So let me get this straight, mainstream media outlets. Only model citizens have the right to not get killed while being arrested. It's not enough to be unarmed. You have to be perfect as well as unarmed. If you were selling loose cigarettes, got in trouble at school, were behind on child support, had weed in your pocket, had an unpaid parking ticket, or ran then you were a thug who deserved to get shot to death or choked to death or otherwise executed. That's what I'm being told. Man. That's messed up. I'm not condoning these actions, but these are not actions where you should get killed as a result of being arrested. So only certain groups of people get their day in court?
The man who helped his brother pull off the Boston Marathon bombing got to get captured alive and received a full trial to boot, while an unarmed man who owed child support gets shot in the back. You can close your eyes and pretend that none of this affects you. You can tell yourself you're the right skin color or the right religion or have the right educational background or whatever you want to tell yourself. Keep telling yourself you're better than "those thugs who got killed by the cops." Keep claiming that "it could never happen to me or to anyone I love."
The cold hard fact is that if you keep silent on what's happening now in some communities, the day will come when you will be completely in a police state with no rights. And then that's it. Demanding that the police are properly trained on the proper use of lethal force and that police officers with a history of unwarranted violence or discrimination or corruption need to be removed from being police officers does not mean that you're for anarchy in society. Standing up and consistently demanding the best from police departments puts the bad cops on notice to find something else to do and helps to give good cops the support needed to do their jobs well.
There's a lot of other discussions we could have, but this post today is about the police and unarmed suspects.
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