Monday, February 23, 2015

David Codrea: ‘Gun death’ at hands of police demonstrates public’s need for relevant data



A woman has been shot dead by police in Gastonia, N.C. Betty Sexton had called 911 to have unwelcome guests removed from her home, and was in the process of obeying orders to put down an old musket she was protecting herself with when Officer LaDoniqua Neely shot her in the chest, WCCB Charlotte reported Tuesday, quoting the dead woman’s sister.

Per Steve Watson of Infowars, “Gastonia Police have already shot and killed three people so far this year.” In that report, he links to another in which Gastonia Police killed a sick veteran.

In the Sexton case, the State Bureau of Investigations has taken over. Additionally, and this is important, a neighbor warns against drawing “conclusions based off one-sided information. That’s reckless.”

That’s a valid point. As we would expect a presumption of innocence until proven guilty, so too are law enforcement professionals entitled to the same rights. As has been pointed out in my explanation for the “Only Ones” meme established on The War on Guns blog, a main purpose of that feature is to ensure police are not exempted from standards of conduct “ordinary citizens” would be punished for. The flip side to that is, it would be grossly unfair to penalize a cop for shooting in a situation where gun rights advocates would support a non-LEO’s self-defense claim.

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