Cops in my home town

I am fortunate enough to get my hometown news daily on my computer.  It's always nice to see whats happening or not happening at home while I am 700 some miles away.  There is one constant in the news and that is at least one story of a pedestrian getting run over or someone dying at the hands of the police.

Any time the police are involved, I get a kick out of reading all of the comments from people who think they know what "really happened".  From reading their 2 cents worth, it is easy to come up with the notion that all of LVPD (Metro) is a bunch of jack booted thugs.  I know and understand otherwise. 

The story that got my attention today was that they released more information about a guy who was killed a week or so ago for coming out of a house, pointing a gun at cops. Oh, he also shot at the cops. (If you want to die, this is the express pass.  No excuse for doing something so stupid.)  The new information released said that the man was a "violent felon" who had recent arrests for DUI, child abuse, and battery.  As well, the man was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. 

Now, with the above information, I imagine I will go off in a few different directions, but I want to start with the people who have a problem with the cops.  There are people out there that honestly think that when a guy comes running at you, shooting at you.... there is a way to negotiate around the situation.  I would agree with that, 100% but it normally ends up with the violent felonious asshole dead.  I think that is just... shoot at a cop, they shoot back.  Completely fair if you ask me.  But, people try to stand up for the dead guy! 

"He was mentally ill."  No joke, mental illness is a real issue but put that aside for a second.  Without any diagnosis involved, I think its a pretty fair assumption that if you run out of a house shooting at cops, your ass will be shot and then one would certainly question your mental status.  Fair enough? 

"He was really a great guy!" Come again?  This guy is classified as a violent felon based upon his actions.  Normally "great guys" do great things.  Assholes are people who are constantly arrested for and convicted of child abuse, DUI, battery, domestic abuse.  To me and according to the guys rap sheet, he classifies himself by his actions as a "hall of fame asshole".  Great guys do things like help the elderly, show love and compassion for his fellow humans, donate time to worthy causes, pitch in where needed.  This guy beats kids, women, drives drunk...  How do you confuse a great guy with an asshole is beyond me.

"He didn't need to die".  You know what?  Maybe you are right, especially if he didn't have a gun in his hands and was not shooting at the cops.  Are the cops to sit idly by and let the asshole run out of ammo before having some kind of a discussion with him?  Really?  If that's the case and you are better equipped to handling the situation than the cops, why is your ass at home while the cops are on the street?  I'd venture a guess that if this guy came out of the house with his hands up, complied with officer's directives, he'd still be around.  He didn't, therefor he's not.

Now don't get me wrong.  I am damned sure there are some asshole cops out there and I have dealt a few.  Some have a chip on their shoulder, some overly aggressive.  Through my years in the bar business and decades as a civilian, you can say I've spent a fair amount of time discussing various things with law enforcement agents.  Even a guy like me can maneuver his way through a cop questioning him, without getting his ass shot.  It's not that hard.  With that being said, I've never pointed a gun at a cop so maybe I am not really being fair about all of this.

This guy was a screw up.  Just say it.  What about his record says, "I am a good guy"?  There are societal rules everywhere you go.  If you use a bit of common sense, not getting your ass shot isn't that hard to do.