OK - Another Vintage Rage from my old site.

I've moved this across to post on GotRage as a result of the recent death of a man after being capsicum sprayed by police in Melbourne recently. Once more a man who police had to subdue has died. In this case however police utilized Capsicum Spray on the man and he appears to have died. The cause of his death is at this time not known but the attending police officers are not thought to be at fault.

And before I go all vintage rage on you, I have to say it's NICE to see the police stand by it's members on this matter.

But anyway - vintage rage time...


Originally posted: 28th December 2008


People are still crying about the actions taken by Victorian Police officers regarding the fatal shooting of a 15 y/o teenager.

See links:

Herald Sun Website

The Australian Website

The Age website

Now here's my thoughts on the subject...

It's tragic the boy is dead - yes, but the police have a job to do - protecting the public.

This boy appeared to pose a credible threat, not just to the public, but to the officers who responded, as they must, to the 000 calls.

They didn't know this boy like his family did, they just saw a threat, and lets face facts - he had two knives and was confirmed as making threats to kill. The police had no way of knowing if he was serious or not, but they had to assume he was.

All Tyler had to do was drop the knives and surrender to police.

Very simple.

Tyler chose not to do that. The police couldn't walk away and from all reports in the mostly anti-police media reports, they tried alternate solutions like capsicum spray twice as well as apparently shooting him in the leg. Tyler still refused to surrender and continued to threaten officers.

They couldn't simply let Tyler walk away, not whilst armed and not after him making threats to kill.

Imagine if police had let Martin Bryant walk? Or Julian Knight? While admittedly, Tyler had yet to harm anyone, police simply cannot let him walk off. But I don't blame them for not wanting to risk getting knifed. We see examples of violent teenagers assaulting people every week in the news, police had no way of knowing if Tyler was unable to knife someone or a hardened street kid who wouldn't blink.

They made a decision - and Tyler paid the price for his refusal to simply surrender.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that when 3x armed police - pointing weapons at you - are telling you to drop your weapons and get down on the ground, that it's probably a real good idea to do as they say.

Tyler didn't. He made his choice, and the police were left with none.

Sad for all concerned, and I feel sorry for his family, but I support the police.

I think it's very simple.

The police [Victoria, NSW, wherever] have an extremely difficult job.

If they do nothing, they're guilty of inaction and are accused of being useless and impotent, allowing crime to run rampant.

If they take action [some of it, sadly necessary] then they're 'trigger happy bastards' who victimize the 'sweet, innocent, angelic, never-done-anything-wrong-in-their-lives' people.

Simple rules - If you don't want the police to harass you:
- don't run around carrying knives,
- don't make threats to kill,
- don't give the police shit
- and don't put yourself in situations where you LOOK [or indeed ARE] guilty of breaking the law!

Should you have the police turn their eyes towards you:
- Follow their instructions
- Allow yourself to be taken in to custody peacefully,
- Always request legal counsel.

If you've done nothing wrong, the matter should be sorted relatively quickly and off you go.
If not - man up and take your punishment.

As the bearded one would say... "That's life...."