To protect and serve who?

Published on May 11, 2009 By CharlesCS In Current Events

Shoot first, ask questions later; that seems to be today's form of dealing with people regardless if they are dangerous or not. That's what I gathered when I read a story today on the news (see Link below) about how an L.A. County Sheriff Deputy shot a boy who was riding his bike playing "cops and robbers" and happen to point his gun at the Sheriff's after being told to drop it. Considering the story does not mention the boy's age which obviously shows this was an underage child, it makes me wonder if our society has reached a point of paranoia where we can not even trust our own children.

What has happened to our society? This is not the same society I remember 20 years ago where playing out in the streets was a common thing; where playing cops and robbers was the Nintendo of the old days, where cops didn't pull their guns out just because. Did they truly feel this child (or young person) was a true threat that they needed to shoot him? It seems to me our society has lost it's way and we deserve nothing less than a severe punishment for it. What is happening today in this economy, where no matter how much of a little bit of hope comes up something else begins to collapse setting us back again, is an indication to me of how much we have lost our way (those who screwed up and those who did little to nothing to stop it). It's things like this that will push some people to want to ban anything that looks like a gun; toys, game controllers, tools, etc. It's always everyones solution to eliminate what is seen as the source of the problem rather than educate people how to use them properly. We deserve the Gov't we are moving towards. They say you get what you deserve and be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

Link

Comments (Page 3)

Silver_and_Jade_Tears

on May 14, 2009

This didn't start with Columbine. Columbine made the news because it was a white suburban middle-upper class school that had a fair amount of people getting shot/killed.

Its been happening in inner-city schools. I went to an inner-city school we had metal detactors and Police patroling the school way before Columbine happened, why well because Lepton's would bring in guns to school/shot people.

For the majority of places, it DID start with Columbine, because of the exact reason you stated... it made the news.

After Columbine, there were policies inacted in every school district, beyond the inner-city schools that may have had these prior. People realized that it could happen everywhere, not just in inner city areas, and it came to be acknowledged that kids of that general age in any area can and may, get a weapon, and use it for mass murder.

mommie4life

on May 14, 2009

The series of events (from the officer's point of view) as described in the article.

1. Report made of "someone" riding a bicycle and waving a gun around.

2. Cop spots the rider.

3. He tells the subject to drop the gun.

4. The subject points the gun at the cop.

5. One non fatal shot was fired on the subject.

Okay, first of all you can't always tell that a 15 year old is indeed a 15 year old. Secondly, the kid didn't follow orders and the police had to take appropriate actions. Third, there is a lot of gangs that rise up in the L.A. area and there have been shootings known to involve kids as young as 10 years old. Four, the officer's job is to protect the general population from threats, if the officer hadn't fired on the suspect and it had been a real gun (which it looked like) there could have been many more lives endangered. It was his duty to not let the kid shoot anyone which is what he appeared to be going to do next.

If you want to blame someone, blame the kid and/or his parents. The parents shouldn't have gotten him a "toy" that could be mistaken for a real weapon. The kid shouldn't have pointed his gun at real cops. Don't blame the officer for doing his job, what's next suing the grocery store for bagging your groceries?

taltamir

on May 15, 2009

the_Peoples_Party, thats why you knock on a door with a search warrent. the special weapons and assult tactics units should only be used in extreme cases. like a bank robbery or hostage situation.

mommie4life

on May 17, 2009

http://www.avpress.com/n/14/0514_s8.hts

http://www.avpress.com/n/12/0512_s5.hts

Posts from Palmdale's newspaper about the shooting, if anyone's interested.

taltamir

on May 18, 2009

Officials were later told the boy may be developmentally disabled, Nelson said, "but that was certainly not known to deputies at the time."

AHA! I knew it!

Idiot parents give their 15 year old retarded kid a replica gun to play with. Here is a hint on how not to get your retarded son shot, don't give him a real looking fake gun. (or a real gun)

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