How about this from the UK’s left wing Guardian newspaper: After Oscar Grant, just take guns away from US police officers. Strap-line: “Police should find a more rigorous way to do their job – unarmed.” So . . “People all across America are upset, disappointed and angry about the Oscar Grant verdict, which many see as symptomatic of a much deeper issue. They want to know why this type of accident only seems to happen to black kids. It’s hard to remember the last time a police officer accidentally killed a young white person. Why do unarmed black people statistically overrepresented when it comes to police shootings?”
Funny. I seemed to have missed that debate. Anyway, what’s a black female journalist living in the U.S. catering to white British liberals think we should do to get rid of deadly institutional racism?
I would simply take the guns away. It may be time to really rethink the point of police officers routinely carrying guns. At least then this type of incident would not happen. Tasers, which are becoming increasingly sophisticated and employing multi-shot capabilities, are already lethal weapons which can kill as well as stun. Should those not be enough?
They should! But they aren’t. But we’re listening . . .
The public looks to the police for protection, yet if a trained law enforcement officer cannot even tell the difference between a Taser and a gun, what hope for protection is there? Perhaps without guns, police would have to be more creative and rigorous when it comes to getting their jobs done. At least this way, we’d have less cases of police firing now and apologising later.
I doubt it. But it’s certainly true that officer Mehserle was poorly trained. In fact, most police firearms training is more than merely insufficient. It sucks. Cops need regular combat-style training, instead of monthly target qualification. And if those police reality shows are anything to go by, they also need to recalibrate their belief that they’re social workers first, authority figures second. Just sayin’ . . .
