re: FBI releases video of chase, shooting that killed Oregon refugee occupier

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I agree that once the hand reached in the coat he sealed his fate. I guess I am more baffled about the overall hasty energy and seriousness the government is putting into this situation with some redneck farmers in the middle of nowhere. Road blocks, heavy weapons. I realize the rednecks are armed but I am very surprised at how quickly the government is wanting to move on this, no hostages or critical building being taken over. That is all. Just my two cents. The guy was doing about 60 mph at the road block and reached in his coat, he's going to be shot.

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You're surprised by how quickly the government moved? Are you joking? This has been going on for a month, and the occupiers are armed and are saying extremely inflammatory things about killing government agents and going down fighting.

The FBI has been watching them and noticed that the occupiers were becoming very comfortable with coming and going to and from the government compound. Some people were going home on the weekends.

The FBI learned that all the leaders of the occupation were leaving at the same time to go to a meeting somewhere else, and that's when they decided to intercept them on the highway away from any populated area. They intentionally inderdicted them in a way that reduced the risk of violence--on the highway, where there was no cover, and where the government would have absolute control over the circumstances of the confrontation.

The FBI did a great job and they may not have gotten a better opportunity to end this in a relatively peaceful way. They can't help it if one idiot decides to commit suicide by cop, especially if that idiot had already said in recorded interviews that he'd never be taken alive.

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I am guessing you can't see the forest past the trees here.

Do you think what happened was a win for LE? If anything it made their job more dangerous as now they'll have to worry about retaliation, if not here then somewhere down the road.

A peaceful solution would have made everyone's jobs a lot safer.

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Killing the one nut who said he'd never be taken alive after he reached for his waistband is probably as peaceful a solution as the government was going to find in this case, short of completely undermining their authority by caving to the occupiers, which was never going to happen because the occupiers were simply wrong. Letting this go on any longer would actually just embolden future efforts by right wing extremists to undermine the authority of the government.

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I understand your point here but I disagree with how this video will play out. The video clearly shows that the guy wasn't on his knees with his hands up and executed in cold blood as the "eyewitnesses" (according to those friendly to him) had described. The authorities have literally ALL of the control now as they can refute any claim by stating "here is where we pulled them over, here is where they instead decided to begin a dangerous high speed chase, and here is where the man that had already threatened to shoot any federal agents or cops that were in his way decided to reach into his jacket." Anyone with any sense has to realize that the federal agents and cops on the scene had every right to act in self-defense given the situation.

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I agree that's what a non-militia normal person would think. But what about the miltia guys that supported them that weren't actually on site? Are they supposed to trust a grainy audioless video from a helicopter narrated by agents they don't believe?

This would be better handled by releasing bodycam footage with audio. I think that would calm a lot more people than what has been put out now because of the arguments you made above.

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I am guessing you can't see the forest past the trees here.

Do you think what happened was a win for LE? If anything it made their job more dangerous as now they'll have to worry about retaliation, if not here then somewhere down the road.

A peaceful solution would have made everyone's jobs a lot safer

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I don't know that I would be worried about a forest or trees if I'd just seen my partner almost get run over then a man that I know is extremely radical reach for a gun while he has multiple guns pointed at him. Do I think this is a win? No, but they made the correct decision in responding to a threat at the time.

I guess you expect the officer to see his partner almost get run over, see that driver reach into his pocket, then stop and consider if these insane people might take your actions to protect yourself and your partners the wrong way and create a martyr.

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Keep in mind that this guy said he would rather die than spend a day in prison, and that he would go down fighting.

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I was coming to post this.
He's a bat-shite crazy wannabe martyr. Not that hard to understand.

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ETA: And just so there's no confusion on where I stand. Once he reached inside his jacket, the cops really had no other choice than to put him down. Had he just kept his hands up, he'd be alive today.

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I've been saying that from the get go but people cannot understand that simple concept. And just to pile on a little bit, just seconds before he got out the dumbass almost ran over a cop.

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Conservative republican role models if I've ever seen one.

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Stereotype much?

Looks like the dude was reaching for something at gunpoint after throwing around violent threats recently. The cops are seemingly in the right here to me.

Love the comparison from some of this to the violent black men getting shot by cops. Hoping to box white posters in a corner right?

I didn't follow this story. Pretty tired of all the bullshite news. Based on what I SAW on the video, this dude deserved to go down.

Gotta view the police shootings of white people and black people equal... right, liberals?

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I guess the guy got what he deserved, but without any audio, who really knows what was being said between him and all the cops. Perhaps someone screamed at him to toss his gun on the ground, and that's why he was reaching for his weapon.

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you got the entire country and world watching this situation unfold..and not a single agent was wearing a body cam???

fishy.

but what would the feds gain by leaving the shooting ambiguous enough that some people might feel the need to react?

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you got the entire country and world watching this situation unfold..and not a single agent was wearing a body cam??? 

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Do you know that to be fact? Do you know if that department uses them in all circumstances? There's just so many unknowns. Really, all of this is based on* opinion, unless someone has a version with audio.

That being said, I still believe you can tell when he gets shot and I believe it's after he reaches in his jacket. Also, like I've stated 101 times now, he lost his benefit of the doubt with the cops when they made all those videos saying they would kill cops and when he almost ran over the cop.

Eta - on*