A License To Kill…
There has been a lot of controversy in the news of late over Police Officers killing unarmed citizens during petty offense encounters, minor traffic stops, or when they were simply trying to get away. Most people blame the Police and look to city governments for justice and to do something about it. But what people fail to realize is that these killings are not the fault of the Police, bad cops, or even the Grand Juries directly, but the State/City governments / legislative bodies themselves; with the Justice System and Police Departments being only slightly less culpable. The fact is that most legislative bodies at the State and City levels have enacted laws that allow Police to use deadly force under a wide range of circumstances, not just in defense of life or limb; and they are also sheltered from civil suit.. Usually all a Police Officer has to say is that he felt “threatened” and create a semi-plausible story to get a free pass from being charged with homicide. When the laws are written this way, Grand Juries have no choice but not to indict Police.
Further, although people video taping police committing these killings have done much to give-the-lie to many Police who claim “self defense”, States (in order to counter this) have enacted, or are in the process of enacting, laws that make it a crime to video tape Police making an arrest or confronting an individual. This is just an outrageous attempt to protect bad cops from prosecution or censure, and something has to be done!
To be fair, Police do have a dangerous job, and whenever they respond to a crime they potentially place their life in jeopardy. Yet this does not give them the right to gun down an unarmed citizen without even attempting to use non-lethal means. Police have been trained to subdue or take people into custody using a wide range of tactics, including the use of non-lethal weapons, and it is these means that should be used first. Thus, to purposefully shoot-to-kill an unarmed suspect or detainee is simply homicide, and is murder when committed at a safe distance from the officer.
Also, what state and city governments fail to realize is that by giving Police the power to (essentially) execute someone on the street without due process of law, actually places Police in great danger, and perverts the purpose of law enforcement by giving people second thoughts of calling Police for help. Thus when communities fear being killed by Police more than by criminals (whether justified or not), you can expect a significant rise in Police killings (as seen in Ferguson, Mo). People (and Police) will generally kill out of fear, thus when people develop such a fear of being killed by Police, they may take pre-emptive action and shoot first when approached by them. They may even kill out of revenge for what they perceive as failed justice in a system that allows Police to kill without repercussions.
