Friday, February 20, 2015

It is time for Police to return to scaled escalation of force.

I was watching Bill Maher last Friday and he had a clip of three police shooting a man who had been throwing rocks. This man was running.away and fell down and the three police just shoot him dead on the street like he was a rabid dog. This is totally unneeded in this situation. The man was down and could have been arrested and taken to jail . To shoot an unarmed when down and there were three policemen there is inexcusable. The police did not know if this man was mentally ill or had some other kind of emotional instability.
It is time for Police to return to scaled escalation of force. If someone is unarmed and the police shoot that person dead they should be tried in a court of law. Just because fully armed police are able to kill an unarmed man does not make it right. If someone is shooting at the police that might be one thing but to kill an unarmed man that is down is just outright murder. The officers could have easyly subdued him with little harm to themselves or the now dead man
It is time for law enforcement officers to return to a form of scaled escalation of force. If someone is violent but not armed then the police can use some force to subdue that person. Back when the motto to protect and serve was more than just a motto on the side of a cop car, the police would use a response of force equal to what was necessary to subdue an offender. To go from chasing someone to murder is not a scaled escalation of  force. If some one is using some physical violence but unarmed it is wrong to just shoot them dead. For the police to use some physical violence would be alright in such a situation. The militarization of our police in this country is way out of control.
Since the government stopped taking care of mentally ill people back in the President Ronald Reagan days, and the government shut down most of the state run mental institutions in favor of the for profit health care systems this has been a very bad problem in our country. There are many mentally ill people that should be getting care that are not, and many of these people are homeless and out on the streets.
Remember "Hands up don't shoot".  And how about Eric Garner for selling cigarets. This is not a scaled escalation of force. Mike Brown stole some cigars, this is against the law but this is not a capital offense. Eric Garner was selling single cigarets, this would be considered a civil offense and maybe a taxation violation but not a capital offense. Both of these men are now dead. Not a scaled escalation of force.
How many other police shootings were not caught on camera or just police brutality out of proportion to the actual situation. How about an officer shooting at a traffic stop into a van full of children.
If someone has a gun and is not shooting the police should not shoot. If someone has a gun and is shooting then it could be considered justified to shoot. If someone is using violence then it could be considered alright to use some violence by the police. If someone is running away that has committed an offense, then it could be considered alright to run after them. If someone is just acting crazy then it would be alright for the police to act crazy also, but not to just shoot them dead.
It is time for law enforcement officers to return to a form of measured and scaled escalation of force. This is just common sense. Its time to rational and just forms of  law enforcement.

Some one asked, "How can we Transition to a Green Economy without Causing a Recession?"

  1. Gradual Subsidy Phase-Out for Fossil Fuels and Agribusiness Year 1–3 : Begin by identifying all direct and indirect subsidies to ...