Wednesday, November 26, 2014

What was the excuse this time?

Black boy? The caller had to be asked several times about the person's ethnic, excuse me, COLOR, "Was he black or white?" 

The police arrived and never did an assessment. Simply shot the boy who was doing nothing wrong. It was a bee-bee gun and that can cause minor injuries to human beings and I am sure some nightmare injuries, but, it wasn't a lethal weapon. 


November 26, 2014
By Rheana Murray 


The video of a Cleveland police officer (click here) shooting a 12-year-old boy who had a toy gun was released today after the department consulted with the boy's family.
Police initially withheld the video from the public while discussing handling of the disturbing footage with the family of Tamir Rice, the boy who was shot in a playground on Saturday.
"The family did not initially want the video to be released, but after reviewing it... expressed their wish to us" to make it public, Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said today.
Williams urged the public and the media to be cautious in the handling of the video.
"I want people to bear in mind this is a 12-year-old boy. ... The family will have to view it over and over," he said....
All these cases have the same thing in common, police acted without any thought except their own protection when never was there a threat and it is now a civil liability case because the officers won't be charged with anything.
This is what a gun culture looks like. The society is saturated with guns and munitions and willful lifestyles, hence breeding death. One innocent life after another. At the time of Sandy Hook the body count was 30 thousand a year. 

A wave of mass shootings (click here) have occurred over the past few years, often garnering extensive media coverage. Despite those tragic attacks and the roughly 30,000 deaths by firearms that occur every year, moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS' NewsHour failed to ask the presidential candidates about gun violence during the first presidential debate, the only forum specifically dedicated to domestic policy....

In the year 2000, after Columbine, guns were an important issue. The topic garnered a great deal of time in presidential debates. As time went by the idea of including such a topic in any debate faded to the point where it disappeared off the radar. In 2000, gun violence deaths were decreasing. It has decreased since. When the President of the USA cares about the safety of the country and speaks openly about the importance of protecting children and making our streets safer, it matters.

The language and the effort has to be within our political dialogue and the louder the better. 

The phenomena being noted with race and killing of innocent people also needs to be kept in the debate.