There's been some shootings. It's news, but sadly it's happening so much nowadays it shouldn't even be called NEWs. A man got shot in Baton Rouge because there was a call that he was armed and pointing his gun at people. 2 officers took him down and one decided to shoot the guy dead. That's an on the surface report right there, I'm not going into the details until later. Another man was shot during a routine traffic stop for a broken tail light. As he reached for his ID, he was shot. Alright. Here we go. Opinion time.
The guy in Baton Rouge. If that call were in fact true and he drew his weapon at someone, then yes he's a threat. His firearm was definitely on him cuz they fished it out of his pocket. Ok, good. The chance was there. Watching the video, there is a general consensus (among the comments) that he was, in fact, adequately subdued. So what's the problem here? The story goes that he was reaching for his pocket and that's what started everything. You hear 2 shots, then 4 more. There, in my opinion, is my problem. I don't know anything about guns. I don't know, and would continue to like to not know, what it's like to get shot. When you fire 2 shots on a man that is subdued on the floor, I think you're good. Why fire 4 more? Does the human body release adrenaline after getting shot first so you have some kind of burst of energy to retaliate momentarily? Who knows, but that's what I imagine the last 4 shots were for and of course I am very open minded so I would love to hear a valid explanation for the extra shots.
I saw a video just now of an officer (or at least some kind of expert in that he knows more than me on firearms) show that you CAN indeed shoot from your pocket. I don't really think that was ever a question, but he made the video not to defend the officers, but to make a point that it's possible. We shouldn't all be jumping to conclusions, as it's not our place. It isn't right to just feel for the deceased (but it's really easy to do so), we don't know what's going through the mind of an officer responding to a call knowing that there's a man he potentially has to see and confront that has a gun somewhere on him. It's a tough call. How do I feel about THIS situation? Not sure. I can see both ways. I neither defend nor condone what happened, but I understand it and acknowledge that there's a problem on both sides.
The guy in Minnesota. The big news here is that the witness immediately started live streaming after the incident to cover themselves from any future events. As the story goes, the officer was told beforehand that the driver is armed, and is licensed to carry. As he reached for his ID, that's when the whole thing went down. Alright. I thought I had a pretty good opinion here, but as I typed that previous statement something clicked. Why the HELL would you tell an officer that you have a gun on you, when all he wanted was your paperwork for a traffic stop? Why wouldn't your reach for your paperwork as soon as you were asked for it?
"License and registration, please"
"Just so you know, I have a gun and I'm licensed to carry it."
"Uh... okay."
Where do you think this cop's mind is at now? If this is the situation that's happened, then this story just got a lot more conflicted for me. Now I'm at a loss of words. Why wouldn't you just give the cop your damn papers? When he looks you up, he'll probably see that you can carry or whatever the fuck. I dunno what comes up when cops you look up. Would that have changed the situation? Hard to say. By the way the woman was detained for the rest of the night, and also I assume their daughter was in the back seat. That last bit is important. Anyway, this story didn't really bother me until I saw some random dude on facebook post the following image:
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| Too. Many. Periods. Argument. Invalid. |
First of all, fuck your periods. I had to read that shit like fucking Darth Vader. Here's the problem with this picture, and eventually this whole situation. Generalizing. Whoever this random dude is, you need to fix your shit. THEY? Really? It was one officer. One incident. It's people like you who post shit like this that continue to instill fear. Because of what ONE cop did, and because of your stupid "look at me I care and I have an opinion shitpost" the people who are stupid enough to read that and side with you now think the whole police department in Minnesota - nay - the WORLD fired a goddamn gun with a child in the backseat. I wish I were brave enough to confront you. You need to step back and treat this like an isolated incident. I agree that there is a problem. I don't have a solution, but posting stuff like that doesn't help.
Here's what's fucked up about this whole thing. Social media. Trigger happy keyboard warriors (like myself I guess) are up in arms and ready to scream racism. Gun control. Punishment. Riot. What makes me mad is that in x amount of time, this whole thing will fade away - until the next incident and we're all reminded of it again. Nothing will change. We thought it would change with the first incidents and we got body cams, which was a surprisingly good first step. Then we got massacred, now this, and even now reactions to this (I think some cops died in a protest in Texas). We all need to calm down because let's face it. Nothing will change. If change comes, embrace it. We don't have the power we think we have. At least not effectively. Not this way.
I'm not angry about the incidents. I'm angry about the way people react to these incidents. I'm angry that you can get away with showing sympathy and empathy just by joining the hashtag. I'm tired of hearing about your thoughts and prayers. Those who have power to change should use it. It's a terrible reality, but I don't have the power to change. Nor do you. Stop pretending like you do. Stop pretending like you care. Stop feeling like you did something because #yournamehere. Grieve. Gather information, FROM BOTH SIDES. Understand the situation, and move on. No amount of thoughts and prayers will change anything.
ta ta kids
An addendum. You notice that talking about these stories I didn't even mention anything about the people or officers being black or white? But you painted the picture yourself anyway. Also probably you've seen pictures or whatever I'm just trying to be deep here.
