The video of this encounter with a nut-job cop perfectly illustrates why black people are terrified of police encounters. The cop is a textbook example of what I call a “Barney Fife with a Punisher complex”. He’s clearly loves wielding his authority and scaring civilians half to death. And look at the way he holds his gun, like he’s acting out some childhood macho fantasy. Just like Barney Fife, he’s jumpy and defensive, but unlike Fife, there’s murder in his eyes. The driver’s legally-owned rifle is in the back seat, well out of reach of the driver, yet the cop reacts with paranoid alarm, yelling “Gun!” twice. You expect gunfire to ring out immediately, killing the driver. Miraculously, the cop doesn’t shoot anyone, but it came so close to happening.
This is further proof that cops are using lethal force, not in self-defense against an imminent threat, but as punishment for refusing to comply with a ridiculous order. The “I feared for my life” rationale is just an excuse; bullets fly because “contempt of cop” is seen as a capital offense by too many cops charged with protecting the lives they wind up ending.
