There is a right and wrong way to assert your rights during encounters with police. Deven Guilford chose the very wrong way, and ended up dead, shot seven times by a county sheriff. If you look at these photos of Sgt. Jonathan Frost after the Deven Guilford shooting, you can see the officer suffered a savage beating. Judge for yourself if you think lethal force was justified. I'm far from a police state apologist or cop bootlicker, but not every police shooting is unjustified. Regardless of how this altercation began, if you beat a man like that, cop or not, he has a right to defend himself. I agree with the prosecutors report which states "law enforcement officers have the same privilege of self defense as anyone else." The recent story of 17-year old Deven Guilford brings up the issue of police abuse once again. There seems to be a never-ending stream of cases where cops gun an unarmed person down. But the tendency for civil rights advocates seems to be to blindly condemn the cops every time, even before all the facts are in. This is not sensible, nor does it lend credibility to the cause of liberty or civil rights. The shooting of the 'unarmed 17-year old white youth' in Michigan appears by all evidence to be very well justified. Deven may have been trying to 'flex his rights.' but he did it in a very unwise and irrational way. His choice of actions are what led to his death.
I'll preface this by conveying the facts, very clearly, that I am not a police bootlicker or police state apologist.
With that said, look at this latest case, this is an absurd case of crying wolf, CopBlock.org's recent article 17 Year-Old Boy Dead After Traffic Stop in Mulliken, MI states, in part,
"What I see here is a young boy trying to take a step and possibly flex his rights for the first time. Sure, he wasn't perfect at it, but he was learning and I give him an applaud for this. What a shame it had to end in a death of a young child. The officer could have avoided such a horrific situation like this if he just let this young boy flex his rights. Nobody, especially unarmed, deserves to die for the rights we have as Americans. Justice needs to be served."
Applauded?? Justice needs to be served? Try not acting like a belligerent maniac who refuses to show a license during a traffic stop and don't attacks the cop, and you most likely won't get shot. The video of this tragic exchange on a dark roadside is below.
Look at the pictures below, of 'innocent looking' Deven and Officer Frost, after the obviously savage beatdown he suffered at the hands of the 17-year-old "boy."
