I just left a short book of a comment on a very one sided thread about the 12 year old boy who was shot while pointing a very convincing BB gun at two cops as they arrived to the scene of a police call. I KNOW it will get one or two skims at best and I will probably be deemed Adolf Hitlers evil twin. But if any of you have the time, please give it a read (the WHOLE thing, do not just skim and assume) and let me know if I am being insane here... Because I am seeing a very scary pattern that I truly believe we need to recognize. No bullshit. I want feedback. But really read it, and please put your preconceived assumptions to the wayside: The world has become a very unreasonable place.... But I am not talking about the cops. Is this heart breaking? Absolutely. But what would you expect the cops to do in that situation. The article stresses that they acted in two seconds... Well how many seconds would it have taken for them to be shot if the kid happened to be what he absolutely appeared to be? I will give you a hint... Potentially LESS than two seconds. (I have personally seen this happen, for the record) People make mistakes. It looked like a real gun. It was not a toy. It was a BB gun. It did not have mandated cosmetic requirements that look alikes have. The child was apparently playing cops and robbers and stayed in character. You say They acted in 2 seconds, but from their perspective, two seconds might not be enough to save their lives. Nobody won here. I bet those guys did more than shed a few tears over this. I am sure this will haunt them for the rest of their lives. But what if they hesitated and it was what it rightfully appeared to be. An unknown teen looking hostile and apparently going to shoot them.... Why doesnt anyone have empathy anymore? They just look at a headline... Identify a few words and sum up their opinion over something that will affect the people involved for the rest of their lives. But another thing, I might add... Why does NO ONE EVER QUESTION the parents anymore???? When I was a kid, I knew never to point even a BB gun or even a TOY gun at a cop. When I was younger than this boy. No one even stops to think that sometimes... not all the time, sadly... but sometimes a dead child can be the biproduct of poor parenting. And a 12 year old..not a 4 year old... not a 9 year old... a 12 year old pointed what was made to look exactly like a legit firearm at two cops and acted hostile. Again... this is heart breaking, but you have to look at it for what it really is if you want to avoid it in the future. When I was a little kid.. they started putting warnings on different things to remind parents of the responsibility they have. Now... we just let them run around like unsupervised ferrel wildlings and blame the effects of a tragedy and never the cause. Preventative care is the number one medicine for the majority of our problems. If you care about this child... be reasonable and understand that while this is extremely unfortunate (in the worst way), to overlook the position the cops were in is making two tragedies out of one. But to encourage society to LEARN how to avoid it can bring at least something good out of something so tragic. Do you really think those cops would have killed a 12 year old with a BB gun if they had any idea? Do you think even if they WERE the WORST PEOPLE on earth... that they would want the backlash that would follow? Of course not. Look at how they fumbled out of the car. The kid scared them shitless. Their lives probably flashed before their eyes ten times before they frantically did what they did... and when the smoke cleared, I can only imagine how horrified they were. Just remember... You dont know those cops... and each of them is also somebodys child. Just a little something to think about.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 03:46:58 +0000