I've been silent on the issue lately, but I've grown more and more irritated with the posts.
I've seen some really crapy police behavior myself, but instead of generalizing, try and stick to specifics. Because in truth, once you do that, you find more good cops than bad, and its by a big margin. Statements such as "they lie in wait for the opportunity to arrest - kill, if necessary - men and women who have served time or been shoved through the justice system one way or another." That just fans the flames. So does further racism in both directions from blacks or whites. That goes for the apologist who will back either side up too for whatever reason. Granted mentally ill people have it tough, but if one pulls a gun and starts shooting at you what would you do? Deploy active listening skills so you could understand their (real) pain as you begin bleeding all over the place? So specifically, if one person shoots a cop, or any other person for that reason, and it's not murder, what would you call it? Please don't take offence, I honestly want to know. And I would like to see some specifics, because criticism is all fine and dandy, but without anyone talking about some sort of alternative solutions, what difference will it make? So take the recent event of your choice (this will have to be minneapolis events to follow list rules), someone is shooting, what do you do, what's the alternative as bullets are flying in a residential area, and the cops can't shoot back, because the possibly ill person with a weapon might get hurt or die? And please be specific. What's the alternative to the actions that were taken? I don't want criticism of what happened, but what you would have done differently, and why you think that it would have solved the crisis better. Example; Your the police officer, and you see a drug deal and the dealer runs. What would you do? What if they have a weapon? And I'm going to hold you to the rules. Leagalizing drugs is not an answer. Cops today don't have that option, so neither will you. A person is aiming a gun at you. What would YOU do? A person fires the gun. What would YOU do? Please be specific. I'm sure that any new, realistic, workable ideas would have a good listening audience. And if its really good it might even catch on and change police policy. Tom Holtzleiter Kingfield _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
