▲ 101 r/rant
if a police officer points his weapon at you and says "Get down on the ground, or I'll shoot..."
...and you don't get on the ground, that doesn't mean he gets to shoot you. "I warned him" is not, in fact, a legal defense for murder.
Cops are supposed to use lethal force only in response to lethal force. If you stand there, smoking your cigarette, as they shout at you... they don't get to shoot you.
If you turn and run away, they don't get to shoot you.
Now, in practice, they WILL shoot you, and get away with it, which is maybe a problem. But as far as the law and the rules are concerned, "I told him I'd shoot" doesn't magically authorize lethal force.
u/Elastoid — 6 days ago