By now, I’m sure anyone reading these words has heard of the unreal as fuck case of the black behavioral therapist getting shot while trying to protect his Latino autistic patient. Unreal, I say, just unreal. Dude was on his back, hands up, stating who he was and what was going on.
How more “I’m harmless” did this man have to be? Unconscious?
And the police department has been doling out excuses like that was their job (and let’s face it, it is). Dude asked at the moment why he was shot, and the cop said “I don’t know”.
Then they tell us that the cop was aiming at dude’s patient. Because that’s gonna sound sooo much better. “I wasn’t aiming for the black guy, I was aiming for the Latino sitting down with a toy truck not bothering nobody.” Damn, Officer Trigger Happy, you’re one shit shot.
And now, Officer Take Away His Guns Please has made a statement. He claims that he “did what he had to do”.
“I took this job to save lives and help people,” the officer said in a statement released Thursday by the union. “I did what I had to do in a split second to accomplish that and hate to hear others paint me as something I’m not.”
Let that sit in your mind for a moment. Swirl it around if it helps, just don’t get dizzy or give yourself a migraine. He made a split second decision and shot the wrong man. Fuck, he had the situation all wrong as well, because neither one of these men deserved a bullet.
And it still doesn’t explain why he handcuffed the bleeding, wounded, innocent man he’d just shot, treating him like a damn criminal. Was that something he “had to do”, too.
I see he hates being painted as something he’s not. My tiny violin is broken, so fuck him. Right now I’m painting your ass as an incompetent boob with some ingrained racist tendencies (and don’t get smart. I know the cop is Hispanic). My own boobs are more competent, and they can’t even hold a gun.
But here’s something I’ma need journalists to do; ask questions. Ask more questions. Ask for explanations and don’t stop until you get them. He wrote that he did “did what he had to do”. What did he have to do? Did he listen to Mr. Kinsey? Was he told that the object in the patient’s hand wasn’t a fucking gun? Why did he handcuff Mr. Kinsey? Why did he say “I don’t know” to an innocent man he’d just shot?
Don’t just regurgitate what the Department is giving you, get deeper into that shit. Not just in police shootings, but everywhere. It’s still election season. That homophobic politician just claimed to have gay friends. Ask about them. Same with racists who have BLANK friends. Ask why did the fucking cops leave someone they shot on the ground for hours? Didn’t they think to radio for medical help? Are we supposed to be comfortable with that, knowing that a cop can just let you die because they think you guilty of something?
Mainstream journalists need to dig deeper. No wonder they’re losing out to all of the Internet. Less of this weaksauce ‘reporting’ and more actual journalism. Just think of the scoop you could get by interviewing that ‘phobic politician’s gay friend. Just think of look on the police union officer’s face as they have to decide to answer that common sense question, and look foolish, or skip it, and look even more foolish. It would be awesome!
Fuck, I might even start paying attention to the news on TV.