It worked! Thank you so much!!!

What if they google you and find out from facebook you have a boyfriend? Are you saying that you should have to hide it in order to get treatment a hair cut, or heck a beer at your local bar?

From the guy's stand point, his sword was fake, and the cops were telling him to drop his weapon, it's not strange in any way that he didn't take it seriously and was probably all "c'mon guys, don't be crazy, this is just a toy, man."

Uh, yeah ? I'm kind of making a whole point that talking about "swinging a sword" strongly implies an act of aggression but it's completely possible to unsheathe a sword without it being an act of aggression. This makes a pretty big difference in excusing the cops from feeling threatened and murdering a guy.

... And you can't assume that he swung the sword at the cops in an aggressive manner. The point with this witness report is that he said nothing about swinging the sword at the cops, and the cops deliberately changed that to say that the witness reported he swung the sword at the cops.

Him pulling the sword was dumb. It did not give the cops free reign to shoot. You don't get killed for something like that. Cops shouldn't be authorized to kill you for something like that.

Of course it would have been smarter to not pull a sword on cops, but he did. The fact that he was dumb and pulled the sword doesn't excuse the cops for killing him. You say I focus on the shooting because I'm making a whole point that they should only ever shoot when they have completely assessed the situation, they shouldn't shoot on reaction whenever a guy suddenly walks out of an alley and they didn't see him coming. It's ridiculous to say "well it wouldn't have happened if this guy hadn't been walking in front of them and suddenly turned around with a cell phone that vaguely looks like a gun". You shouldn't get shot just because you're not very bright and do something that vaguely seems brusque. You can't tell me to not focus on the shooting when I'm making a whole point on the shooting itself, the very fact that their reaction was to shoot without knowing what the hell was going on.

How about he pulled the sword to show it was fake, they drew their gun and shot (and missed), so he bolted.

That's a very broad definition of "swinging", and also very biased. A big motion doesn't mean a swing ; I'd understand if after pulling it he was still making swinging moves and pointing it at the cops, but if he simply pulled it and then stood relaxed, you just can't call it swinging. Just pulling the sword isn't swinging, context (and attitude) will tell you what swinging is. And if he was chatting with the cops, pulled the sword, then relaxed, it wasn't swinging. If he was making wide and sudden movements, you could call it that ; but the witness says that's not what happened.

The cops are calling it "swinging" because it made they jumpy for some dumb reason, and they reacted by pulling their gun and shooting - which they obviously shouldn't have (as I was saying earlier, they should have training to not shoot on reaction until you fully know what's going on). But It doesn't mean it actually was.

Ah, okay, I understand what you're saying. Thanks for the clarification.

You're actually misunderstanding me; I'm trying to understand why "unsheathing" a sword would mean those things you mentioned in your post... Maybe you didn't word it the way you meant to. In a broader sense, I'm also asking why, 'you could see him doing something like swinging the sword at the officers,' especially considering that a witness completely rejected the affidavit's mis-transcription of his statement and totally denied having seen Hunt swing the sword at the officers; when the singular fact that happens to be in dispute is whether Hunt "simply unsheathed the sword" or "swung it at officers" (mind you, that's why I'm perplexed by your definition); Hunt knew the sword was blunted and likely wouldn't hurt the policemen even if it hit them; Hunt was dealing with armed officers and RAN from them which likely refutes any suicide by cop hypothetical, etc. -- all of this even, "as a friggin' cosplayer,"  to use your words.
Edit: I understand that you're implying that he may have been being a bit of a clown[weird cosplayer in the officer's eyes], but to me there's a HUGE difference between, 'swinging a sword at the officers in a threatening manner,' and 'unsheathing it and even going into a ready stance as a cosplayer,' especially given that he had allegedly been speaking to the officers for a few minutes
I'm also asking if you believe that the mis-transcription could have resulted from the recording officer's definition of "unsheathing" being similar to yours.

Алексей said, December 09, 2014, 08:49:33 pm

...Since he did not however, blame falls to the cops...

That fits my bias, I guess. I'm not trying to force you to say something you don't believe by the way.

I'd like to point out that the witness himself wanted to make a clear differentiation between "unsheathing" a sword and swinging it at, or pointing it at, anyone.
Secondly, when has the act of unsheathing a sword automatically implied pointing it at someone?
Thirdly, besides not entirely discerning what you mean by, 'the unsheathing  motion being a swing,' you automatically jump to, "followed by a "ready" stance, which would be point the sword then at them," which to me sounds forced and honestly, absurd. It bears the question, "Are you differentiating the actual act of "unsheathing" from what it is "followed by""?
Fourthly, just to make sure this is clear, there are things called "sword shows" where people unsheathe their swords all the time and show them to customers without pointing them at anyone or going into a ready stance (and I'd say, without swinging them too unless our definitions of "swing" happen to be different).

That's a bogus thing to say too.
The thing is that we don't know exactly what happened. JMM just pointed out the witness complained his statement was misrepresented by the police. For all we know, the guy could very well have unsheathed his sword to show it to the policemen, so they would see it was a toy sword and not sharp. This would be pretty logical, and it would fit the witness report. (of course it would have been smarter to simply give the sheathed sword to the cops so they would see for themselves and not take it as a threat, but if you know it's a toy it's easy to think you can just show them by pulling it out yourself)
Saying he was "pointing it at the cops" is a big assumption to make (a biased one) just from reading that it was unsheathed.

He was smiling and talking, he didn't think it was serious, he pulled the sword to show that it was a toy, they overreacted and drew their gun because they didn't understand that a fake sword can't possibly "hack people up", possibly immediately shot at him, he freaked out and bolted, they pursued.

i dont think you read the article closely- it says he ran after they started firing at him. he was swinging around the sword or whatever so they took it as a threat and started firing.

from statements he was "laughing and smiling and swinging it towards officers, tho it was a fake cosplay sword." to the officers he appeared violent, and they believed the sword was real. so they shot him cause they thought he might "hack the first person he saw"

i think its clear it would not have happened had he not run, and they seem to want to establish it wouldnt have happened he not acted like a punk- tho this is not verified. witness reports say he "unsheathed" the sword but did not swing it.  but either way, it does not excuse what happened.

Quote

Buhman said the police didn’t have enough time to attempt nonlethal force because the 37-second incident escalated so quickly and without provocation.

“The officers had to do with what was most immediately available to them — that was their firearms,” Buhman said.

didnt have time to attempt nonlethal force so they killed him, lol