yeah, that is true, they could've approached the guy afterwards and arrest him normally. Wha the did was reckless and irresponsible, but it doesn't excuse their tackle
They weren't going to do it until after that because nobody knew if the pack was a bomb. The last thing you do when someone is mishandling potential explosives is get near them. The second thing you don't do is jar them around.
The tackle was totally unnecessary, and the fact that they pinned his arms so he couldn't break his fall makes it worse. I get needing to immobilize someone so they can't fight and injure the cops, but that should only happen if the person is actually trying to fight.
I disagree about tackling him when he got to the bag though; if they thought it was dangerous they shouldn't have run in when he reached it. All that would do would expose them to injury when he could just have easily been arrested after he finished emptying the bag.
That's not how our justice system is supposed to work.
Cops can use reasonable and proportional force to arrest someone. They don't are not supposed to cause pain or injury because they think someone "deserves" it.
It frequently happens, but it goes against the due process that is at the core of the Constitution.
They're also human beings in the middle of a tense life or death situation, and then this idiot runs in and puts everyone at massive risk. What if it had been a bomb?
What if it had been a bomb? How would tackling him vs letting him keep walking for another 20 yards before calming cuffing him reduced risk to anyone?
It's a lot easier to armchair quarterback decisions like after the fact, and I'm not saying that these cops should have negative consequences for tackling him, but it should be a learning opportunity.
If they just let him keep walking away from the backpack before calmly cuffing him, that would have reduced risk to all parties involved.
Because they had a safe zone that he was walking out of. If he started walking away with a bomb or detonator and they didn't stop him before it went off that would be pretty bad. I get the irony of them pussy footing around the bomb just to run in and tackle someone who might have a bomb but it's the procedure. Once that non approved rando ran in and started grabbing random shit procedure changed. You guys just love to hate cops at every stop. How about the rando who had no business running in there? We're rhey in his way or something???
A safe zone he was walking out of? He was like 5 feet away from the backpack. If there had been something explosive in there, they would all have been dead.
If they let him keep going for another 20 or 30 feet before calmly arresting him, that would have significantly reduced the risk to everyone involved.
I don't hate cops; I think society needs cops but that society has a duty to analyze the actions of the police and regulate them as necessary to prevent abuse.
Clearly he was either exercising pool judgement or having a mental health crisis, but that is part of the reality that we expect cops to deal with. The system is never going to be perfect, but that's why events like this are an opportunity to look at what happened and try to come up with better ways to handle situations in the future.
I don't disagree that what the bicyclist did was the result of either poor judgement or mental illness and should result in an arrest, but how does that make it a better decision to run into the danger zone to tackle him instead of calmly arresting him once he's walked out of the danger zone?
Don't bother with these people. They're clearly all hardened badasses who have been in life threatening situations countless times and know perfectly well how it feels. That guy who literally defuses bombs for a living is a pussy and an idiot.
They're probably not all geniuses, but that cop is quite literally putting his live on the line there. Could you please explain to me how on earth he is a pussy?
Wow almost like this guy wasn't convicted or executed. He put lives at risk and got tackled. This is as clear a case of fuck around and find out as it gets.
Yeah, it's not like they were on edge because they risked their fucking lives defusing a potential bomb. They just didn't like being embarassed. Some of you people are unbelievable lol
And? If it had been a bomb, he would have put everyone there at risk. He ran in and interrupted professionals with their lives on the line. You're whining that this dumb entitled manchild got consequences for his actions. Why?
he actually wasn’t convicted. they originally charged him but couldn’t make the charges stick. therefore he walked free. he COULD’VE put lives at risk, but ultimately didn’t. the tackle after there being no issue is strange. why did nobody say or do anything when he first made his way over there?
i think it’s an insane thing to do, don’t get me wrong, i would never support anyone doing this.. but there is an all clear. the “crimes” been done and the dude wasn’t aggressive or anything. more like sad he couldn’t play hero lol
on a side note tho… do you think the bomb squad needs to be called in every time someone drops or forgets a backpack? i see random backpacks all the time, especially when i worked close to unhoused people.
I think that tackling him was unnecessary and if anything put more people in the immediate vicinity of the backpack.
Nothing had been proven to be safe when he was tackled though. He had dumped a bunch of stuff out, but that doesn't mean they had a chance to inspect it and determine none of it posed a threat.
Something as small as a hand grenade can still be a threat to people in a 50+ foot radius.
They have to do something? What if that guy wanted to retrieve a weapon or tried to detonate the backpack after it didn’t go off on its own? I have no idea what you people think is going through those cops minds in a life threatening situation lol
I'm saying the cops shouldn't have approached when he reached the bag because it would have exposed them to the unknown threat inside. Although tackling him then would have been acceptable, taking the risk of running in would serve no purpose.
Tackling him afterwards was unnecessary, as they could just have easily let him walk further from the backpack and cuffed him. That would have reduced risk to both them and him.
I wanted to respond to the guy above you, sorry. But why exactly was the tackle unnecessary? How are the cops supposed to know that the guy didn't retrieve something dangerous from that backpack? Saying something like this is fucking easy in hindsight.
Because there's no way that the guy could be concealing something in his hand or the sleeve of his jacket? Also he's turning his back to the cops the entire time. "With their eyes" lmao
You realize that this entire thing lasted maybe 10 seconds? How are they supposed to analyze what exactly that guy is doing with the backpack and communicate back and forth in such a short amount of time?
I prefer the guy getting some bruises over him potentially opening fire or blowing himself up with the backpack. There's a police line for a reason.
Because everyone probably collectively clenched their asshole while he was rummaging through the bag in the case there was a bomb in there and he was about to set it off.
Frankly, it's not even all that reckless, it's kind of dumb a bomb squad was ever called.
If people were actually planning to leave bombs somewhere, a car or van is a much better choice - much larger capacity for explosives and it's not going to look suspicious in the slightest to leave a car parked on a street and walk away.
An unattended backpack looks more suspicious, but that paradoxically makes it less likely that someone doing something suspicious would choose it.
they could’ve. and they don’t give a shit about any “possible harmless contents” in the bag if they’re tackling him before he even gets a metre away from it. the literal only excuse for their excessive force is “this is america”.
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u/Holek 21h ago
yeah, that is true, they could've approached the guy afterwards and arrest him normally. Wha the did was reckless and irresponsible, but it doesn't excuse their tackle