(no subject)
There was recently a shooting death (by police) near my house. The first shot fired in ~20 years. A crowd was gathered because of a bar fight, some kid (non-drinking according to friends, high blood alcohol according to police) was asked to move his car out of the fire lane, and an officer ended up on the hood of his car and fired a couple shots into the car, killing the driver (Danroy Henry, if you want to google up the name).
The police claim the car camera was "not operational", and I wouldn't be surprised if it were true, but after that guy (in an unrelated case) sued and proved the police lied about a tape, I no longer trust that. (Probably we need a civilian oversight board--rather than the police department--to keep track of those recording devices and the recordings themselves, but anyway.)
Nonetheless, I'm inclined to be sympathetic to police. Things that are completely stupid in retrospect might have made sense at the time. And being on the hood of someone's car, you probably are worried about your life.
But here's the thing: I think those officers should not have had guns in the first place. We're in an low-violence area (first shot in many years, remember), and they were called to a bar fight, with 200 people milling around outside. I can't see how a gun in a crowd like that has any good use.
The police claim the car camera was "not operational", and I wouldn't be surprised if it were true, but after that guy (in an unrelated case) sued and proved the police lied about a tape, I no longer trust that. (Probably we need a civilian oversight board--rather than the police department--to keep track of those recording devices and the recordings themselves, but anyway.)
Nonetheless, I'm inclined to be sympathetic to police. Things that are completely stupid in retrospect might have made sense at the time. And being on the hood of someone's car, you probably are worried about your life.
But here's the thing: I think those officers should not have had guns in the first place. We're in an low-violence area (first shot in many years, remember), and they were called to a bar fight, with 200 people milling around outside. I can't see how a gun in a crowd like that has any good use.