There Must Be a Better Way
A few months back I came out strongly against the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson MO. Although I now question the events surrounding his death, and accept there was an altercation between Brown and Officer Wilson in which Brown was not blameless, I still am left to wonder if there is something fundamentally wrong with policing in America. On Saturday a 12 year old boy was shot on a playground in Cleveland for wielding what turns out to have been a replica gun. The boy, Tamir Rice, died of his wounds on Sunday. The 911 caller told the 911 dispatcher that the boy was wielding a “probably fake gun” and scaring everyone, but that information was not passed to the responding officers, and I’m not sure if it would have made any difference had it been.
As a legal gun owner I take my rights and my responsibilities seriously. Everything I have learned over the past 7 years since I took up my 2nd Amendment right has taught me that a gun is always a last resort, and that when I point the weapon I have to be prepared to accept the consequences for what happens to anything in front of my weapon. And I realize cops have a hard job. I know cops, and some of my friends are cops and I have a lot of respect for those who accept the calling to serve and protect, so this isn’t criticism coming from some Leftist who wants all “pigs to die” or wants anarchy in the streets. I don’t see why I have to choose between anarchy on one hand and living in a police state on the other. Both extremes aren’t pleasant for anyone, be they civilians or cops. There has to be some middle way.
Something is wrong, terribly wrong with how we police given the number of unarmed people shot by police in our country. I believe that the decline of neighborhood policing caused by budget cuts coupled with the militarization of police forces has changed the way the Police perceives the Public. The kind of attitude that cops are trained to have is they better control the situation before it controls them. This works in a war zone where everyone is a possible enemy but in civil society, even one as well-armed as ours, that attitude is going to lead to where we are today: hundreds of unarmed civilians dead every year.
Was Tamir Rice being stupid? Yes. Was Michael Brown stoned and aggressive after stealing from a quick shop? Perhaps. But isn’t there a better way to handle these situations, some way between ignoring the crime and shooting the suspects dead?
Chad:
I just read earlier that the Police have killed more people in Utah than drug dealers, violent criminals, etc.
24 November 2014, 8:06 pmChad:
Ahh found it: http://www.sltrib.com/news/1842489-155/killings-by-utah-police-outpacing-gang?fullpage=1
24 November 2014, 8:07 pmScott Kirwin:
The tendency is for conservatives to back the police and liberals to back the thugs. There has to be a middle way.
24 November 2014, 9:38 pmGwendolyn:
So….dude…what you are telling us..it would have been better for Officer Wilson not to resist the personal attention he was receiving from the 6feet4inch.240 pound gentlegiant the result of which could have ended in death for Wilson. Forget the fact that young mr Brown had just assaulted a store clerk in a strong arm shop lift. Good thinking,mate but troubling. Could your problem be all that pot you smoked in all those exotic places to which you seem to gravitate?
25 November 2014, 1:52 pmScott Kirwin:
Gwendolyn
You are making a series of binary arguments.
1. Either Wilson confronted Brown as a suspect in a strong-arm robbery, or he let a potential suspect of a crime go.
2. Either Wilson shot Brown while fighting him, or he would have been shot by him with his own gun.
Is that really all there is to being a cop? What happened to talking? Don’t they teach cops how to de-escalate situations anymore? That’s crap because I’ve talked to cops and the best ones know how to get what they want without threats or violence. At least they did, since many of them are now retirement age, and are being replaced by war vets who are used to seeing the world (and rightly so I might add) in binary terms. That’s fine for Fallujah, not fine for Ferguson. And that’s not even getting into the issue of the caliber of cops employed by the STL municipalities.
This is a nuanced argument to a complex problem. It isn’t as simple as racist cops gunning down black kids like drunk hunters on a deer hunting outing.
As for pot smoking I never did that abroad because I often found myself in places where the penalties included sitting at attention in solitary confinement for 18 hours a day. Or worse.
25 November 2014, 3:26 pmGray Shambler:
Saw an episode of cops from Ft. Worth, in the opening ride along interview the officer stated that at the end of the day, his goal was “to get home safely, the hell with John Q.” I was even more surprised when the episode was re-aired without edit. Now, I drive a truck, would you feel better in an auto coming toward me if that was MY attitude. My goal is a safe, incident free trip. Police need to re-examine their attitudes or STAY home and BE safe.
20 December 2014, 3:37 pmScott Kirwin:
Gary
20 December 2014, 10:27 pmOn a night after 2 of NYPD’s finest were gunned down I’m feeling a bit more sympathetic than usual to the men in blue. But it’s clear to me that the way we are policing our society isn’t best for the citizenry. Being a cop isn’t like being a dentist. If you don’t get that then you shouldn’t be one, and it’s clear to me that the cop you referenced in the Cops episode doesn’t belong behind the badge.