It's about time we rename the Republican Party to the Nazi Party, since the Republicans are the ones most enabling the falling of this iron curtain.

Maybe if government gives those two murdering cops get the death penalty, by about tomorrow, the system might regain some legitimacy, but there is no way this government can even claim any right to rule if those cops aren't in jail, right now, and never see a moment of freedom, again.

You were told what cops were, but you did nothing. Now it's too late.

Eric Morris said...

I agree with Anon at 1038 completely.

Anonymous said...

A agitated crazy person with a knife...nobody can predict what actions he would do. “Cops aren’t paid to die on duty."

I see Cato chimed in again at 10:38.

Anonymous said...

You meet the threat with equal or greater force than what is being displayed. The threat was obviously a knife which is a deadly weapon steak, butter, spreading whatever, all considered deadly. Looks to me that deadly force was matched with deadly force. BTW shooting a 6' "+" , 290 lbs. guy the that tried to take my guy and destroyed my eye socket seems fair to me. Running away or coming back fo finish what he started it doesn't matter to me drop him. If he'd do that to a police officer he'd do it to anybody else.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Several years ago, a guy with whom I had once worked had become mentally distraught after his wife left him to be with his best friend. He went over to her house one night where his wife was in bed with the other man, pulled out a gun and shot the man dead before threatening to kill his wife as well. When IMPD arrived at his home in response to a 911 call, he ran out of the house towards the cops with his gun in hand yelling at them to just shoot him. They could have easily shot him and it would have been a justified shooting. Instead, they used their Tasers to take him down because they knew that he was trying to get them to kill him. This guy had a steak knife. There were two police officers. I have trouble believing they couldn't have used similar force to get him under control than to fill his body with a dozen rounds.

Gary R. Welsh said...

I should add that this case is in sharp contrast to the Ferguson shooting, where the police officer alleges that he had already sustained serious bodily injury as a result of Brown physically assaulting him and trying to wrestle his gun away from him, causing the officer's gun to discharge while still in his car. The officer claims that Brown was charging him after he fled following the initial assault when he then fired the fatal shots at him. If the officer's injuries were as serious as some reports indicate they were, he was arguably justified in using serious or deadly force to stop Brown from causing further injury to him.

Anonymous said...

"They could have easily shot him and it would have been a justified shooting."

The facts you describe hardly justify a shooting. A country that thinks it does will not long know freedom.

C. Roger Csee said...

I don't mean to be a party-pooper, but:
1) We were not there in the front row to see the totality of the situation, i.e. just how close was the guy to the police, how did he look, how did he sound, how fast was he moving, etc.
2) We also don't know what info the police were given about this before arriving.
3) A person up to 22 feet away can kill you with a knife before you can draw your weapon and fire. Sometimes even though the person is shot, they can still kill you with the knife.
4) Officers are not required by law to wait until they are shot, shot at, stabbed, etc. etc. before defending themselves.
While it is possible that other means could have been used in this incident, and it is possible that other officers would have used other means, that does NOT mean what these officers did was illegal or that they "killed" the person.
I'm sorry, but those are the facts.

Anonymous said...

No, Case, those aren't "facts;" it's just the perspective of someone who is comfortable with martial law, disdainful of rights and not in agreement with the concept of citizen as sovereign.

Thankfully, your side is dying off. In 100 years, having ideas such as yours will cause the person to be as much of an outcast as a racist is today.

Of course, love of police power, especially as employed in Missouri, is seen as a proxy for racism.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone remember Valenda Heithecker? She was mentally disturbed and stood not even 5 feet tall. When 2 MCSD deputies more than 6 ft tall tried to enter her home in early 1986 she tried to block them and held out a butter knife. You guessed it, they shot her dead and found nothing suspicious after all. Opps!!

How about Fred Sanders? Too bad they cops couldn't just leave him alone: too bad for Fred and too bad for Officer Faber.

Once again, a crime ignored is a crime encouraged!

Anonymous said...

The thief asked them to shoot him. Repeatedly. Refused commands to STOP! and DROP THE KNIFE! And you conspiracy theorist retards think this is murder? I feel sad
for the current state of America knowing there are folks like you that actually have a vote. If
you don't like local State or Federal laws or have a disdain for our police officers then gtf out of America and try finding a better Country to live in.

Anonymous said...

Oh, no, now Cato at 1:41 is throwing in the race card.

Ignorant people often externalize their own failures by throwing in the race card when there is no rational or legitimate argument.

Flogger said...

I suppose now a picket sign could be deadly weapon in the eyes of the Police. The Police could have given ground and waited for back-up, or shot the man in the leg. They were still shooting him on the ground.

Instead they decided to "light the man up and bring the World on him" as we used to say in the Army.

Officer Porky in video could not seem to decide how big an area to tape off.

Anonymous said...

I recall that in the Valenda Heithecker case, there was a neutral eyewitness. I believe she had a meat cleaver and came dangerously close while disobeying commands to stop.

