America Desperately Needs Police To Police Police

Do you remember that time as a kid when adults would encourage you to understand what the American Dream actually means, encourage you to dream and inspire you to chase your dreams.  Before we left elementary school, it seemed everybody  bigger than you wanted to know what you wanted to do with your life and would challenge you with coming up with an actual answer.

I was never that shy kid who froze in the face of adults, but the question always did make you freeze a bit.  In your wildest dreams you had probably dreamed of being a super hero or fireman.  You know?  Someone heroic.

A couple of really smart kiss ups and a few rare exceptions to the rule would actually say they want to be their mom or dad who they saw as a hero.  In reality, the conflict of seeing regular people as heroes and heroines is much of the reason we turned Saturday television into super-hero cartoons and other images for young people to be inspired by.

A couple of courageous dreamers like myself actually had the gumption to say that we would like to be the President of the United States of America- but that answer only lasted for as long as that job remained honorable and respectable and not so regularly criticized by the media that covered them.


Don't you remember when big people asked you what you wanted to do with your life and saying "a police officer" was an admirable answer and an easy way to get big people out of your face?

To dream of being a president is now close to the same category of being a cop in the balance of love versus loathing for each otherwise respectable life endeavor.

I wasn't exactly born back during the "Officer Friendly" era, but I was still influenced by the impact of the message of community policing; or the calming comedy genius of the Andy Griffith Show and how his uniform never made you concerned or angry towards the guy with the gun.

It might just be a part of my imagination sparked by the insistence that we dream so much, but I recall every super hero show starting with the same trumpeting music and a declaration of their mission being something about Truth, Justice and the American way.

I can't even say those words aloud without wanting to poke my chest to the wind and fasten my fists at my waist side.  Policing was the only real equivalent to being a super hero, and smart kids who realized that big people kind of laughed when you said you were going to be Shazaam when you grew up, started using the "I'm going to be a cop" answer as a more respectable default.

Not anymore.

Anymore, someone who tells me they want to be a police officer instantly makes me wonder who they know in their family that inspired such a choice.  Anymore, I want to ask them exactly what they hope to do in policing in the fear that they are joining a job with diminished respect and increased volatility as a result.

Anymore, I wonder how an institution that most regular people depend on in times of trouble, has now become an institution that is universally agreed to be exponentially better than their reputation.

So how do people that are mostly doing the kind of work that everyone needs and very few have the courage to do, become the figures of disdain and disapproval?

That answer is as easy as produce.

One bad squash can ruin the entire batch of .....squashes.

Produce you ask yourself?

Absolutely.  

For as long as we've grown fruits and vegetables for human consumption, we've known that one bad piece of produce can ruin the entire batch.  Although this example is usually described with the use of apples, it is no less true of the rest of the produce department.  If you don't get rid of the bad one's, they will spoil everything else.

Police actually get on television and admit that no organization, including police, can claim to be free of bad apples.  If that is an accepted truth just as we accept that most- maybe 99% of police- are actually good, than why don't we have more situations of those 99% of good cops throwing out the bad apples or admitting when they've found one?

What we do know is that the institution of policing is AUTOMATICALLY predisposed to blacken the life of ANY person that they kill under the natural protocol of PROTECTING THEIR OWN. What we do know is that Corey Jones- the drummer recently killed roadside in Florida by a plain cloths police officer who did not announce himself- had a gun.

I could use this moment to criticize the value of more guns in a nation with less clarity about when they should be deployed, but I will save that for later. Right now I need to know why we know about his gun?  Unless his gun had something to do with his death, its presence should have remained an investigative secret.

It is not a secret, but the police report from the officer who killed Jones is.

How can we really have 99% good police and damn near 0% of whistle blowing from police? What does whistle blowing look like?  A police killing in which we don't already reveal the excuse for the cops behavior before we take a fair and balanced examination into the death and why it happened. Will there ever be cops who do their job exactly the same regardless of who commits a crime?  When that finally happens, it will be the first.

Florida allows George Zimmerman acts.  Is there one person in the world who thinks Corey Jones would not be on trial for murder if he used his Floridian rights to protect himself at that moment and also came out alive?

If police readily admitted the crimes of their brethren,
would we need to pay for chest cams?

Shouldn't the people who are paid to solve crimes finally uncover a few crimes among their own?  Would it not be an element of credibility for cops to expose their bad apples instead of instantly protecting them as a buy product of how they do business, forcing the community to sniff out their malfeasance?

In the spirit of Truth, Justice and the American way, this is wrong.  Until police police police, they will retain the smell of their own produce, for the spirit of truth demands justice be served to corrupt cops as well as those who serve to protect them.

