| Jeff Higgins |
01-26-2011 05:50 AM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by jyl
(Post 5808276)
Here is the latest police shooting in my neck of the woods.
UPDATE: Manhunt continues for police shooting suspect - Breaking News, Local News, Local Weather, Local Sports
A police officer, an excellent one apparently, pulls over an SUV and is shot multiple times by the driver, who is at large in a wooded area of coastal Oregon and being hunted by SWAT teams. The officer is in the hospital, survival uncertain. It was apparently a routine traffic stop, like the dozens he probably did every week. The suspect was a normal-looking white guy. Every and any contact an officer makes with a member of the public can potentially end with his death. When we put soldiers in that situation for limited tour of duty in Iraq or Vietnam, the result is that sometimes people are killed who maybe shouldn't have been, by young men who we nonetheless respect, as a group, for their service. When we put police officers in that situation for year after year, I believe it is unrealistic for us to expect that the same thing won't sometimes happen, and unjustified for us to withhold our respect for that group of men.
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I agree 100%. I do hope, however, that you can discern the difference between this sort of tragic chance encounter and when the cops actually go looking for it.
In the case under discussion, the police elected to elevate the risk with their use of the no-knock raid. On a non-violent petty drug dealer, for God's sake. The cops were willing to put at risk the lives of everyone in that house, and their own, for a petty, non-violent drug dealer. And, in the end, they knew he had moved out before they even went to serve the warrant. Why would they proceed anyway, putting innocent peoples' lives at risk, knowing full well their suspect had moved? Why?
We need to stay focused on the fact that we began discussing this extraordinary situation, not the day to day hazards of their jobs. In this case, and cases like it, they crossed the line. No one is begrudging them the good work they do 99% of the time. But when they make a series of well considered, conscious decisions to unnecessarily elevate the use of force to the extreme witnessed here, resulting in the loss of an innocent man's life, something is gravely wrong. They need to be held accountable when they do things like this.
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