Recently, the news has brought us graphic reports on the alarming number of killings committed by police, against people who were said to have brandished a gun. In recent news a so called suspect looked to be unarmed, but yet he was pumped full of holes for aiming a weapon at the officers. (Clicking the blog title you can see the video and judge for yourself, this was an incident caught on video in the Dolton IL area) The number of similar police killings of people with alleged weapons is out of control.
This is where it gets tricky. Should the police first confirm that the suspect is indeed holding a gun? Or, do you think that sometimes the shoot now ask later approach is justifiable and/or necessary to save the life of the officers and bystanders? Although we respect the men and women whose duty requires them to risk their lives for citizens at the same time it's unnerving to see the " shoot first ask questions later approach" that has become all too common lately. How do we balance our questions and concerns of violence in our neighborhood, with the answer of police brutality?
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
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40 comments:
It seems to me that no one is ever satisfied. First there is a surge of violence in the nieghborhoods and you want people to do something about it, then when the police make a move, everyone is on their back. Let the cops do their job, that is what they are there for.
Yes Rev. they are here to serve and protect but to shoot at will is a little absurd don't you think? So if you get killed today by Officer Rambo do you deserve to be murdered and falsely accused of having a weapon because he lost his cool? I would outraged if that happened to you? By the way, What would Jesus do?
Agreed "SMN" what if you are the unlucky person surrouded by the police one day as you are leaving out of a convenience store and are gunned down because your iphone was perceived to be a gun. Then your family has a place to visit on holidays and weekends all because you wanted to have a decent conversation with a fashionable phone.
Well picture yourself as a police officer. You hear of all the violence in the world today, you get a call over the 2-way of a robbery/hostage situation taking place. Then you arrive on the scene and you see a man leaving the scene. Your first thought is, "hostages are not gonna just leave the scene and not be in a panic" so you jump out of your vehicle and say "this is the police" (although I aint too sure they say this anymore) and then the person reaches or motions to you with an object in their hand. Do you wait until you or one of your officers has been blown to bits or do you take action. Remember you got a family too, and you may not be ready to go to glory!! I am not sure what Jesus would do, but Im gonna tell you what I would do, the scum is going down...
I don't agree with police using excessive force but at times the situation permits it. For example, this may be mean to say but here it goes....the hispanic male police shot 8 times and killed last night was justified! That fool had already been convicted on a weapons charge, currently on house arrest for another weapons charges and he still was packing heat!! WTF?? The way I see it, if he continued down that destructive path, he was gonna die a violent death anyway. That's 1 less fool off the streets we have to worry about.
Who are we to determine what fools need to live or die?
This is a tough one. I see both sides, yet in the police defense they are trained to take out a life before their own is taken. As Rev stated with the current surge of violence, I'd be on guard and want to protect myself too. I have cops in my family so I'm kind o biased on this. But I don't believe in excessive force and attack (shooting more than 1 or 2 times). If police are unsure if the target is armed, they should only aim to wound, not assassinate.
shout them two times dont unload your gun and make him look like swiss cheese.only wound them in the leg,arm etc.shit after one bullet i think they know this shit is for real and the cops are not playing around.
OMG Hot, if I'm not mistaken he was being harassed by police about being in a gang. He got smart with them and they shot him. You can't say because he had a record he should be killed. You should be killed by a cop tonight just for that statement. You aren't God. Paul (from the Bible) was a Chriatian slayer (Saul) before he became God's right hand. God has mercy.....Satan!
That's what I'm talking about Junk Yard Dog. All I'm saying is that can be anyone of us at anytime dealing with a cop with something to prove. I am scared to death of getting pulled over because cops are ruthless these days. Please everybody keep your hands high and if you feel the cop was too harsh get their beat # from the top of their car and call in on their ass. Serve and Protect not Harm and neglect.
I, too, have law enforcement in my family and am sort of biased on this subject, but I always thought the proper protocol was to shoot them in the leg to at least take them down (even though a down individual can still shoot up). But when you're on the Force and you have to face Pookie, Ray Ray and Junebug out here with rapsheets that extend farther than their grade school level, toting better guns than the Law, you may have no other choice but to empty the chamber on they azz just to save yours.
Rev you can't be black. Because all BLACK & HISPANIC MEN know to walk out of anywhere slow and steady when you're dealing with the PIGS. Hostage or not you don;t run or make no sudden moves. You wouldn't survive one day in the life of an inner city, squeaky clean, Carlton-esque black man.
Y'all pissing me off. I'm not saying that we don't have loonies out there. Did the groom in New York have a gun, What about the bartender in Chicago. Cops get carried away. How do we as citizens that uphold the law successfully avoid being the next police brutality victim.
put your hands up.dont have anything in your hands at all or they will shout ur ass.dont reach for ur pockets just raise ur hands if ur SURE.get it SURE..
posh girl why does it have to be ray-ray jun-bug?why cant it be Mr.smith,don,,or harold?dont play the race card.
why does Ray ray and Junebug have to be names depicted by race? No one gave a color just names, the race card wasn't played....
Thank you bitchplease...everything isn't about race...just calm down junkyard.
I don't know Hot 4 Barack you sound like you should be rooting for team McCain.
We'll Pooh if it's not about race you should've included Todd, Brett and Miguel. You made it about race when you provided all African-Ameican names. Ain't no white boy named ray ray or pookie, keep it together Imus.
