Everyone who has a platform seems to be weighing in on the ICE-involved shooting in Minnesota that resulted in the death of an American citizen.
Stephen A. Smith, an ESPN personality who has been dipping his toes into the political world, revealed his belief that the shooting was justified, an opinion he formed after watching video footage of the incident.
However, Smith did offer up one caveat, which just shows how far out of his lane he is here.
The video in question runs in full for about four minutes, but most media outlets are showing no more than about 15 seconds of what happened.
What you see if you watch everything is Renee Nicole Good positioning her car near ICE agents and her partner setting up shop to record the confrontation they appear to have planned, although they surely did not expect shots to be fired or Good to lose her life.
You see agents approach the vehicle to warn Good, an agent positioning himself in front of her vehicle, then the fateful moment when Good puts the car into gear and moves toward the agent, which resulted in the deadly gunfire.
The question to be answered now is whether the vehicle had indeed been weaponized and whether the officer rightfully deemed this life to be in danger, something which would justify the shooting.
Smith has been commenting on politics a lot more since he branched off with a new show, and he was more than willing to weigh in on this situation.
He stated, "I saw the video on numerous occasions and seeing what transpired from a lawful perspective as it pertains to a law enforcement official, don’t expect him to be prosecuted. He was completely justified.”
Smith then added, "From a humanitarian perspective, however, why did you have to do that? If you could move out the way, that means you could have shot the tires. That means you could have got a few feet away after you shot the tires. And if you were unsuccessful in doing that, you could have got her down the road.”
He concluded, "You didn’t have to do that. She wasn’t driving down the road coming at you 90 miles an hour. She was parked in the middle of the street, and rather than get out the car, she wrongfully tried to drive off and wrongfully disregarded a law enforcement official, which is exactly what ICE is, and, as a result, lost her life because of it."
What Smith is suggesting is absurd, and anyone in law enforcement or the military will tell you exactly that. Agents and soldiers are trained to shoot center mass, as that gives them the best chance to neutralize their target. Not to mention, these decisions are being made in a split second, so there is literally no time to consider shooting a leg, a foot, or, in this case, a tire.
Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science Institute, stated, “When civilians judge police shooting deaths–on juries, on review boards, in the media, in the community–this same argument is often brought forward. Shooting to wound is naively regarded as a reasonable means of stopping dangerous behavior."
He continued, “In reality, this thinking is a result of ‘training by Hollywood,’ in which movie and TV cops are able to do anything to control the outcomes of events that serve the director’s dramatic interests. It reflects a misconception of real-life dynamics and ends up imposing unrealistic expectations of skill on real-life officers.”
I hate to say it, but unless you have been there, you don’t understand, and this was truly one of those situations that you have to experience to appreciate the decision that must be made within seconds. Unfortunately, I have had a gun stuck in my face, so I know the pressure these officers faced in that moment. And when it comes to making the call of you vs. them, there is truly only one right decision.
