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

[zazen]

112. how weird--getting attacked from all sides here when I don't even have a position

Let's see--if I'm a cop, I wouldn't be a cop unless I already practiced within a system that enabled greater means of intervention than we have today. That would mean showing up wearing bullet proof vests. It'd also mean having access to technologies that could disarm psychotic, seriously demented, or vastly underage individuals with weapons without killing them--meaning, a stun gun, or a rubber bullet, or a dart gun that would drug them.

If I'm a bystander without children, I'd get out of the way and try to get as many other people out of the way while distracting the young person and doing whatever mind games were necessary to distance that individual from the weapon and yes, I'd probably be willing to put myself at some risk now that I'm older and my kids can survive without me. If I'm with children or have young dependents at home, I protect the kids at all costs and don't risk myself as much.

You're insisting cops have no other choice and I'm blaming them. Yet, some other poster is insisting that by even asking I'm somehow justifying shooting this young person. All for the same question.

What a weird thread with far too many projections. I'm done, because

**Nothing matters right now except the grief of this family and the potential that one day law enforcement will have a better system in place to deal with such difficult situations (and that we can end the senseless NRA dominance that leads to a gun culture and the production of faux guns as well). **