How many more of these police shootings must we witness before it stops? The latest shooting victim, Charles Kinsey, is a caregiver at a group home.
Mr. Kinsey was shot as he lay on the ground with his hands up. He told the police he was a caregiver and that he was trying to take care of an autistic man who walked out of the group home.
Didn't matter. The police shot him anyway.
Why wasn't the officer who shot him arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon? Why wasn't he booked into the county jail? Why didn't he sit in custody until someone posted a bond? Why isn't he going to court to answer to the charges against him?
Here is the bullshit response from the police:
“There is preliminary information that North Miami Police Officers were dispatched to the scene after a 911 call was received of an armed male suspect threatening suicide. Arriving officers attempted to negotiate with two men on the scene, one of whom was later identified as suffering from autism. The other man was later identified as an employee of an assisted living facility. At some point during the on-scene negotiation, one of the responding officers discharged his weapon, striking the employee.”
"Later identified." That's funny. Mr. Kinsey identified himself as a caregiver right before he was shot.
When I was helping a colleague at work today who was have a difficult and frustrating time operating our postage machine, it made me think about a parallel to our justice system. I have been using this machine for more than a year and frequently do troubleshooting on it when everyone else has problems with it. For me (because I actually read the instruction manual that I keep on the shelf next to the machine, which is too much trouble for everyone else) the machine has always worked great.
ReplyDeleteIt took me this moment today to realize that the machine of justice system isn't perfect but it works really well. Sur we could always raise the standard of proof and eliminate the death penalty but the machine is the best in the world.
The problem is the operators of this machine that are faulty. Devon Anderson for example is an operator within this system that needs to be replaced and many others including Ron Hickman should also be replaced. We have many operating this system whom either have no since of justice, have not educated themselves on the instruction manual, abuse the system, and try to obtain ends that the system was not designed to produce.
My point is to get out and vote to replace those faulty operators. Since often the choice is between two poorly qualified operators, we must choose the least of the two evils however marginal the difference may be.