As you probably know, a man was shot and killed a man outside of San Francisco at the Fruitvale station on the BART (commuter rail) by the transportation police. The man was named Oscar Grant III, and his crime appears to have been being drunk and disorderly and involved in a fight. He was hadcuffed at the time, and face down on the cement walkway.
Rumors are flying about the incident. Some people are saying that he was shot because the officer in question thought the gun was his taser. One report suggests that his mental state is in question. Now, over 100 protesters have been arrested in riots that followed.
I just want to get one thing off my chest about this: cops are people. That means that, like any group of people, while some are wonderful human beings and some are evil bastards, most of them fall in the middle. I don't know if this cop was the kind of scum that would knowingly shoot an unarmed man in the back while pinned down or if this was a tragic mistake, but what bothers me is that so many people immediately move to paint all police with the same brush.
Cops are people with jobs. Their jobs are a bit less pleasant than most people's, and that obviously takes its toll, but overall they're just people. To suggest that they're all sadistic power-mongers is just as bad as suggesting that they can never do wrong. Let's make sure that this boy's family gets the help they need to get through this, and that the officers responsible are investigated and delt with appropriately, but let's not make the mistake of thinking that our lives would be better off without someone to call when there's an accident or someone breaks into your home.
Rumors are flying about the incident. Some people are saying that he was shot because the officer in question thought the gun was his taser. One report suggests that his mental state is in question. Now, over 100 protesters have been arrested in riots that followed.
I just want to get one thing off my chest about this: cops are people. That means that, like any group of people, while some are wonderful human beings and some are evil bastards, most of them fall in the middle. I don't know if this cop was the kind of scum that would knowingly shoot an unarmed man in the back while pinned down or if this was a tragic mistake, but what bothers me is that so many people immediately move to paint all police with the same brush.
Cops are people with jobs. Their jobs are a bit less pleasant than most people's, and that obviously takes its toll, but overall they're just people. To suggest that they're all sadistic power-mongers is just as bad as suggesting that they can never do wrong. Let's make sure that this boy's family gets the help they need to get through this, and that the officers responsible are investigated and delt with appropriately, but let's not make the mistake of thinking that our lives would be better off without someone to call when there's an accident or someone breaks into your home.
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