Fear mixed with ignorance. Brains don't reason, then react. It's fight-or-flight first, then you get your chance to think. The thing is, the reason portion has to be taught & learned. If a scared individual hasn't been taught how to reasonably act in a situation, then there's nothing to override the fight-or-flight response. Booze don't help the situation either.
Cops don't need to carry guns. They have shown repeatedly they cannot handle them and putting guns in their hands results in deaths every single day. No one ever talks about taking guns out of cops hands no matter how many of these pointless homicides we see. If we have to choose between 1. a student running away from a cop, resisting arrest and getting away with it 2. a student death I choose them running away. Frankly I also choose the cop getting his ass kicked or the cop beating the student with a club. Whatever option ends up with the kid alive is the best option. Take the guns out of cops hands.
as long as civilians are allowed to carry guns cops are going to need them. if i could wave a magic wand i'd have all guns disappear in the US (civilian and cops), but there's too many in the hands of nut cases that would go crazy if you tried to take them away. the most logical way to go is the route of australia, but for some reason americans think that by having guns they are "free"
a bunch of them are cops and you COULD take those away because they work for us. they are free to carry a gun, but they don't carry them FOR their job unless they are a cop. Your job as a cop is to dish out tickets or write reports not shoot people.
I know and I flipped it to cops because a cop killing a student over a traffic stop is the impetus of this thread. Not to mention dozens of threads and stories. When a student is shot by a student, the discussion leads to gun control instantly. When a cop shoots a student it goes to race or blaming the VICTIM or anything but why the hell does a ticket writer carry a gun with minimal training and skill. There is a difference between someone carrying a gun for self defense and a glorified tax collector carrying a gun while handing out traffic citations.
If I had to choose 1. the student running away to drink and drive again, maybe kill an innocent 2. the student dying for not accepting the consequences of his criminal act I'd choose the latter.
In your second option someone dies no matter what. In the first why not record his plate number and go get him with a few more cops who won't be in fear of their life and shoot him? beat him down, throw him in jail, revoke his license for a few years. I hate drunk drivers, I am all for severely increasing the punishment for those turd buckets.
Because he didn't plan on it escalating to that point? I don't like the increased death-by-cop numbers either, but I have zero tolerance or sympathy for drunk drivers, which cause over 10,000 deaths each year.
I am not showing sympathy for a drunk driver and I think you are blurring the issue here. Speaking out against police shooting doesn't supporting drunk driving. Shooting people doesn't deter drunk driving, so however you feel about the dead guy, the death was senseless. Personally I am the first guy to speak out against drunks, or an even bigger issue, distracted and just plain BAD drivers. I see cop shootings as a completely separate issue. It's almost as if people think we can't punish drunk drivers if we don't shoot them? Save lives all around, I don't see a conflict.
Cop might have panicked and overreacted...he didn't intend to kill anyone that night, but surely did when he got scared. He shouldn't be a cop. I still don't feel bad for the kid the way I'd feel bad for other innocents, b/c he put everyone's life at major risk when he drove drunk. If driving drunk = maybe getting shot by an underqualified cop bc he can't handle himself in high-stress situations around drunks, then I'm okay with that. Still fire the cop, but that craziness should deter someone, anyone, bc as of today, drunk driving punishments in this country are way too easy and ineffective as a deterrent. Merry Christmas.
It won't deter anyone because they don't think it will happen to them. They are much more likely to kill themselves in an accident, which obviously doesn't stop them. I agree under qualified. Not qualified to carry a gun. It is a systematic problem with the police force.
I agree with the systematic problem...it's a tough thing to solve though. We live in a gun society, and if many cops can't carry, then they have little chance if confronting a situation with those who are armed...there would probably be many less cops out there too. And the thing is, you really won't know if a cop can handle a dangerous situation until it happens.
When I was in college, I hated dealing with cops that were about the same age as this guy ~23. Just absolute pricks every single time with some weird chip on their shoulder. I don't think as a 23 yr old you're mature enough to be a law enforcement officer and have a gun. Give 'em tasers until their older.
I'm not sure how great the danger is to police from armed criminals. 31 were killed in the line of duty this year by gunfire. Way less than unarmed people killed by cops. Look at this story. http://www.chron.com/news/houston-t...er-shot-twice-during-traffic-stop-4928745.php When she was shot at, she just followed the car until backup nabbed them. Last year though she she was busting up a party, unarmed people pulled up got angry, tried to drive off and she shot at them. Her gun did nothing positive in either case. Anyways I remain unconvinced traffic cops need guns, and perplexed why everyone thinks they do. The people who blame the gun when a civilian shoots someone places the blame on the cop instead
Don't you think that 31 would go up without guns? Would you ever be a cop? Would you want to be a cop more so if you couldn't carry a gun? I'm not saying your solution is not impractical; I'm just saying it's a hard sell to cops or potential cops.
They don't need them, until they actually do need them. Knowing that all you need is a handgun to have a clear advantage over police officers would be a criminal's dream. Taking guns away from cops is like taking nukes away from all countries in the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Unless there was a way to keep weapons out of everyone's hands, then disarming law enforcement just doesn't make sense. The rampant abuse of privileges is a symptom of an altogether different problem.
Was the student non-black and the officer non-white? Or else this story would have been a major topic for at least a year.
^this. I'm really happy to see that sentiment written. I shouldn't even be on this site right now. It's terrifying and depressing that some people think it's okay to just kill whenever you're scared. I don't know what happened but few things warrant taking another human being's life. If the kid was unarmed then the cop wasn't gonna die from this altercation. But hey, I'm just a guitar playing, vegetarian, music lover that lives in Austin. What do I know?
