rcade

I think we might learn something from cops in other countries who use lethal force far less frequently than we do, like this British cop who talks about how they handle it when encountering someone with a knife: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/02/british-disputes-us-police-claim-new-jersey

Yes, he does. But why should we assume an officer is in the right if he does not give an account of what happened? You seem to be asking for the public to support a cop after a shooting no questions asked. Police ask people questions all the time and they choose not to remain silent. The cop could make the same choice. If he did the right thing, there should be little risk for him in explaining what happened. He could give a simple statement to police that covers the basic facts of what occurred and that could be related to the public. If McMillan was within 21 feet of the officer and charged the cop holding the axe -- a camping hatchet, by some accounts -- I think most people would reasonably conclude that the officer acted justifiably. But to assume that happened before the cop explains what occurred is not appropriate. It's jumping to a conclusion to suit an agenda, just like the people who already are convinced he did the wrong thing.

Two can play that game: How far away, in your opinion, would he have to be from the officer for deadly force to not be justified? I'm not presuming the officer was wrong to shoot. I just think we need more facts. Unless I'm mistaken, there hasn't been a story where police give the officer's account of what happened: When he got out of the car, what words (if any) were exchanged, what McMillan was doing with the axe and how far away he was when he shot. All we've been told is that he "advanced."

I don't think cops deserve benefit of the doubt in a shooting. The facts should be the only thing that matters. Yes, they deserve to go home to their loved ones. But if someone is not presenting a lethal threat, that person deserves to survive too. I don't think we know enough yet to assess whether this shooting was justified. The news coverage doesn't say anything about how far away the cop and McMillan were when shots were fired.

The Daily has obtained video of McMillan leaving a parking garage with something in his hand:

The person shot was Ryan McMillan, a UNT student who turned 21 Saturday.

The only way to change it is to complain. The announcers were Mike Trude (email: trude@siu.edu) and Kelly Burke (Twitter: @KellyBurkeSprts, email here). I sent them this note:

Here's a story about that move, by Kevin Blackistone, who thought it was sleazy: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19980405&id=AbYyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3-gFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5892,2024180&hl=en The players run off were sophomores Gabe Moeller and Ed Harvey and freshmen Pooh Davis and Robert Washington. Harvey played one year at UTSA: http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/ed-harvey-1.html Davis played two at Northwestern State: http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/pooh-davis-1.html The other two didn't play anywhere else.

We're now ranked 347 out of 351 teams in free-throw percentage: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/statistics/team/_/stat/free-throws/sort/freeThrowPct/count/321 If we were an average free-throw shooting team (68%), it would have meant 3 more points a game. Enough to beat Idaho and Samford, all else being equal, and make this Southern Illinois rematch a two-possession game.

It's not a major issue, but I don't understand why a WR coach is staying to coach a bowl. Head coaches who take new jobs often leave before the bowl. Harrell and all the other new UNT coaches need to hit the ground running. Giving up some more time to the old job is not helpful.

Sad story. Has there ever been a police shooting by UNT's campus cops? I can't recall one.

The song currently playing on KNTU is titled "IZ BEATDOWN TIME." That's a pretty apt choice for pregame.

Tonight's the night we're going to make it happen. Tonight we put all other things aside.

I think everyone who gives a single dollar at all to UNT athletics should be considered a member of the Mean Green Club. It brings more people inside the effort, where they can be targeted for bigger donations over time. Use membership levels to encourage people to give more each year.

I see other programs with challenges as big -- or bigger -- than UNT finding more success than we do. USF began its football program in portable trailers in 1997, moved to I-A in 2001 and reached a No. 2 ranking in 2007. Is Denton a more difficult place to succeed than Tampa was for USF in 2001 when it moved up to I-A? Hell no. I think UNT is an incredible difficult place to succeed because we're led by an AD who has created an institutional culture where excuses are OK. We were supposed to stop accepting our bad stadium as an excuse when we got out of Fouts, but RV is still using Fouts as an excuse today. He says we should accept our situation today because things were so much worse back in 2001 when he came along. You worked in the athletics department and you're making excuses for our failures. I don't think that's a coincidence. That's the culture RV created.

This is a serious question, not sarcasm: Is that why you get so mad here -- because you think UNT athletics is doing good things and we don't recognize and/or appreciate it? Because from my perspective as a former Mean Green Club member, it seems like RV's department is the textbook definition of half-assed in almost everything it does. I feel like we should clean house in management. Bring in an AD from a program that knows how to build a booster club, serve season ticket holders, serve traveling fans and do other essential tasks.

UNT hasn't reached a level of success where this matters. Any bowl win is a good one for us. I hope Littrell has us back in one within two years, even if the experts think the bowl game is low-level.

What was your job, and what was your overall impression of how the athletic department was run?

Mattress Mac is a good example of why you can't let your athletics program depend entirely on big money donors. They sometimes get mad, take their ball and go home. A program needs a solid base of supporters at all financial levels. Including Pissant.

We could be UCF or USF, though. I live in Florida and have watched both UCF and USF grow in football in circumstances as difficult as those faced by UNT. USF had a run where it was a Top 25 team above all the bigger Florida rivals. UCF has its onfield struggles, but it has a fan base in this state that UNT would kill to have. I see UCF license plates all the time.

I think you're trying way too hard to dismiss the achievement of winning a high school football title in Texas. Having all the advantages of a district like Southlake Carroll also brings a lot of expectations and pressure. There also are opponents with just as many advantages. Dodge flourished there and deserves credit for what he achieved.

I'm glad he's doing well at high school again, but it doesn't mean he was ever cut out to be a college coach. Even if you factor in that UNT was resource and facility poor during his time in Denton, 6-37 is a staggeringly bad record.

RV can't schedule four OOC games a year without sticking us with teams like Bethune Cookman and Incarnate Word. You want him to schedule 12? It would be a disaster of biblical proportions.

For a person who was undoubtedly crying his eyes out, Brett Vito took a really excellent photo of Seth Littrell's new parking spot.

Since we're never going to schedule Portland State for the rest of time, that's not a problem. The I-AA Colossus of the Willamette will never darken our scoreboard again.