Justice for Tamir Rice! 12 year old shot and killed for a BB gun.

[zazen]

87. like I asked upthread, what if this were a seven-year-old? or four-year-old?

Is the only way to disarm someone shooting to kill? What if this is a small child?

We can imagine all sorts of scenarios where children intentionally or accidentally get into mischief where they're about to, I don't know, pour water on something electrical that would electrocute people nearby, or be playing with matches near a gas leak or a puddle of spilled kerosene, or God knows what else might harm themselves and lots of other people. Do we shoot to kill?

I've asked in other threads, why don't police have medicalized dart guns? I was told, well, it could amputate or seriously injure the target. Well, isn't that better than definitely injuring or killing them with a bullet?

As a 21st century first world parent I had to figure out all sorts of ways to keep my kids from dangerous behavior without physically restraining or hitting them, and as any parent knows, sometimes that's hard as hell with a determined, willful, furious, large five year old in the throws of a temper tantrum. I came out with one permanent injury and regular bruises and I'm itty bitty.

Women talk down their batterers all the time. We talk down date rapists and street harassers. Some of us had physically abusive parents--my Dad and grandfather both pulled guns on their wives. I guess that's why this pisses me off. I've faced violence my whole life and had to talk my way out of it, and these guys are large, armed, trained, and have backup and they can't talk down a kid?