you're not scaring me man I'm just worried about you I see you're doing the heart thing
with your hands look we we love you too we just want you to be safe impact impact
[Music]
some breaking news the family of Christian glass who was shot and killed by police in Colorado last
year after he called for help following a car crash is going to receive 19 million dollars
from the state of Colorado and local authorities as part of a settlement agreement making it the
largest police settlement paid by the state of Colorado in one of the largest in the country
so basically a police officer may use deadly force only if that officer has probable cause to believe
that the person poses a threat of serious physical harm either to the officer or to anyone else
here's the important thing the mere presence of a weapon just alone does not itself justify deadly
force hello 9-1-1 I'm in a vehicle my vehicle got stuck I'm stuck in a dangerous place and I will
be killed I'm gonna have to kill some skinwalkers can you stay on the phone with me are there any
weapons that you're aware of I have a weapon on me I will throw them out the window as soon as
an officer gets here the 22 year old called 9-1-1 for help after a crash left his SUV that he was
driving stuck off the road police found him in a state of mental distress refusing to leave his
vehicle we advise this party is stating that he has weapons in the vehicle with him two knives
a hammer and a rubber mallet keep your windows down because we're here to help you how about
you step out of the vehicle you already said you have weapons in the car no do not throw them out
do not touch them do not reach for them step out of the car now I will break the window step out
of the car he's got a knife in US as you can see right there step out of the [ __ ] car now
161 at gunpoint note that he is inside the car by himself there's no one else in the car that's in
danger so the only individual who's in danger in there from the knife that this guy has is this guy
himself but look at the police officers on the outside they have their handguns pointed at him
they are threatening to use deadly force now who are they going to save if they use deadly force on
a guy who's locked inside his car with a knife I see you're doing the heart thing with your hands
look we we love you too we just want you to be safe and here's another thing that I think is
important if you look at some of the footage here some of these police officers are going
right up to the window they're conversing with this guy they're making little hard signs with
a guy one of the officers even says that he's not afraid of him they're not scaring me man
I'm just worried about you so there's objectively viewable evidence that this guy or that a reason
police officer would not perceive a deadly force situation here that this guy was an
immediate serious safety threat to somebody other than himself that's a lot let's to open
up the door it's time to move the night on okay we gotta move glass remained in his car for over
an hour Christian just Steps step out of the car now even telling officers that he was terrified at
one point before they tried to forcibly remove him by breaking the windows 16 will be forcing
this led to Glass grabbing a knife prompting one of the officers to then shoot him five times the
19 million dollar settlement will be paid by the state of Colorado along with Clear Creek County
the town of Georgetown and the City of Idaho Springs according to a statement released by
the attorneys representing glass the settlement will be paid by the state of Colorado along with
Clear Creek County the town of Georgetown and the City of Idaho Springs according to a statement
released by the attorneys representing glass's family in addition to the 19 million dollar
payment the state and local authorities have also agreed to carry out several other steps as
part of the settlement which a glass family's attorneys say is aimed at honoring Christians
memory and affecting lasting change So Clear Creek County has agreed to set up a dedicated crisis
response team to deal with emergencies involving mental health crises and train all of its Patrol
officers in Crisis Intervention the county has also agreed to dedicate a public park to Glass
and allow his parents Simon and Sally glass to share their son's story with new Patrol recruits
at the Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office the three local authorities named in the settlement
the police officers have each issued separate apology letters noting that glass's death was
avoidable which according to the Denver Post was also a requirement of the settlement all
right let's make sure we're on the same page about what the law is and then we can discuss
the facts so basically a police officer may use deadly force only if that officer has probable
cause to believe that the person poses a threat of serious physical harm either to the officer or
to anyone else in this case the guys alleged to have had a knife and he went for a knife
here's the important thing the mere presence of a weapon just alone does not itself justify deadly
force and not all weapons are treated equally by the courts in reviewing the reasonableness of a
police shooting different weapons have different capabilities and that will be taken into account
deadly force just cannot be used unless someone's life is in imminent danger the reasonableness of
that belief is an objective standard here the weapon that the guy had is a knife he's still
in his car they're trying to get him out of the car if he had a gun that would be a different
analysis and almost any police shooting case if somebody has a gun they say drop the gun dropped
the gun the guy didn't drop the gun and they shoot that almost always is going to be ruled by the
courts to be a good shoot not so much the case with knives there are a lot of cases out there
where the courts have found bad shoots where the guy had a knife and this is one of those cases
because he's inside a car and he's not wanting to come out of the car and he only has a knife not a
gun so he's limited and what in what he could do the damage that he can he can cause inside that
car with a knife if he got out of the car and he started chasing people around with a knife
that's obviously different but he's not he's inside the car he has limited and restricted
Mobility He surround funded by police officers and he's known to have mental issues of course
that can go either way that could be reasonable to assume that somebody's suffering these mental
delusions could be dangerous or more dangerous but also they know that this person needs help
19 million dollars is a huge settlement and the reason why this case settled for so much is one
because there is a sympathetic victim this is not somebody who was out committing crimes he
was suffering from these mental delusions he had some sort of mental illness and so a potential
jury at the end of the day is going to likely sympathize with him I see you're doing the hard
thing with your hands look we we love you too we just want you to be safe secondly the police
officers did not need to be as aggressive as they were there was no immediate reason to force the
issue and pull him out of the car there could have been other options available it's a lot
okay we got it moved lastly when this happened there was a lot of media attention and that is
always and the media attention was overwhelmingly negative towards the police so the potential jury
pool who's going to sit and hear that case is very likely to have heard something about this
and have a negative Viewpoint towards the conduct of law enforcement here whether they admit it or
not and really there there is one final reason is when you have this media exposure like this
that's when the politicians are wanting to throw people under the bus they're wanting to conduct
damage control so that probably played a part here as well so as always thanks for watching
if you like going over these sorts of videos and discussing And discussing constitutional
law please make sure to subscribe both here and at the blog at the Civil Rights
lawyer.com and if you haven't subscribed yet please subscribe we're just about to 300
000 subscribers and I really appreciate that remember freedom is scary deal with it
foreign [Music]