I know this is all over the news but I had some thoughts I wanted to express on it. Did the "kid" break the law? Yes. Was the cop in the right to shoot him? Still up in the air for me. According to the report he was shot from a distance so I am not sure if that warrants the 6 shots (each of which left several holes) Also it is my understanding that they caught him later for jaywalking and they didn't even know about the robbery at that time. ....
Now then... my problem with this situation is not the race issue that some are seeing with it (though I do get where they are coming from) It is with the militarization of the police force. There are good cops out there. I see plenty. There are also the ones who are on a power trip those are the ones that concern me. I am wondering if they don't need to do some type of psych eval screening process that looks for that type of personality trait in someone they are hiring for that type of job position? Yeah you have to be able to know what to do in a situation and some of the decisions you have to make are life threatening ones and are split second. I can understand that but it is when you see the ones who continue to use force in a situation where it is not needed or where you've exceeded what you need to use and that that is an escalating problem you are seeing across the country this is something that needs to be addressed. When you see that now it is getting to where it is no longer one or two cops on a force that is guilty of this but at times an entire police force and they seem to have an attitude like they are above the law itself or are over stepping their bounds as a group they are starting to have almost a gang like mentality. They see the entire public as the enemy instead of people they are supposed to protect and serve.
Now then let me get to this part....You may be seeing one thing on the news but unless you've been watching the live feeds from people on the ground you are seriously missing something. I didn't start watching til night before last and I'd been hearing conflicting reports but of course I'm not there I can't say one way or the other ...well I got curious and if you would like to see these feeds too you can watch on livestream look for Tim Pool who also does a split screen on youtube with another set of reporters if you check that out look for vice news. He seems to try and remain pretty unbiased which is refreshing. He tries to see both the point of view of the police AND the protesters. There is also I am Mike Brown on live stream which is the one I watched the first night. I am Mike Brown the other one isn't up live right now but there are past videos. I am just basing this off what I actually saw. I was watching as it got close to curfew and the police pulled in swat trucks on either side of the group of protesters (which by the way they make it sound like they are the same but the protesters and the looters are separate groups) and as curfew broke they slipped on the gas masks boxed in the protesters and squeezed in on them with the trucks and started throwing the tear gas causing the reporters who were in a cordoned off area to start coughing and such...and that went on for what seemed like forever with so much gas. This was without the protesters doing anything except refusing to leave. They started shooting live rounds (I guess into the air though one came down and hit someone) and rubber bullets, and then every time you think they stopped with the tear gas here it came again several canisters at a time til you could see nothing. They came out at first as trying to claim it was smoke (it was obvious it was not) until people started picking up the empty shells and tweeting pics of them then they reversed their statement. Why lie? Also right before it began besides the fact that they had media sectioned off to an area where they couldn't see much they also parked police vehicles purposely in the way and at one point had a row of geared riot police in the way. Not protecting them just in the way of view. Anyway they also broke out the sonic or LRAD guns and that was such a strange sound over camera. It sounded like bats chirping only louder. (we get them around here...the bats not the gun of course) They came on that crowd with full force when to all appearances they weren't doing anything other than breaking curfew. They claimed the crowd started it. Anyone watching can tell you otherwise. The ONLY thing they did was to tell them they weren't going to leave. That may be wrong but that was not a call for full force they were still being peaceful. The public has a right to peaceful protest. THAT is what bothers me is the sheer amount of force they started using when it wasn't needed showing off all that military surplus when all that really needed to be done was police presence. I could see doing something about the looters of course and situations like that but as I said that is NOT the same as the protesters. They (the police) are creating more conflict with using violence to prevent violence. Do they not expect these people to want to fight back?! Last night they put the media in a parking lot at the command post and kept them waiting there for about an hour for someone to come out and talk. They weren't allowed to leave. (they were told they could but then orders changed and the ones that tried to got escorted back) I will say I missed what happened before that (it was still before curfew) but the police