There is no question that police brutality is a serious problem in North America. In 2014, Eric Garner was choked to death by cops in New York city. His crime? Selling loose smokes. Just recently in South Carolina people across the world were outraged when a teenage girl was body slammed by a police resource officer for not giving up her phone. The police are militarized, hopped up on steroids and able to literally get away with murder. But the shooting of Sammy Yatim was not an example of such.
Yatim, who masturbated on a street car while threatening to kill young girls met his fatal end as he walked, purposefully, knife extended, towards the officers who were called to deal with him. The threat he posed to the lives of the cops was palpable. He had a weapon, he was completely out of control and he was moving deliberately towards them. This is a textbook example of when force is justified in self defense. Unfortunately social democrats don't like to attribute the blame for criminality to the criminal. Instead, they blame society or capitalism or inequality and they whine about the rights of murderers and rapists while ignoring their victims. And so, instead of focusing on the fact that Sammy Yatim was psychotic and quite likely to kill, they have decided to lynch Const. James Forcillo. For doing his job. For sticking up for the innocent people on that bus. For trying to keep us safe from criminals.
This wasn't an ambiguous situation. There was a lethal threat and the police acted to defend themselves. This wasn't police brutality. It was self preservation. The fact that Forcillo has gone to trial at all is insane. But to charge him with second degree murder? That is nothing more than a public lynching to appease the mob's distorted opinion of justice. This whole trial is a farce; Yatim committed suicide by cop and has only himself to blame.
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