Hatred of Cops and Support of Drug Legalization

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

14. ^----- This----^

I've known some pretty decent cops, my sister's husband was a cop for a while. But what seems to be passing for 'acceptable behaviour' for police when dealing with unarmed males, some committing absolutely no crime at all, is totally ridiculous. Some cops are great, some rescue dogs, small babies, what have you. And others roll up and open fire within seconds, without even trying anything to de-escalate, without even seeing if the person they're shooting at is actually holding a weapon of any sort, is holding a toy, is freaking willing to simply drop it. No, for some it's 'shoot first and don't bother asking any questions later, because you killed them'. And then people turn around and say 'Oh, that's totally justified!'

In what insane, idiotic world, is it acceptable to shoot someone simply because you're afraid? Because you imagine they 'might' be 'reaching for their waistband', 'might' have a real gun, instead of a toy they just picked up off some shelves?

Saying that cops who do these sorts of things should face actual punishment for simply acting thoughtlessly, out of fear, and killing people who were absolutely no danger is not 'cop hatred'. It's the absolute least we should demand when agents of the state who are empowered to hold the power of life and death over the rest of us, kill someone who turns out NOT to have been any real threat. When they shoot someone carrying a toy, carrying an unloaded weapon, hell, not even carrying anything other than a cell phone or nothing at all.

If you think you're magically immune to being gunned down because of the colour of your skin, think again. You're a lot less likely to be killed by somebody who shoots out of fear, but you're not immune. So yeah, there should be a damn high bar on allowing police to simply shoot people down, and when it turns out they shot someone that there was absolutely no need to shoot, they should face penalties.

And that's not 'hate'.