What do you think about police brutality? Should having a gun and a badge and claiming to feel threatened justify killing innocent people? Please leave your comments below.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Police Brutality: And Feeling Threatened
When I was in seventh grade, my friends and I liked to shoot "airsoft" guns at each other for fun. Looking back on it, it was stupid and an all around bad idea, but I didn't care. We would run around the woods behind my house and pretend like we were in the military. Of course, it was all in good fun, until one day when we were surrounded by the whole Winnetka Police Department after someone called 911 to report a shooter. Luckily, we had the sense of mind to put the guns down and calmly approach the officers. They took our guns and called our parents to tell them what happened. I remember being just about ready to shit myself, because I was afraid of what my dad would say when he found out. Fortunately, he just laughed and got a kick out of the fact that I was almost arrested. I look at the situation now and say, 'at least the officer on the scene didn't unload a clip into my chest'.
In Santa Rosa County this past Tuesday, a thirteen year old, Andy Lopez Cruz, was killed when his airsoft gun was "mistaken" for an assault rifle. The official statement says "that as the subject was turning toward him the barrel of the assault rifle was rising up and turning in his direction. The deputy feared for his safety, the safety of his partner, and the safety of the community members in the area" (Sheriff Deputy's statement). This makes me sick, as an officer of the law your sole responsibility is to protect the safety of your community. And if you feel like your life is being threatened while doing so, well you need to deal with that situation in a more reasonable fashion. Not pull out your gun and shoot an innocent kid. These kinds of police brutalities are happening all around the Country, and are maliciously targeted at minorities. How can we claim to be an equal society if the people who swear to serve and protect us are profiling and gunning down citizens whenever they fear "for [their] safety". I believe we should not let officers of the law be above the law, but instead be treated just like every other citizen. And if they commit an unlawful murder on their watch, they should be tried and convicted like a normal citizen.
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Hi Jack,
ReplyDeleteI remember playing the same kinds of games when I was a boy, except the guns we carried actually looked like REAL guns. Scary stuff. I think this is a great idea for a post, but I would think about a couple of things in your framing of this issue:
1) Police "brutality" is not quite the correct word here. It usually refers to some kind of physical beating to extract confessions or inflict harm.
2) As frightening a situation is of being mistakenly shot, how common do you think it really is happening in the USA? Perhaps a better angle would be to ask WHY are young boys like you and me (in the past) running around with toy guns in the first place?? Is that an American theme to be explored?