Today's shooting in America thread

[JRockBlues]

It has been announced that body cam footage from the five officers that have been charged with the Death of Tyre Nichols will be released today at 7pm EST.
It's going to be a long dark weekend for the United States.
Reports from the people that have already seen the footage say its AWFUL. I've never seen so many people try to get in front of a video being released to try and lower the temperature of the moment.

Heart breaks for my country, especially when I have no idea how to help it.

Seems like an extremely stupid time to release it. Just before a weekend for shits and giggles. Stay safe anyone in the vicinity of protests as I'm sure I'm not the only one expecting this to turn bad.

 

[Blumers Bloomers]

Tyre Nichols beaten to death by 5 cops.
It's not been a Goodyear so far

Maybe a bit soon that mate

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

Other countries that have lots of guns still have fairly strict regulations about them, as far as I'm aware though. I think the mental health argument is just something used by gun nuts to try and deflect blame. It's not as if plenty of people in the UK don't have mental health problems.

But if you're looking for factors beyond just the guns themselves, then it'd be worth looking at the fact that the US has the level of wealth inequality of a developing nation. That is typically correlated with a whole host of social problems, including levels of violence. Add to that their horrendous prison system that basically removes any opportunity to become a success legally once you've been convicted of one crime, driving people into a life of crime (massive generalization, I know), which in the States, is going to involve guns by definition.

I think the only reason you don’t see it here on a similar level is availability.
Our wealth disparity, of all the developed nations, is second only to the USA. Our access to mental health services is rapidly diminishing and, as a country, our leaders are encouraging us all to be very angry with each other on a daily basis.
Given that, I think if we suddenly introduced an ‘second amendment’ type thing, we’d have weekly mass shootings within a year or two. Let’s hope nobody is ever mad enough….

 

[Blumers Bloomers]

Don’t know if this Memphis cop stuff needs a thread of its own ….but can someone explain to me why the footage is going to be uploaded when it’s allegedly so abhorrent ?

 

[CTIDANDREW]

Seems like an extremely stupid time to release it. Just before a weekend for shits and giggles. Stay safe anyone in the vicinity of protests as I'm sure I'm not the only one expecting this to turn bad.

I don't follow the news cycle all that closely in the U.K. but here in the states there is a well known tactic of the "Friday News Dump"....obviously the idea is that by releasing bad news late on a Friday you hope the temperature of the negative effect is lessened over the weekend.
I agree with you though that news like this can work in reverse to that theory, because people are going to be upset and not have any obligations because it is the weekend which will likely led to more unreset.

Going to be a long 48 hours.

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

I think the only reason you don’t see it here on a similar level is availability.
Our wealth disparity, of all the developed nations, is second only to the USA. Our access to mental health services is rapidly diminishing and, as a country, our leaders are encouraging us all to be very angry with each other on a daily basis.
Given that, I think if we suddenly introduced an ‘second amendment’ type thing, we’d have weekly mass shootings within a year or two. Let’s hope nobody is ever mad enough….

Agree. Availability of guns is the problem. The left has been trying to address this without success for decades. Maybe it'll get done in 2024? - the Right is batshit crazy and way too radically right for most Americans and the NRA isn't as strong as it used to be. A 2024 Blue Wave might well finally open up the possibility for meaningful gun legislation in the USA.

 

[FantasyIreland]

The video is not a full account apparently,it does not cover the initial encounter/confrontation so i'm not sure it will reveal what led to this seemingly mindless and abhorrent episode.

For 5 officers to all act in the same pack manner just makes no sense whatsoever,i cant begin to understand what would cause such a response......just an utterly bizarre episode.

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

The video is not a full account apparently,it does not cover the initial encounter/confrontation so i'm not sure it will reveal what led to this seemingly mindless and abhorrent episode.

For 5 officers to all act in the same pack manner just makes no sense whatsoever,i cant begin to understand what would cause such a response......just an utterly bizarre episode.

It’s an American police thing, sadly. Whilst it’s usually a gun that does the killing, a pack of policemen, especially in the states, is a very dangerous thing.
They kill hugely more people annually than other similarly wealthy countries, at a rate of almost 34 per ten million population, at an occurrence of more than 2 per week!
That compares very unfavourably with everyone else. Canada at just under 10 per 10 million comes second just edging out Australia. For comparison the UK sits at about 0.5 per 10 million.

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

Agree. Availability of guns is the problem. The left has been trying to address this without success for decades. Maybe it'll get done in 2024? - the Right is batshit crazy and way too radically right for most Americans and the NRA isn't as strong as it used to be. A 2024 Blue Wave might well finally open up the possibility for meaningful gun legislation in the USA.

It's a vote loser surely?
The two words "Gun legislation" is translated as "they want to take my gun/s away" and nothing will change their opinion on that translation.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

(Sorry if this has been raised before. I haven’t read every post)

Hate to even mention the fact that the 5 officers were all black, but I think that may help tamp down some of the projected civil unrest.

Had this been 5 non-black officers, the “southern racial element” of the potential protests would have both magnified and amplified any such actions.

Now, the protests will be focused on police brutality, not BLM and racial injustice. Even though the victim’s race might get an airing, I believe it will be mostly blunted by the race of all 5 officers.