Decatur Illinois - Police Shoot African American Last Night, Rumors of Protests For Tonight

This is the town in which I live, and basically late last night there was some shooting going on, and police arrived in the area looking for the suspect(s), and found a guy who they say fit the description, and he had a BB gun apparently, and they shot him in the chest, putting him in Saint Mary's hospital in critical condition.

Here is the link:

www.usatoday.com...

This is not a big town, and I was really hoping racial violence would not come to Decatur. However, it can happen anywhere.

There are rumors now here at work of protests planned in the downtown Decatur area for tonight. I would avoid neighborhoods immediately south of central Decatur, the center of town itself, and the area east of the center of town. Those are the subsidized housing areas.

I hope the protests remain peaceful, but there are bad vibes in the air. I heard another rumor that CAT let their employees go home early.

When will this stuff end? In a few minutes I must drive through these areas to get home, and come back through them tomorrow morning to get to work.

Bottom line: I do not think there are many places now safe from this type of incident and response.

I will hope nothing non-peaceful happens.

Why is it always newsworthy when a white cop shoots a black guy, but it's never newsworthy when a white guy is killed by either color cop? It's really strange seeing as how they more white people are shot and killed by cops than black people.

laggy site today.

Really laggy.

The shooting took place hours after a wave of weekend Black Lives Matter protests rolled across the nation in response to last week's deadly police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. Hundreds of people were arrested in the protests.

See how they did that? They just linked yet another violent police episode to Black Lives Matter, somehow exonerating the police and blaming the protesters. After all the "shooting" happened after the sun went down, visibility was poor and they could't be sure the man was armed or not so they just opened up...

a reply to: Fowlerstoad

Your article link says he had a gun and a knife. Where do you get your info that it was a BB gun? Did the BB gun you heard about have the orange cap removed? Was he brandishing it around like it was real?

a reply to: eeyipes

BB guns don't have orange tips and yes, he was supposedly waving it around and pointing it at people.

I'm not far from there (E Peoria) and the talk of violent protests are everywhere. The scary thing is, this is an area with a lot of red neck hunters that won't tolerate ignorant protesters(I'm one). So any violence will be met with violence.

Not a good situation!

There is no mention of the gun being a BB gun in the article. Not sure where OP got that from.

a reply to: KawRider9

BB guns don't have orange tips and yes, he was supposedly waving it around and pointing it at people.

Case closed then. Lets get that out front right away. Police press reports aren't forensic, just excuses.

a reply to: Fowlerstoad

Good luck to you and your family. Stay safe and keep your head down. Damned shame the dumb#ss cops keep wading into obvious trouble like that. You're quite right; as long as the Law enforcement community keeps up this crap, no place is safe. If I were you, I'd be madder than hell with whoever the police chief is.

When I was a kid, we used to take our BB rifles on our stingray bikes and ride through the streets to the fields to play. Cops would just wave at us as we passed. We even fired 410 shotguns in the fields back in grammar school. No one cared.
The police motto used to be to serve and protect. I think they are more concerned about protecting themselves now

originally posted by: TheBulk
Why is it always newsworthy when a white cop shoots a black guy, but it's never newsworthy when a white guy is killed by either color cop? It's really strange seeing as how they more white people are shot and killed by cops than black people.

IK, R? I hate to say it, but reeks lately like it's turning into a color-coded speshul snowflake thing with the cop/suspect issue. Only black suspects smote are allowed to be fawned over & any outcry supported.

a reply to: KawRider9

Many BB guns do have orange tips, or at least the ones my kids have do. It is there for the safety of the person using it. They can look very realistic, especially if the orange tip is removed or blacked out.

bb gun, orange tip

Irregardless, if he was behaving in a threatening manner and pointing it at people, it is not the cop's responsibility to somehow magically discern if it is a real weapon or fake. They must act on the threat as if it is real. They only have seconds to do so and prevent innocent bystanders from being hurt or killed.

Lesson - don't act like an idiot with a toy that looks like the real thing, no matter what your race is.

Plus we still don't have a source stating it was a BB gun and not a real gun like the article said.

I am sorry if your community is upset by this news, hopefully true facts will come out and level heads will prevail.

a reply to: eeyipes

That's not a BB gun, it's airsoft. Totally different.

originally posted by: visitedbythem
When I was a kid, we used to take our BB rifles on our stingray bikes and ride through the streets to the fields to play. Cops would just wave at us as we passed. We even fired 410 shotguns in the fields back in grammar school. No one cared.
The police motto used to be to serve and protect. I think they are more concerned about protecting themselves now

But as an adult now you are not still wandering the neighborhood with your BB gun and pointing it as random people, right? Because you obviously realize that it would be a really stupid and dangerous thing to do.

Kids plinking at trees and rocks in rural fields is one thing, adults threatening random bystanders in the neighborhood is something completely different.

Called about gunfire?, I guess the dumb bastards completely forgot the fourth of july was a few days ago.

....I guess....

a reply to: eeyipes

This is very similar to the one I have. I totally understand how it could be confused for a real gun.

www.amazon.ca...=sr_1_fkmr1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1468274289&sr=8-3-fkmr1&keywords=beretta+bb+gun

a reply to: Autorico

Are you talking about co2 pistols? They both fire BB's , so technically yes, they are both BB guns. One shoots a little harder and faster than the other, that's all. Some have orange tips for safety, some don't.
Here's a page full of co2 pistols, some with orange and some not, all realistic.

www.foxairsoft.com...

It really doesn't matter either way since the article linked says he was carrying a gun, not a toy. Since there is no source on the BB gun, we can't say if it was a co2 pistol or an airsoft. Not that it would matter at all anyways.

a reply to: eeyipes

I was wrong. I didn't know they made co2 bb guns with an orange tip. And I agree it doesn't matter. I wish OP would enlighten us as to how they got the "it was a bb gun" info.

originally posted by: TheBulk
Why is it always newsworthy when a white cop shoots a black guy, but it's never newsworthy when a white guy is killed by either color cop? It's really strange seeing as how they more white people are shot and killed by cops than black people.

Hey, if you care so much, make a topic about it.

I see this said repeatedly, but that's it... nobody does it... you do care, right?