There was another shooting in Missouri. Once again it was a white cop, working as a private security agent at the time, who shot a black teenager. But this time the teenager wasn’t unarmed and apparently exchanged fire with the officer:
An off-duty police officer in St Louis, Missouri, has fatally shot a black teenager, leading to angry demonstrations on the streets.
The white officer was on patrol for a private security company when he exchanged fire with an 18-year-old after a chase, say police.
He fired 17 shots at the teenager, police added.
Obviously very little concrete evidence has been released regarding this shooting as it is very recent. I bring it up primarily because this situation is an example of a no win situation. Assuming the story is being reported accurately, the officer came under fire after pursuing the teenager and returned fire. On the one hand returning fire is a smart thing to do when somebody is shooting at you. On the other hand any incident in Missouri of a white cop shooting a black teenager is going to cause civil unrest as the memory of the incident in Ferguson is still on everybody’s mind.
It’s not uncommon for people to concoct self-defense scenarios and plan for a way to survive them. But sometimes there is no winning. That is something we should all come to understand and accept.