Not necessarily no, and especially here, the kid had no previous issues with the police (he had no criminal record).
He was definitely an idiot for driving recklessly (and without a license I believe), and being arrested by the police for that is fair.
But then for some reason he got held at gunpoint by two angry and racist cops. I assume he got scared and tried to drive off (also a somewhat fair reaction especially coming from a teenager), then he got shot and killed. If he got away with it and ran over someone while fleeing, he also should have gotten served a prison sentence or similar, but definitely not death. As for the hypothetical 40 years old, he could get distracted one day and run over someone as well, and that doesn't warrant death penalty either.

[–] TheFonz@lemmy.world -5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I agree with your post here so have an upvote. I think I'm realizing Lemmy is the same clone of reddit where virtue signaling is more interesting than having a Convo. At least you tried so I appreciate that

[–] morphballganon@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not virtue signaling to downvote someone who is acting reprehensibly.

If your immediate instinct is "these 30 people are virtue signaling," maybe you should reconsider your position. Maybe shooting someone who is fleeing is actually wrong and indefensible.

If you plan to reply to insult me, save it. Use that energy for something contructive like self-reflection, or showing empathy to someone who just got brutalized by police.

[–] TheFonz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I have asked this question multiple times, and no one seems interested in answering. When people engage with the conversation in good faith I'll stop seeing it as virtue signaling. It's as if the only possible positions are: a) the cop is right or b) the kid is right which is so bizarre. It's not how the real world works. I wish the world was so simple and black and white and we could discern good and evil right away.

So I will ask you: at what point is it ok to let a person fleeing in a vehicle drive around recklessly? Where do you draw the line? This is a version of the trolley problem. Do you do everything you can to stop the kid and hope that you prevented someone else from being injured or do you let the driver escape and drive recklessly and hope for the best?