“Over two fucking sodas,” says a witness who caught the incident, which occurred on Tuesday, on camera. Twenty-three-year-old Kajieme Powell, who is alleged to have stolen a few drinks and pastries from a nearby store, reportedly had a history of mental illness. This video, released by the police, is not easy to watch:
The video appears to contradicts the narrative of events claimed by police, though a representative for the St. Louis police union called it “exculpatory.” Ezra Klein adds:
This man needed help. He had a knife, but he also, clearly, had an illness. After watching the video, Vox’s Amanda Taub said, “I keep thinking about the times when I have called 911 because I have encountered a mentally ill person in public who seems unsafe. I don’t know how I would live with it if this had been the result.” There has to have been a way that police could have protected Kajieme Powell rather than killed him.
When confronted by an assailant with a knife, one must act quickly to defend one’s own life, however, when the police have time to premeditate, they can easily utilize non lethal tactics with access to a vast arsenal of non lethal weapons, such as a great big pile of gorilla snot with which to entrap a culprit, up to his neck in thick, slimy, goo, or they could even toss a large, heavy, fishing net over him to tie him up. Even if he were to start cutting the net with the knife, the pack of cops would easily be able to harmlessly subdue him before he could even begin to escape.
Another human life “improved” by police officers.
Wow. I bet there was a much better way to do that.
Love American policing these days.
What is most sick about this is that the guy taking the video did nothing to intervene, no one did. It was as if he as watching a reality TV show. The act of filming meant he didn’t even consider talking to the distraught guy. No one was out there waiting for the cops to clue them in. Not a lick of compassion anywhere until the cops show up and a guy with a knife is 3 steps away from a gun wanting to be killed. The entire thing is about humanity failing at all points in the incident. But…he got to say….I filmed it all!
I wouldn’t intervene; for a number of reasons. First of all, self preservation. Secondly, a mob makes no distinction about who did what when. A riot becomes a free for all. Thirdly, the police ultimately, always win, and if you are there, you are going to jail. Even if you got hurt, because you were trying to protect and defend a police officer who was in distress.
As far as the videographer is concerned, he was doing a more important job, by recording events for the record. Tom Snyder once interviewed the photographer of Bobby Kennedy’s assassination, by Sirhan Sirhan (ุณุฑุญุงู ุจุดุงุฑุฉ ุณุฑุญุงู ). He felt conflicted by the dilemma, but managed to continue photographing the action.
Any pinhead with a smartphone is now a “videographer?”
Watch it again. He was laughing at the mentally disturbed guy right up until the cops fired. Yea…a real witness to history.
It’s a shame that the Merc failed to have it’s teem of professional reporters and photojournalists on the scene. Since only six corporations now own ninety percent of all popular US media, journalism has been the most significant fatality.
I read that he was armed with a butter knife. Not what I would call a very dangerous weapon. Why couldn’t they have just tazed him. I know sometimes it doesn’t work, but it would be worth a try, in my opinion.