Once might be a fluke. Even two or three, as every case is different, police do have a difficult job and make decisions under pressure, and the USA is a seriously big country, 300 million people stretched out from coast to coast, and on any given literally millions of them are drunk, stoned, and/or engaged in criminal activity. But this is clearly becoming a trend, you’re hearing about stuff like this almost as often as you see cat videos on the internet.
Miriam Carey RIP
I’m talking about the police using lethal force, when no lethal force is necessary. There was the case in Los Angeles where the cops killed a man’s Rottweiler (I love Rottweiler’s. Despite their size and strength, every one I have ever known personally has had a gentle personality, and they tend to be very good with children). There was the case in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where the police shot and killed a 107 year old man. Admittedly, he was waving a gun around and shooting at people, but everybody had already got away from the house and all the police really needed to do was wait. Then there was the case in a Chicago nursing home where the police killed a man because he wouldn’t go willingly – to the hospital. He was also extremely old. There was the football player who was shot 12 times by police as he approached them looking for assistance after an automobile accident.
I had a similar incident once. I’d been mugged and was on my way to the police station to report it when I was stopped by the police and arrested – for not having ID – and had to spend the night in jail. That was in Casablanca, Morocco. I guess I’m lucky it didn’t happen in the U.S.
It happened again yesterday, in Washington, D.C. A woman driver kind of flipped out, apparently, and was running from police – on Pennsylvania Avenue, from the White House to the Capitol, which automatically adds a political significance to the story, whether she intended it or not.
The police managed to stop her car. They got her to step out of her car. Then they shot the fuck out of her, killing her on the spot, while her toddler watched from inside the car.
In all of these cases, the police could have avoided the problem by not shooting. By taking a second, waiting for the danger – which, in all of these cases, was only in their fevered imaginations – to pass. All of these cases should be investigated. In some of these cases, I think the cops should be charged with murder (but that’s for an investigation to decide), but in all of these cases, the police involved should, at the very least, be sacked.
They panicked, they misinterpreted the level of danger, they screwed up. If we want this trend to stop, they can’t be allowed to just get away with it.
www.gurukalehuru.com 