Reply #5: About Amadou Diallo ... [View All]

[Jim__]

He didn't run down a dark alley. He was standing on his front stoop smoking a cigarette. When the plainclothes cops came at him late at night, he got scared and turned to go back into the vestibule of his apartment building. The whole thing happened on his front stoop. Gladwell goes into a lot of detail about the situation, the narrowness of the street, the fact that this was a strange neighborhood to these cops, all the cops were young and inexperienced. But, you're right the cops were trained professionals who out-numbered Diallo 4 to 1; yet the stress of the situation caused them to panic and shoot (41 times) and kill an innocent, unarmed man. We really don't need more people walking around carrying guns.