In the other case, neighbors called because Fred Sanders was reckless with his dog, Duke. That's what people are supposed to do. Police came in response and Fred Sanders attacked a police officer, fled into his house, armed himself with a shotgun and murdered a policeman, shooting the policeman in the back.

Remember, it's not easy being a cop. Every call can be the last. And, 11:50 said it best: “Cops aren’t paid to die on duty and leave their family behind."

Anon 10:38, 1:01, 1:41 please get your attendant and remind him you need your medication.

Anonymous said...

Flogger as you know the from your Army experience weapons qualifications are not taught with silhouettes of legs. Torsos are the way to go. And yes, there are a lot of similarities between the police and the military. There are two factual reasons that I know that support militarizing the police. Deputy Baker and Officer Renn

Anonymous said...

Anon 1:01: I submit to your mentally sick person that U. S. Police Officers DO NOT GET PAID TO DIE ON-DUTY!!

However, U. S. journalists that travel to Iraq with substantially more pay, do knowingly subject themselves to beheading.

Liberals know not what they speak.

Anonymous said...

Cops are paid to risk dying on duty. Cops are paid to make themselves unsafe for our benefit or the benefit of anyone wielding a gun, knife or a loaf of bread.

This kind of logic is ridiculous. I would say that 99% of humans have a biological drive to prevent self-harm to themselves. Once again people like you want AI/robot law enforcement, programmed with no emotions, no discretion, just a computer program saying to arrest if there has been a law violation.

Cops are paid to a do a job that may include danger. They aren't paid to commit involuntary suicide.

Thankfully, your side is dying off. In 100 years, having ideas such as yours will cause the person to be as much of an outcast as a racist is today.

So basically in 100 years we won't have any human cops. I doubt 1% of those officers working today will go into a job where they are required to let violent humans drive a knife into their neck, take a bullet before they shoot back, etc..

Maybe you are right and this is a good thing. People seem to champion when non-LEOs shoot and kill criminals. Think about the non-outrage there would be had that store clerk that Brown attacked pulled out a snub nose .357 and fired four rounds into Brown's torso. Think about the non-outrage had the store clerk in this situation used reasonable force to take back his property, and once attacked by this dangerous guy pulled his gun and killed him.

Maybe law enforcement should be 100% self-service? People can do their own arrest, own investigations, etc.. It isn't like all the police-are-always-wrong Monday morning quarterbacks are ever going to fill out and application to do the job and try to create change from within.

Every young person I meet who expresses an interest in being a patrol police officer I attempt to talk into choosing another career. Thankfully I have websites with comments like this to help steer good, decent people away from choosing a career where they will constantly be under scrutiny because they dared to protect themselves.

Anonymous said...

"Once again people like you want AI/robot law enforcement, programmed with no emotions, no discretion, just a computer program saying to arrest if there has been a law violation."

I don't want any arrests on a mere violation of law. I only want arrests if there has been harm to a person or property. Most of what police do should not be done.

"I doubt 1% of those officers working today will go into a job where they are required to let violent humans drive a knife into their neck, take a bullet before they shoot back, etc.."

That's why firemen get respect, and cops are hated. Firemen will walk through fire to save someone, in spite of their own safety.

"Maybe law enforcement should be 100% self-service?"

Libertarians have been arguing for this, for years. We never asked for police, so don't force us to pay for something we don't want. Cops only keep us from doing for ourselves.

"Every young person I meet who expresses an interest in being a patrol police officer I attempt to talk into choosing another career."

So do I. No decent person would want the job, and such a desire is evidence of a poor home life and bad upbringing.

Tell them to find a job in the productive sector, where they trade their labor for some service people willingly want to obtain. Cops are just big welfare recipients whose job is unwanted and unwelcome and who make things worse and don't do the job they claim to be doing.

Anonymous said...

"Anon 1:01: I submit to your mentally sick person that U. S. Police Officers DO NOT GET PAID TO DIE ON-DUTY!!"

Not to "die," as you mistakenly put it in your feeble straw man, but to put themselves at risk for our safety. Don't like it? Find another job.

Above all, cops are not paid to kill us. If cops are such fraidy-cat cowards that they draw their guns on anyone who tells them to f-off or shoot any dog that barks, then these cowards and sadists need to do something else.

The problem is that few jobs list cowardice and sadism as job qualifications.

If cops want to reclaim some respect, they should start leaving their guns at the station. We'll see who the real cops are when beats are walked without guns.

Anonymous said...

You do not meet deadly force with less-lethal force. Tazers don't always work. The officers did not dictate the circumstances, the suspect did. Instead trying to find out why the officers as they did it's simply easier to criticize. I'm surprised no one asked, "why didn't they shoot the knife out of their hand?"

Handcuffing a suspect after he's been shot? Yeah, so what? It's standard operating procedure. If his hands are still free he is still a threat.

Anonymous said...

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