Okay I have arrived. I can see both sides of the situation too. Truth be told, police officers are trained to shoot to disarm or wound, so 30+ shots to the chest or whatever (in the case of the guy who was about to get married and was slain at his bachelor party) is a bit much. Then there is the case of the elderly woman (80 years) on the west side of Chicago who was TASED repeatedly because the officers "could not separate her from her hammer" Where does it end? The police emptying clips doesn't seem to be scaring criminals one bit.
There seems to be violence all around - increased violence coming from citizens means excessive and increase force from law enforcement. Can you really blame police officers though when every time you look on the news there are citizens going on shooting rampages and killing everyone from age 1-100? I'd be scared to work out on the streets if I was a cop nowadays.
I know a guy named Ray Ray across the street from me and he is mexican. I think Say My Name is the one stereotyping here.
EXACTLY Firefly. I would be scared too, but wouldn't that where my training would take over where my fear ended. If I were a police officer, you would get shot in the arm, leg or something! I wouldn't try to kill you, police take their job to the limit in my eyesight. I mean to them its just one more no good ass citizen that society doesn't have to worry about, but to that citizens family they have lost a link in their genetic chain. Lets say a cops kid gets killed, shot 77 times because he was thought to have been carrying a gun, then later it was found that there was no gun. I BET there would be ramifications. ESPECIALLY if the cop was black and the kid was white.
UGH as much as this pains me to say. Miranda has a point. Things would be alot different if some of these white kids started getting shot 77 times in the chest an dno weapon was ever found. There would be lawsuits up the ying yang...
Guilty! But I can admit it. When I hear of Ray Ray I automatically think do-rag and sagging pants.
Todd dorky with a pizza face and no chance of ever kissing a girl.
Juan.....do I need to continue?
Ooh someone mentioned earlier "why do we have to play the race card...it's not about race". But really it is - as in "if the color was on the other skin". 9 times out of 10 a white kid would never be shot by a cop of any race 77 times unless he is a sniper or terrorist who is wild and on the loose and they have permission to take him out by any means necessary. #1 a minority cop already knows the ramifications he/she may face if that happened. #2 a white cop wouldn't do that to one of his "own" unless it was personal and #3 haven't you guys forgot where most "white crimes" are committed? In corporate America.
I hope that I didn't offend anyone on the site for my second comment to Rev. My point was black and hispanic men would think long and hard before making a a sudden move in front of police with drawn guns....that's a national standard. Asian and white brethren can fortunately react and reach and still get warnings.
So Bitchplease would Miranda's late arrival be considered fashionable.
not in those synthetic fibers she arrived in, pair those with those shoes and all you have is late, we are still waiting on the arrival part.. are you kidding?
Say My Name, you must have been the slutty cheerleader in highschool that got fingered on the top of the pyramid. And Bitchplease, I stole these shoes from your closet
I have stunt doubles Miranda, you stole those shoes from Agent 99...
so Get Smart...
Those were the days.
Jealousy is a horrible sickness...get well soon Miranda.
This subject carries that proverbial double-edged sword that we are faced w/ in almost every conversation here. Despite our emotion on the subject, none of us & I mean NONE of us want to be on the other end of the barrel or gun in either of those inopportune situations? It’s hard to anticipate what any of us would do under similar circumstance. Split second decision could cause calamity for a family and calamitous death for an individual officer or normal lay-person. All the training in the world doesn’t prepare an officer to figure out what is going on in another persons head. All the street since in the world doesn’t prepare us for what to anticipate from different police officers w/ similar, however, completely different proclivities. So what do we do? It seems as though normal decent African American, men, women, & children, are being held hostage by a siege of apathetic youth, in which many are the products of those 80’s babies that we all seem to have forgotten about. If you think I am just talking about the youth on the street; you have already completely missed the message. I am not just talking about the youth on the street, I mean the one’s that made it through (so it seemed). They carry badges as well? They’ve never dealt w/ the social & mental effects of their mothers activities of that era. Now we bring them together on one street at one time and guess who’s caught in the middle….if you are still trying to figure out who “them” are, just watch the news this evening and I think it will be evident…. Here is the sad thing about it this is only ONE of the reasons we are faced w/ this current and historical dilemma.
Well Mello, I'm not sure if you believe in the Bible and God but I do and everything that you speak of as well as others on this post has been prophesied. The sad part but reality of it - I believe, is that we are caught up in the war (spiritual). Everything and everyone seems to be in a state of warfare these days. The Church, the leaders, different countries, families and now our children. We all need a certain humility and faith about the plans we make recognizing the fragility of our lives. Nothing is certain except God's will.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. (Matthew 24:6-8; Mark 13:7-8 NIV).
Yes I do believe in the God & His Son Jesus Christ. I am exceptionally bible erudite as well to say the least. Mind you I'm not surprised..not the least bit, however, even with the answers its very sad & the facts of which I spoke of still ring very true. The center of the issues are spiritual; the fruit it bares is an urban disaster...
Hell yeah there are some crazy cops out there...But, I don't think a majority of police officers wake up each day saying "I'm gonna go out and kill somebody". They are put in situations every single day of their life where someone will take their life without hesitation. Chit, not too long ago a friend of mine (who is a police officer) was attacked by 6 men who were shouting F... the police while they stomped his head into the concrete. I'm telling you there are some even crazier bastards out there yall, I mean straight ignant!!! Now I don't agree with alot of things the cops do out there, but yourself in the situation where your responding to a job with a possible gun involved, some crazy bastard is pointing something at you or going through his pockets and you need to make a SPLIT SECOND decision. You know and I know damn well what we both would do!!!!
why dont we see any white people in the news getting shot?
We do, they are just found on college univeristy campuses....
Yup junkyard dog, the whites use the "one stone" method - remember Columbine?
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