The video you’re about to see is more than a year old, but we’re showing it to you today because it was featured last night on the premier episode of A&E’s new series PDCam, hosted by Sgt. Sean “Sticks” Larkin of the Tulsa Police Department’s gang unit. It is part of the quickly expanding franchise based on the absolute best thing on television right now, which is the Friday/Saturday night blowtorch known as Live PD.
While Live PD shows the events that occur during live ridealongs with various departments each Friday and Saturday night, PDCam shows the often-harrowing video that’s produced by dashcams, bodycams and, in this case, a glasses-cam worn by an officer.
Police officer shot at close range
I’ll set this up for you: The man you see in the video is a robbery suspect, and Officer Quincy Smith of Estill, South Carolina is ordering suspect Malcolm Orr to stop as he walks away. Orr has his right hand in his pocket, and that always represents a danger to police officers because there’s no way of knowing if a suspect has a gun in that pocket. So Smith continually gives Orr commands to a) stop walking; and b) take his hand out of his pocket.
Orr defies both commands, keeps walking and keeps his hand in his pocket. Smith threatens to tase Orr if Orr doesn’t heed his commands. You can see Smith’s taser aimed at Orr. But he never gets the chance to use the taser before Orr pulls a gun out of his right pocket and fires eight times at Smith – hitting him three times in the neck and in the arm.
I am going to argue to you that the news media and Black Lives Matter contributed to the wounding and near killing of Officer Quincy Smith. First watch the video and then we’ll talk:
Last night on PDCam, Officer Smith told Sean Larkin that he believes, in retrospect, he gave Orr too many warnings, and should have deployed his taser sooner. I suppose that’s a judgment call, but from watching the video and assessing the result of what actually happened, I would have to agree.
But I would take it one step further: When Officer Smith decided to pull out his taser and not this gun, he was also making a strategic decision. Had he been pointing a gun at Orr instead of his taser, he would have had the opportunity – as soon as Orr pulled the gun out of his pocket – to fire at Orr because Orr had the chance to fire at Smith. He might have prevented his own shooting and, for all he knew at that moment, saved his life.
But Smith didn’t have his gun in his hand. He had his taser in his hand. Why?
I have a theory:
When a suspect has his hand in his pocket, there’s a chance he’s got a gun in there, but there’s also a chance he doesn’t. When a police officer orders a suspect to take his hand out of his pocket, the purpose of that command is to a) ascertain that there is in fact no gun; or b) give the officer the opportunity to pat down the suspect and remove the gun from his pocket if there is in fact one in there.
These orders are often given with the officer pointing his gun at the suspect in order to give the threat of force to the command.
But what will happen if the suspect refuses to take his hand out of his pocket, the officer fires, and it turns out the suspect did not have a gun? You know perfectly well what will happen: The media will trot out headlines screaming: COP SHOOTS UNARMED BLACK MAN. Black Lives Matter will march. Colin Kaepernick will take a knee. Americans everywhere will buy the narrative the cops are out there shooting black men solely because they are black.
Idiots like Nancy Armour of USA Today will push this narrative.
Police are trained to fire their weapons if suspects won’t remove their hands from the pockets after being ordered to do so. It’s for their own protection. It’s to prevent the sort of thing that happened in this video to Officer Quincy Smith. And I’ve been told by multiple police officers that they are now questioning that training – hesitating to do what they are supposed to do to protect their own lives – because of the attacks that will come from the news media, from activist groups and from politicians.
That hesitation almost cost Quincy Smith his live. Thanks to God, it did not, and he was able to appear last night on PDCam to tell his story. He is finally back on patrol after more than a year of recovery. (By the way, Officer Smith is black.)
This is the direct result of the ongoing campaign against police officers, and the widespread slander that the are shooting black men for no reason other than that the men they’re shooting are black. When an officer shoots a suspect, it is for far more complicated reasons than what the media, activists and politicians tell you. You’re being lied to – by the media, by Colin Kaepernick, by cop-hating politicians and by many others. Someone needs to stand up for police officers.
I hope that if this ever happens to him again, Officer Smith fires his gun – not his taser – and protects himself. And if the media attack him for it, I for one will stick up for him. I hope I am not the only one.
The video you’re about to see is more than a year old, but we’re showing it to you today because it was featured last night on the premier episode of A&E’s new series PDCam, hosted by Sgt. Sean “Sticks” Larkin of the Tulsa Police Department’s gang unit. It is part of the quickly expanding franchise based on the absolute best thing on television right now, which is the Friday/Saturday night blowtorch known as Live PD.
While Live PD shows the events that occur during live ridealongs with various departments each Friday and Saturday night, PDCam shows the often-harrowing video that’s produced by dashcams, bodycams and, in this case, a glasses-cam worn by an officer.
