I think cameras on every law enforcement dashboard, on every chest. If this had been a white woman, I don't think the officer would have been so quick to shoot. I think we need to go to more non-lethal means of stopping suspects if we are going to have trigger happy officers. Reach for your taser first, maybe.
I think there's more to this problem, some inherent escalation, a prejudice that compels certain law enforcement officer (LEO) types to respond out of fear instead of out of critical thinking. The argument I've heard on this is that critical thinking takes too much time, that LEOs have a right to go home to their families at night. Granted. But so did this guy. The LEO never saw this guy's hands before he started shooting, at a range of less than 21 feet. The training standard encourages LEOs to be hyper-vigilant at close quarters like this, which exacerbates the critical process. The driver is lucky this LEO was a terrible shot - another indication, by the way, that the LEO was escalated. Your link doesn't show the entire context of the stop, something worth considering as well.
I think cameras on every law enforcement dashboard, on every chest. If this had been a white woman, I don't think the officer would have been so quick to shoot. I think we need to go to more non-lethal means of stopping suspects if we are going to have trigger happy officers. Reach for your taser first, maybe.
ReplyDeleteI think there's more to this problem, some inherent escalation, a prejudice that compels certain law enforcement officer (LEO) types to respond out of fear instead of out of critical thinking. The argument I've heard on this is that critical thinking takes too much time, that LEOs have a right to go home to their families at night. Granted. But so did this guy. The LEO never saw this guy's hands before he started shooting, at a range of less than 21 feet. The training standard encourages LEOs to be hyper-vigilant at close quarters like this, which exacerbates the critical process. The driver is lucky this LEO was a terrible shot - another indication, by the way, that the LEO was escalated. Your link doesn't show the entire context of the stop, something worth considering as well.
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