Rantz: Body cam proof Seattle police shooting justified, but activists pounce

It’s pretty obvious: Seattle police officers very clearly acted appropriately by shooting a knife-wielding madman. Only the city’s most rabidly anti-cop activists take issue with this incident. Count the president of the Seattle King County NAACP as one of them.

Early this week, a man with two knives, including a large chef’s knife, chased a passerby.

“I was just walking and some dude pulled a kitchen knife on me and started running at me,” the victim, out of breath from running from the suspect, told a 911 operator.

Cops responded almost immediately.

Seattle police forced into shooting suspect

When police arrived, they tried to deescalate the situation, not wanting this to end in a shooting. But the suspect wasn’t interested. He ignored multiple commands, shouted angry gibberish at officers (“they’re trying to rape me!”), and threw his jacket at the K9 officer.

“You’re gonna have to kill me,” the unidentified suspect told officers. Unfortunately, that would be prophetic.

After running from the officers, they tried to use a taser. It didn’t work. The man then turned back to the officers, knife in hand, slashed toward them and was shot. He later died at the scene, despite officers providing first aid.

The body cam footage is incontrovertible, pushing back at early witness statements. The day before, a witness claimed the suspect was shot in the back while running away from the cops.

“Everybody was like ‘why did they just shoot him?’ He was running away from them. I mean his back was to them,” Kirk Loschky said to KOMO.

That didn’t happen. Not at all.

The truth about cops

Cops don’t want to shoot anyone, even when it’s 100% justifiable. Whether it’s Seattle or Bellevue, Everett or Olympia, whether it’s in King County or Thurston County, officers don’t put on that uniform hoping to shoot someone.

The idea keeps some officers up at night; an actual shooting stays with an officer for life. Even when forced into a position, which is very clearly the case here, they know taking a life can change them.

I’ve spoken to cops who have had to use deadly force. It haunts them. And their willingness to put themselves on the line for our protection is why they’re owed support when they’re forced into situations where they must use their weapons.

But bad faith activists who never miss an opportunity to attack cops pretend they’re blood-thirsty racists looking to attack any black Seattleite they can find.

How not to get shot by cops: Don’t try to kill people

The president of the Seattle King County NAACP Carolyn Riley-Payne claims this is just another racist incident where cops get away with shooting a black man.

“They had the right to shoot, but I don’t think they had a right to shoot to kill,” she told KOMO. “We are at the same place we always seem to get, an African-American man dead in the streets by the police.”

The man is dead because he tried to kill cops. If I’m choosing between a dead bad guy trying to murder people and a dead cop, I’ll pick the dead bad guy 100% of the time.

“So it seems to me the officers need to have better training, once again to de-escalate these kinds of situations,” Riley-Payne said.

Riley-Payne needs to keep her mouth shut. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about and it’s the kind of dimwitted comment that comes from activists who are looking to rile up their base of support.

If you don’t want to get shot by cops, here’s a simple tip: Don’t try to kill them, or anyone. Don’t use a weapon — be it a brick, a bat, a knife, or a gun — to hurt anyone. If you do, you should presume a cop will use his or her weapon to neutralize the threat. You’re the threat. You may get out of it with a wound; you may get out of it without a scratch if you’re lucky. But you should assume that if you threaten the life of any cop or any civilian, they will and should stop you, and that may sometimes be via shooting. That’s always the right decision. We don’t need any more dead police officers. They’re heroes; you’re villains.

This isn’t controversial advice outside of Seattle. In Seattle? Well, Progressive Seattle Twitter makes a sport out of attacking cops.

The lunatics tweet

Usually egged on by cop-hating Socialist Seattle Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, even before spending 13 seconds investigating a story, a who’s who of dimwitted activists pounce. Seattle police shooting? They have pre-written, faux-outraged tweets for that!

Naw, say it right, police shot a man 5 times and killed him!

— ONLY1WIZER™💿 (@ONLY1WIZER) May 19, 2020

How are you going to hide this video from the people?? https://t.co/ekgFskz66a https://t.co/Bvl8tfB8hX

— M (@emm_meek) May 20, 2020

TRIGGER WARNING: POLICE MURDER

Seattle Police just shot a man who appeared to be running away. This is absolutely horrifying. https://t.co/KobIbZUUqY

— Spek (@spekulation) May 20, 2020

Murder! Clear as day! Person was running off!

— Trap Gardener (@BrrrLaStrange) May 20, 2020

But the cops are still alive?

— dj swizzle stick (@treat_wanter) May 20, 2020

There’s plenty more, but with vulgarity in them, I won’t post. You get the picture. These people will never be happy with the work a cop does. And, to tell us how tough they are, they call people who support cops “bootlickers” — they’re so edgy!

Look, there are victims in this: the cops. I feel for them. They didn’t want to end up in a shooting controversy — contrived or otherwise.

And I hope they realize that as loud as these activists are, the vast majority of the region — and country — back the blue. We know the work they do is hard. We know they put on that uniform every day to help protect their communities. Unfortunately, there are bad, dangerous people who pose a threat. I’m just grateful these officers are there to help.

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