Many of us have seen the cell phone video footage of this incident, but the scene is still beyond belief. There must be some alternative to pumping twelve slugs into an obviously disturbed knife-wielding shoplifter at point blank range. We hear about the merits of a proportional response, but none were visibly taken here. When the 911 caller mentioned that the shoplifter had stolen, walked outside, walked back in and stolen again, should police dispatchers have considered that this guy might not be all there? Are there mental health crisis intervention personnel at the disposal of the St. Louis PD? Might they have shot once or twice? Shot to injure? Dont they have Tasers? None of us who do not wear the uniform of law enforcement can authoritatively say what we would or wouldnt do in this situation. My brother wears that uniform. I cant think of many things worse than a scenario where my Marine Corp veteran/Boston SWAT officer/baby brother lost his life because he didnt do enough to protect himself and his community-- then again, I cant think of many things worse than a sibling/child/friend being shot a dozen times over a couple of sodas and a donut. It might sound naive, but I just think weve got to figure out a better way of dealing with these situations.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 12:35:07 +0000
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