It's hard not to watch the tragic video of 13 year-old Adam Toledo being shot and not feel like he was going to be shot no matter what. He was ordered to show his hands and as soon as he complied—with empty hands—he was shot. That means the order he was given was merely a ritual.
Cops are trained to give orders that—if complied with—make themselves and others safer. This officer appears to have given an order that was meaningless—as a lack of compliance with it could have led to deadly force but compliance with it was *also* going to lead to deadly force.
While running from police is a bad idea, and running from police with a deadly weapon is an even worse idea, (a) doing so is *not* a death sentence in the United States—by law—and (b) policing only *works* if suspects are allowed to surrender when they're clearly trying to do so.
This shooting, and I really hope conservatives understand this—but they won't—makes cops and civilians *less safe*. It communicates to suspects that surrendering to police after a certain point is pointless—and they may as well at least *consider* going down in a hail of gunfire.
Chicago police can release as many photos as they like of the moments *before* the officer's order, in which Toledo had (as the officer *already knew*) a gun. The moment that matters is *after* the order—not before. This child did *not* confront the officer with a gun post-order.
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