From conversations today…

I hear you. Not to endorse looting or property destruction but to play devil’s advocate. If you were 19, and this happened to a friend of yours, what would you do? I know what state of mind I would have been in and it wouldn’t necessarily have been well reasoned or productive in the long run…

I hear you. But again, this was an unarmed teenager -at worst accused of stealing a few cigars- and he was killed by a grown man, trained to use his gun only in true emergencies, who was supposed to be assisting other people on another call. It doesn’t help police – community relations that the police always have to be on guard for the kind of violence you describe. It also doesn’t help the situation when the police are killing kids for being accused of shoplifting. It’s a total mess. No idea how to fix it. Sigh….

I have also read a bit of what is available. I came to different conclusions. Without you and I going point for point on where we disagree let me just say something more general. Fearing for one’s safety is a powerful thing and it tends to justify use of deadly force. However, we also need law enforcement officers who can handle the stress of their job because they will most likely run into situations much more threatening than an unarmed teenager accused of shoplifting. If someone is so intimated by kids who are bigger than them that they need to unload 12 shots in their direction all without being fired back upon… Well, I’m just not sure that type of person is particularly well-suited to driving around in a patrol car.

Yep, ferguson last night. there are no words.   ….Actually I do have some words, “we need justice system reform.”

In this case – ironically because they chose not to indict – the public actually does have access to every single thing the grand jury saw. 

How about a directive not to use lethal force? Stopping shots instead of kill shots? Not that anybody should be getting shot. It’s just that firing 12 shots, including 6 that hit him, seems like more than is necessary to keep the Officer out of danger. It’s a teenager, not an unstoppable, bloody thirsty, zombie….

I hear you, and although I have never been shot at or in uniform I have had the misfortune to be in situations where I feared for my life and/or safety. I am registering what you are saying about making decisions on the fly but the cynic in me can’t resist pointing out that we should be putting folks in uniform that are able to handle the duress they encounter in the course of their job.
…oh, and so with you on why he chose to ignore the call he was on!

I think the culture (both inside law enforcement and in the larger society) comes into play here. Training makes a difference as well. There is also something to be said for who is hired and why. In the most general terms, a candidate with a lightning hot temper is probably not a good hire.

Sigh…

I saw a variety of opinions today and more than a few patterns. For example, every single person who was focusing on the bad behavior of the rioters mentioned that the rioters were black.