When I first read about this, I also wondered if the officer reached for the wrong thing and pulled the trigger too soon.  He was a rookie and he claims he confused the gun with a taser.  But they have different configurations, don’t they?

What’s the matter; you wine-sipping racists scared
shitless that the exoneration of Oscar Grant’s killers
may lead to a LA riot situation?  I’m surprised the
trial wasn’t moved to some police bedroom community
(Simi Valley) for a quick exoneration or opted for a
bench trial; not unlike what happened in NY for the
murder of Amadou Diallo.

Rodney King, after frequent encounters with the police, because he Rodney King refused to be a responsible driver and was and remained a drunk and drugged driver his whole life.

What would the general public have felt if the cops had thrown up their hands and said “Well we can’t do anything to contain these types of crimes so the public will have to protect itself.” In fact they stopped King and while they should not have taken the punishement of King on themselves, it is notible that the passenger of King was not touched by the officers, only King a notorious and dangerouosly irresonsible driver felt the anger of having repeatedly caused dangerous chases that were dangerous to the public in general the officers who had to chase him.

In other words the case the aritcle was dealing with had no comparason to King, unless you are telling us that the officer in the case also had been driven to react by repeated violations of the dead man?

I am not always on the side of the police and I have very strong objections to taser use and many other excesses. But Rodney King proved time and again that he was a chronic danger to everyone including himself. It was unfortunate that the officers lost control of their comon sense once they had him collared, but sad as it is the Police and Public are not always wrong to want protection.