Play the race card if you choose and take all the personal cheap shots you want - it's worthless currency.
I didn't play the race card, I made a simple, sarcastic observation. You had already played that card when you started the thread to lament the lack of outrage, riots and protests over a black man killing a white cop (as opposed to the norm of outrage, riots and protests that occur when a white cop kills a black man).
It's been confirmed he was an activist in the Ferguson "protests" - riots, looting, whatever - and had a criminal record with an outstanding warrant for theft of lottery tickets as Muttly previously pointed out.
Interestingly enough, none of that was confirmed in the article you linked. I read elsewhere where he participated in the protests, but I did not read where he took part in any riots, looting or whatever. Most of the people who participated in the protests did not engage in rioting, looting and whatever. Granted, I have steered clear of racist Blogs and other hot-button Blogs sites where the term "thug" is probably bandied about and they will make the criminal record and BLM and Ferguson the primary focus so as to associate Johnson-Shanks as closely as possible to them, to make him out to be as worthless a human being as possible, maybe even down to "animal" level, as I'd rather stick to actual facts rather than broad-brush painting, hastily drawn conclusions, unsubstantiated assumptions, and straight-up racial hatred. So I might have missed a few juicy tid bits. There are reports and pictures that show Joseph Thomas Johnson-Shanks participated in peaceful BlackLivesMatter protests, though, as well as several Facebook posts where he defended the police in several other shootings. He also attended Michael Brown's funeral, but then again so did a lot of people. I have not read anywhere that confirms he is a "BLM street thug" as you claim. Maybe I should try one of the Web sites I'm intentionally avoiding.
He got pulled over for a minor traffic violation,
He got pulled over for going 103 MPH in a 70 MPH zone. That's 26+ MPH over the speed limit and as such is denoted as a serious speeding traffic violation under Kentucky law (reckless driving). It is the only speeding offense you can get in Kentucky where the fine cannot be paid to the court clerk unless you have had a hearing in front of a judge. If you are from out of state the standard procedure for 26+ is to immediately suspend and confiscate the license, take you into custody, and present you to a judge. If it is after hours they will hold you in custody until the next court session or until they can contact a judge for a special hearing (which may happen right there over a speakerphone). To further complicate matters, 26+ with passengers in the vehicle is reckless endangerment, and with minor children in the vehicle it brings child endangerment into the picture. That's why I find it at the very least perplexing, and mostly a tad bit incredulous that Trooper Jay Thomas would state, "He was trying to help them out, and for an unknown reason, the driver fled. At the initial stop, it was his intent to put them all in a hotel without having to apprehend the driver. It was a minor violation, having the driver's license suspended." None of that makes any sense, other than trying to secure a hotel room for the passengers.
and if Shanks had been shot by the trooper instead of the opposite happening there would be all kinds of h*ll being raised right now, and parallels being drawn to the Michael Brown incident.
Yes, I know, I got that already from the thread title and it's continuation in the first line of the post.
You're talking about BLM - the same ones chanting "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon" at the MN state fair?
No, not those ones. I don't paint with as wide a stereotype-brush as some. Not all Republicans speak with the same voice, nor do all Tea Partiers, or even all the members of the Boy Scouts of America. Occupy Wall Street splintered into a hundred different groups with different goals on about the third day. As well, not all supporters of the BLM movement share the same chants, goals and marching orders. Do you think all of the supporters of the BLM movement are exactly the same with the same thoughts, attitude and agenda?
But I guess we will take the police at their word, considering the process officer Ponder was going through at the time is pretty well documented.
Well documented based solely on statements from law enforcement officials.
You need to get over your problem with law enforcement officers and authority figures.
Why? I don't really have a problem in general with law enforcement officers and authority figures. The only ones I have a problem with are those who tells stories that don't add up, and those who lie to protect themselves and their own.
This animosity toward LEOs is really a little odd unless maybe you had a bad experience with a speeding ticket or something similar.
I don't have an animosity towards LEOs at all. I've learned over the last few years that they aren't any longer to be trusted at face value, though. I've actually never had an unpleasant or negative experience with a law enforcement officer (being routinely treated like a terrorist by US Border Patrol when coming back from Canada being the only exceptions, and even that wasn't all
that bad).
You can't guarantee anything of the sort.
OK, you got me there, I'm not in a position to guarantee it. But I do know what the law in Kentucky says about it, and it mandates out-of-state offenders, in most cases, be presented to a judge before they can be released from custody. It also bumps driving on a suspended license from a relatively minor Class B Misdemeanor to a Class A Misdemeanor if a crime occurs (including serious speeding and serious moving violations), and if they were to charge endangerment and child endangerment, it's at a Class D felony, which in any case means it's no longer a ticket-and-pay-it situation, it's an arrest and charge situation.
That's a gratuitous assertion based on prejudice and outright speculation with no basis in fact.
Wrong on all counts.
Every report including one quoted in the OP stated that officer Ponder was in the process of arranging the hotel room for ALL of the occupants of the car and the minor traffic violation was getting a pass.
Yes, all of the journalists accurately quoted the officer and correctly reported what he said. I just find it a little odd that an officer would pull someone over for driving 103 MPH, find him in possession of a suspended license, and with an outstanding warrant for his arrest in Missouri (which Kentucky has a reciprocity agreement with), and decide to give him a pass on it all and instead arrange for a hotel room for him and the passengers. Don't you find that a little odd?
He was arranging the hotel room so somebody with a legitimate license could come to drive them to their destination.
Quite possibly, and certainly a logical conclusion, at least for the passengers, but I didn't see the reason mentioned in any of the reports, other than it was because no one in the vehicle had a valid driver's license.
I'll bet there won't be any more similar generosity from LEOs in the future.
I think there will be. It happens pretty often.
Maybe he did regret it - who really knows what he was thinking when he was doing all this stupid stuff? Regardless, he was given every chance to surrender and didn't. You can't fix stupid. You can feel sympathetic for this guy if you want to - I don't. He was a cold-blooded killer and the color of his skin doesn't matter, and neither does that of the cop.
What on Earth makes you think I might feel sympathy for this guy? I don't. By the same token I don't know that I'd go as far as saying that he was given every opportunity to surrender and didn't, because I haven't seen any video of that extravaganza. I only have the word of the police officers to take at face value.
So you don't see the injustice or the outrage in the cold-blooded killing of this cop while he was trying to give this guy a break on a speeding ticket? Really??
Well, for one, I don't know that it was a cold-blooded killing, as cold-blooded means without feeling and/or with cruel intent, purposefully ruthless, in a deliberate calculating manner. We have video evidence that contradicts that notion. And it didn't happen "while he was trying to give the guy a break on a speeding ticket," the guy fled, suddenly stopped, then leaned out the window and fired, which indicates panic more than anything. I don't see much of an injustice, certainly not an injustice worthy of a riot, as the shooter is dead and was punished for his injustice to Ponder. If the grand jury had failed to even indict him and just let him walk free without a trial, that would be an injustice. As for outrage, since there's no real injustice, and cops getting killed in the line of duty is an inherent risk of the job, I'm not shocked by it, and thus not outraged by it.
