Still want to ride a Harley, not in the States you don't !

[GOG 007]

Ottawa Hills officer's trial begins, dash cam vid shown | Video | 13abc.com

[jasonbc]

Ottawa Hills officer's trial begins, dash cam vid shown | Video | 13abc.com

Fair enough the penalty for riding a harley is death let that be a lesson to all those wannabe yanks out there

[AlanH]

Ride a Harley in the States if you want to - just remember that when a cop has a gun pointed at you and shouts for you to put your hands in the air, putting your hands in the air IMMEDIATELY may be the best course of action

[winxp-master]

Should have put his hands up immediately, every American knows the cops carry guns so they should be used to it.

To think, over here they won't chase motorcycle thieves who have not got crash helmets on incase they fall and injure themselves.

[pdsquire]

I do hope someone makes the point that he had stopped in a hurry & was probably not in neutral so had he let go with his clutch hand the bike would have lurched forward, he'd have fallen off and the maniac cop would have found some other reason to shoot him.

Dear Lord!

[winxp-master]

I do hope someone makes the point that he had stopped in a hurry & was probably not in neutral so had he let go with his clutch hand the bike would have lurched forward, he'd have fallen off and the maniac cop would have found some other reason to shoot him.

Dear Lord!

Good point Phillip... It's easy to say now that he should have hit the kill switch or done this or done that bla bla bla but at the end of the day the copper should not have shot him unless he was 100% sure he had seen a gun and that he was reaching for it and aiming at the officer.

We all want scum dealt with harder (not that this guy is scum mind, i don't know the details), be it someone who's knicked your bike or burgled your house but coppers can't just go around ramming people off bikes or in this case shooting people, what if you are mistaken for a bike thief and they ram you off?

Am i right in thinking this guy is now paralysed?... if so then it's a tragedy.

[AlanH]

at the end of the day the copper should not have shot him unless he was 100% sure he had seen a gun and that he was reaching for it and aiming at the officer.

Considering the copper is getting out of the left side of the car, the camera view is better than the view the cop has. The rider turns and as he does so, his right hand appears to move backwards like he's just drawing a weapon. The camera can see his hand is empty but the cop can't. I think that if I was a cop in this situation, I would have probably shot him too. By the time a weapon is aimed at you, it's already too late and you are going to get shot.

I do hope someone makes the point that he had stopped in a hurry & was probably not in neutral so had he let go with his clutch hand the bike would have lurched forward, he'd have fallen off and the maniac cop would have found some other reason to shoot him

The rider certainly made no attempt to put his right hand up. Even if the bike was in gear and he still had hold of the clutch, just putting his right hand in the air would have shown the cop that it was empty. The cop would have a plain view of the left hand on the bar so he could then see the guy did not have a gun in either hand.

[Warthog]

Maybe the cop should not have stopped so close: further away means more warning?

Similarly, folks have said that the rider should have put his hand(s) up.

His mate just binned his bike, a police car stops in front of him, and did you hear those exhausts: I wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't even heard the police officer issuing his order and that he was s bit shell shocked about what was going on!!

I'm not saying it is all the policeman's fault: it must be a very nerve-wracking thing to have happen, but imagine you make an innocuous move that is badly interpreted....

A sorry situation

[jasonbc]

but at the end of the day the copper should not have shot him unless he was 100% sure he had seen a gun and that he was reaching for it and aiming at the officer.

The cop doesn't have 10mins to think about his options he can only go by previous experience, so that means acting instantly. The muppet on the bike could have done 101 things that wouldn't have got him shot. Gun crime in the USA is a bit different than what it is over here. If you weren't guilty of anything and a copper told you to put your hands up what would you do?? It's a no brainer (does not apply to yanks I guess). No doubt the cop will get a bollocking and training will be changed for the future but at the end of the day a message has been sent "F**k with the police you'll come off worse" say what we want about them they are trained professionals and deal with this sort of thing day in day out and i suspect we're only seeing the bits of the tape they want us to see. We don't know what happened 5-10 mins before the bit of that we've been shown. They could be innocent of this, probably guilty of something else though as there was more than 1 police car in attendance. Either way bad luck for both the rider will be injured or worse and the copper will have a minimum of a lighter wallet or be imprisoned. Bit of a catch 22 situation really. Probably not a .22 calibre though

[ukTiffy]

The fact the cop got out on the left side of the car means he was more behind the rider. With his gundrawn and ready he would have had plenty of time to react correctly he the rider continued to twist to tthe right, where he's got to move to be pointing a gun to his left side to shoot the cop. Yank cops supposedly get training in how to stop a driver/rider saftly without putting themselves at risk. Ever wondered why the slide up to teh cars B post and no further ... its to make them a harder. smaller target or the prat with a gun in the car.

This shooting looks totaly unjustified and I would wonder if it was in fact an ND in that the orificer didn't intend to fire it.

Thank God our plods aren't armed, mostly.