And footage from the gas station where you can clearly see the guy point something raise his arm at the police.

There, I fixed that for you. You can't see anything about the incident clearly.

No matter what you point at an officer in that way, you are going to appear to be a threat. Why? Because, as in this case, it could be a gun.

It could be a cupcake. Professionals don't kill people because they panic. There are proven incidents of cops shooting unarmed people because they happened to be holding a toy gun, a spoon, a walking stick, a hose nozzle, or nothing at all. Taken as a whole, your cops are trigger-happy, jumpy, cowardly, and don't take responsibility for their actions. They are unprofessional. Professionals take responsibility for their errors. Your cops constantly try to blame the victim.

There are decent, professional cops, and we never hear about them because they don't shoot first and ask questions never. They do their job, and everyone lives.

Even if it wasn't an error, even if it was a gun, it still doesn't excuse the shooter. He's supposed to be a professional. He was wearing a body camera that should have shown exactly what happened, but out of either incompetence or malice he had it turned off. There was a dash camera that would have shown exactly what happened, but again out of incompetence or malice it too was turned off.

America's cops are at the centre of the most serious accusations of racially-motivated killings, and these two wankers go into action with their cameras turned off. What the fuck were they thinking? Anyone would think that they deliberately left them off so they could hassle black kids and make up any story they liked.

In a way, whether the two cops were incompetent or malicious doesn't matter. In a nutshell, we see what's wrong with American law enforcement. They lost control of the situation, either panicked when Martin pointed his finger at them and killed him, or failed to take charge and prevent him from drawing a weapon in the first case. Both situations are bad. No matter what happened here, these cops aren't heroes, they are lousy cops who failed to do their job, and as a consequence somebody died.

In any other first-world country, this would count as a serious failure, as bad as forgetting to search a prisoner, losing evidence, or shooting yourself in the foot with your own handgun. They should have to explain themselves, and be prepared for disciplinary action, re-training, or (very, very rarely) a medal. But in the US, this sort of shoddy incompetence is Situation Normal, All Fucked Up.

Look at the second cop, the one who didn't shoot. See how poorly he reacted to the threat -- he backed away like an untrained civilian, fell over his own feet, got up, and continued to run away. I'd hate to be him right now -- he will never live down the fact that he ran away like a little girl and left his partner to face the alleged threat alone. To make it worse, his partner was the only one who fired: Martin never fired. It's not like he was taking shelter during a gun battle. He saw a gun and ran. Publicly the department will be 100% behind him. Privately, I betcha his fellow officers make his life a living hell. I give him 6 months before he quits.

Could I have done better? Fuck no. Point a gun at me, and I'll have no idea what to do. But I have had no police training. Looking at how this went down, I'd say the two officers slept through theirs. If they even got any.

I said: police lie

and you replied:

Saying that is just as false as if I said "all black people are criminals"

No. I didn't say all police lie. I said police lie. That is a proven fact. They perjure themselves in court, they lie to their bosses, they plant evidence, including guns. Lawyers know it. Judges know it. The NYPD even made up their own word for it, thumbing their nose at anyone who expects police to be honest. All these things are not rare, they are common. Not all cops do it, there are still some good ones, but taken as a whole, American law enforcement is as corrupt and dishonest as the Mexican Federales. As they say, the 99% of bad cops ruin it for the 1% good ones.

You guys should be ashamed of your law enforcement, not defending them.

When you point a gun at the cop, you will be shot. Are you seriously recommending that the cop should have to wait until he is shot before retaliating with force?

Don't be an ass, I never said that. The cops let the situation get out of hand. It never should have got to the point where Martin pointed a gun (if that is what it was) at them. This was not an ambush, like the shooter's scumbag lawyer suggested. Martin walked away from the police car twice, and came back both times. On the second time he stopped, he paused, and pointed his hand at the police. We only have the cop's word that he was holding a gun. We don't know what was going on. Maybe he was pointing a cell phone at the cop to take his picture and the cop panicked. Or decided to teach this cheeky nigger a lesson.

Even if it was a gun, he still didn't shoot. Even the cop's scumbag lawyer admits that he doesn't know why Martin didn't shoot. I do. Even the most scared street thug knows that if you shoot a cop, all hell is going to rain down on you. That's going to make anyone hesitate. Good cops can use that to talk them down. If the perp hasn't fired yet, that means he's still trying to make up his mind. He knows he isn't going to get out of this situation free, but he can still decide whether to live or die. Good cops can work with that. Their job is to keep the peace, to protect and to serve, not to be judge, jury and executioner all in one.

The video from the gas station doesn't show what happened. The cop "forgot" to turn his body camera on. Or did he? We don't know. Maybe the body cam shows that Martin was holding up his phone to take a photo of the cop, who planted a stolen gun to justify his actions. It wouldn't be the first time the police have framed somebody, and it won't be the last. We don't know what happened, because the shooter didn't do his job right. He fucked up, his partner fucked up, the department fucked up by giving a licence to kill to two fuck-ups, and as a consequence yet another black man was summarily executed in the streets of America, like in some backwards banana republic.

When are you people going to demand professionalism and competence from your police, instead of cheering them on every time they kill a black guy?