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London Cop Who Shot Dead Unarmed Black Man Charged With Murder (www.vice.com)

submitted 1 year ago by stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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Prosecutors have charged a Metropolitan Police officer with murder after he shot rapper Chris Kaba in London last year.

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[-] Caboose12000@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm curious how this could even happen in England, I thought their police force was totally different from the US? I thought they only used guns as a last resort instead of as a constant threat of their gangster-style authority? was this some sort of very strange circumstance? was the cop who did it some kind of deranged murderer who somehow infiltrated the police force? or are cops around the world just not as different as I thought?

edit: this wasn't meant to make a statement about English and American cops being similar, I'm just an idiot. was only trying to ask for more context (which I have now gotten).

[-] nonailsleft@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

The common factor here is a very biased US outlet doing the reporting. In short:

US media: "police shoot Unarmed Black man during traffic stop"

UK media: "suspect of shooting incident cornered by police, shot when trying to ram through roadblock. Family stops public protests after seeing footage of incident"

[-] Caboose12000@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

yeah I think you're right, with that kind of extra detail I wouldn't have been confused. even the article itself didn't make it clear what the context could have been, it sounded like they were casually driving and the officer just blindfired into his car for no other reason than "criminal bad" y'know? the fact that the man was about to ram through a roadblock or that the family gave up their protest after seeing the footage should have been front and center

[-] Baketime@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

I thought the main difference was police generally don't have guns in the UK. Has this changed?

[-] livus@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

@Baketime

No it hasn't, but there are some police there with guns that are only supposed to be used as a last resort. Sounds like the shooter was one of those, but went a bit crazy:

by a Metropolitan Police firearms officer

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[-] SMTRodent@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

I mean he's literally being charged with murder and the last event like this was back around 2005, but do go on about how it's basically the same as a country where police murdering citizens and not getting charged at all is the norm.

[-] crackajack@reddthat.com 1 points 1 year ago

People are being snarky and probably misunderstand what you're trying to ask. I presume you aren't aware that normal, on-patrol British police do not carry firearms. There are dedicated teams of British armed police on-standby and only respond when they're called upon on extreme situations.

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