Today in Salt Lake City there was a death after a police confrontation. James Dudley Barker was approached by a police officer in response to calls from residents of the Salt Lake neighborhood. Barker was going door to door asking for money in exchange for shoveling sidewalks. The policeman asked what he was doing and Barker refused to tell him anything. The scene escalated quickly after Barker swung a shovel at the officer, which was all caught on a body-cam. Another hit broke the camera and ended the footage and a moment later the officer fired his weapon, killing Barker. Barkers neighbors describe him as a kind and normal guy that didn't show aggressiveness. His criminal record showed that he was arrested in December of 2013 for disturbing the peace and failing to give police his identity. Most believe the officer, who sustained many broken bones, was in the right because he was defending himself from an non aggravated assault. Despite this there are planned protests from Utahns Against Police Brutality.
I think that it is sad that the man lost his life. I watched the footage and it seems that the officer stepped forward to try and calm the guy down. It's hard to tell though and some speculate the officer pushed him, which caused him to attack. It don't really know what side of the story to believe. Let me know what you guys think.
http://m.ksl.com/index/story/sid/33042457?mobile_direct=y
If the officer was responding to a call, that is not brutality. If the officer was getting hit, he was in the right to use his firearm. If he was in fear of his life, he was in the right to take the attacker out. While things are still in the air as to how the confrontation began, I think the officer was in the right to act as he did.
ReplyDeleteI'm also leaning to the officer in the right. If you watch the footage, Barker gets really frustrated and says that he's only trying to make a living. To me it's obvious that Barker was desperate and probably was stressed out and made a dumb decision. Maybe if there was another officer there it wouldn't have ended the way it did.
DeleteI think that because of the other stories about the police killing people, there is an unnecessary fear of the coppers the media has created. I think that this uncertainty was in the back of Barker's mind. I feel like that is why he reacted this way.
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