again claim protesters started it. Protesters say otherwise but it all comes down to he said she said for that (I'm sure there is video showing one way or the other) There was a group broke off and started looting I guess tried to advance on the police control center which is not something I'd condone but I think it stems from the people feeling like they are not being allowed their civil right to protest peacefully (again deal with the looters and such separately and quit attacking the protesters!) Last night I saw an older lady who wasn't from Ferguson who was trying to leave before curfew and got caught up in the commotion when the police got into it with a group of people that they told to disperse (I guess since it was before curfew they were not dispersing) she was trying to avoid being shot she just wanted to go home and had thought she had time to do so...to leave town and she called out for help and they told her no. She wound up getting hit with a rubber bullet as did a young girl who was standing next to her (the young girl was left limping) They left a body laying in the road for some time. There is just a whole lot wrong with this picture and if you think it doesn't affect you in some way think again. What if this was your town? They were arresting people standing in their own yards. I can't say this is remotely like their situation at all but just what comes to mind when I try to picture it was when our own town (our section) was under curfew due to the tornado. We went outside and was walking around in front of our house (just our own house) a little as there was no power and it was hot and my youngest was still a baby. We had several cops come down and we had to go inside. It was a scary moment because of the way they were acting and it is a strange feeling to not be allowed outside your own house on your own property. They are high on the offensive. Partly because of their job but that means you do not want to make a wrong move. In any case I could not picture it being the way it is there. I would be terrified as a resident. Think about it. You have to go to something simple like the grocery store or something and you have to worry about getting caught up in all that. People do still have daily lives to live there. Even if it is before curfew. That isn't why I say this affects everyone though. It is because situations like this is cropping up all over the place this just happens to have gone down in such a way that it caught more media attention and when I say that I am not so much talking about the shooting of an unarmed person I am talking about the police using all the military surplus stuff they bought up and starting to act like a militarized force. They are using unnecessary force. There are other people such as reporters and city officials? that got fired on with the rubber bullets or tear gas. Now they've got Amnesty International coming in and it appears National Guard. They did drop curfew. I am hoping maybe soon the peace will start to return to the town and for things to settle but I also hope this brings to light police..not military but police...what it means for them to be using such weapons that are meant for military. Again NOT police.
Even our own small towns locally where I am are buying up the military surplus. Ours had one displayed at a local 4th of July festival. Granted that doesn't mean they are going to use it in the way this town did it is the corrupt ones I worry about.
Also when working in Juvenile detention (and yes again I realize not same situation but...) we were expected to deal with juveniles who had been arrested for an array of things ... rape, burglary, stabbing, etc. You could not look at one person in the face and tell what it was they were there for but you could read their record and see how violent they had been and how they got that way sometimes from their history. In any case a lot of times we were on the unit with only one or two other people. At night you sometimes got left there alone locked in with only a radio and you had better have that radio on you. We were there with sometimes 18 or so residents and we sure as hell didn't have a gun. Granted neither did they BUT they could sure overpower you in a hurry if they wanted. There were cases when that happened (not on my shift and pretty sure not on my unit) they could find something to use and they could hurt you. Not to mention I am 5'3 and some of these residents were about as big as this kid was. There were several other specialists about my size or so and one had just had surgery recently. We did have self defense training. No not more dangerous than the cops job by any means but just saying that a gun is not always necessary to use. ...This cop was out in the open, dealing with jay walkers, was he really so afraid as to have had to shoot 6 times and it appears aiming to kill? Maybe he did think the kid had a gun...I had a friend who was a cop for a time and he was taught to shoot in the shoulder to disarm them. What happened to doing something like that? They said he had been shot from a distance which does not sound like he was closing in on the officer but maybe I need to read more on that. What about a taser? I may watch again a bit tonight to see what happens and I will hope it is calmer for everyone. * I forgot to add they turned out the street lights in some areas last night and were using night vision
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