Square Biz Feedback (Michael Dunn Trial): This Was Murder.....and the trial will bear that out

I disagree.  (with my original post)


This is clearly an example of 

murder and I believe the trial will bear that

 out.  One thing that is clearly missing from

 the discussion is that statistically speaking, a

 person who legally owns a gun or a conceal

carry permit, is far less likely to commit a 

criminal act than any demographic.  

I am not saying crimes are not committed, 

but as a whole, they are the most law abiding 

of all citizens.  I don't know many "Stand 

your ground" supporters that are holding this 

guy up as a poster boy.  He, at least from the 

coverage, shot an un-armed person, who was 

not a threat to him.  



Zimmerman case is a bit different in that eye 

witness testimony, along  with other evidence 

showed Zimmerman was at least taking a 

beating.

Florida Must Protect Michael Dunn In Order To Preserve It's Law

If you go to Colorado and you are an adult, you can now legally smoke marijuana.  If you travel to Washington, the same is true.  Head out to Vegas and there is legal gambling a plenty.  The prostitution is not technically legal in Vegas like it is in neighboring Reno, Nevada, but no one seems to care that prostitutes advertise openly in the phone book.

There are states you move to when you wish to have lower taxes on your income and states that have plentiful wild game, along with the freedom to bag a few.  If for some reason you are a gun advocate and are sick of crime taking over our streets, you could live in a few states that might cater to your qualms, but none better than Florida. Sunny skies, plush beaches, beautiful people and the kind of stand your ground laws that make you excited to be carrying a weapon.

Did you ever get the feeling that the Keystone pipeline is an inevitable that is getting jammed up for as long as environmentalist can?  Guns make me feel the same way.  The more people scream about banning guns, the higher sales rise in response.  Guns are more than a protected constitutional right, they are a big time business and the line of shoppers seems to never disappear.  Anything that inspires big money can only be defeated by bigger money.

Moreover, the voice of those who use guns has made it perfectly clear that we need more guns in the hands of the good guys just to keep pace with the bad guys.  We have to stop relying on law enforcement and make everyone a potential enforcer of the law.  We must encourage criminals to stop and think about the risk of encountering a person who is prepared to shoot first and ask questions later.

What that means in the end is that we must put our laws where our mouth is  by creating an environment that tests the theories.  If Florida is going to create a state that starts teaching these thugs to be afraid, Florida must preserve the rights of the vigilante, rights that Florida forged into law.  Many rats die in the science lab, but not because no one tried to keep them alive.  Florida has to keep this lab rat alive for the sake of the experiment and for the sake of the argument.



Michael Dunn has the weight of a social ideology behind him on this killing.  Zimmerman did too, but Zimmerman silenced the only voice that could send him to jail.  Dunn has voices to the contrary of his recollection, but they are not fighting for the right to bear arms or the right to use them like Florida lawmakers intended in the making of state gun use laws.

If I had only been so clever as a young man, I would have told mom that I shot my brother with the BB gun because he was walking near me with that same look on his face that he had the last time he beat me up.  What does she want me to do?  Take the first strike, or protect myself and explain my motives later?

Since the choice involved a gun, mom probably charges Dunn with manslaughter (in accordance with Florida law) and I lose my gun for the summer, or until she forgets she is punishing me.  Both punishments will hardly fit the crime....(sorry mom).

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Michael Dunn, George Zimmerman and Florida Proving More Gun Theory Before Our Eyes

Michael Dunn, George Zimmerman and Florida Proving "More Gun" Theory Before Our Eyes

Whenever you create laws that protect your use of guns, you run the risk of indisputable vigilantism.

The real surprise is not that we have yet another teen killing in Florida, the surprise is that we don't have more.  'When Michael Dunn gets off for the murder of 17 year old Jordan Davis, we all will get to argue over some peculiar facts.  Dunn will get acquitted for rolling down his window and asking the car load of black youth, "are you talking to me?".  It appears that they were guilty of playing that "rap crap" a bit too loudly for Dunn's liking.  But it was the shot gun that they just so happened to be riding down the street with, which they proceeded to aim at Dunn, causing him to shoot back in self defense.  No shotgun was found so Dunn surmises that they got rid of it before they tried to save the life of their friend.

Did Dunn just so happen to have his gun cocked and ready when he saw the shotgun, or did he swiftly respond to the sight of a shotgun by reaching to get his own gun and opening fire before getting one bullet in return fire; especially from a shooter who already had their hand on the trigger of the gun Dunn claims to have stared down the barrel at.

Much like George Zimmerman, he only has sensibility working against him, none of which resides in Florida.  Well, to be fair, there might be a lot of sensible people living in Florida.  Some might even be on the jury in this trial, but the law that they allowed through intention or neglect has offered an easy way to ease an itchy trigger finger.

You don't have to own guns as an adult to remember your journey with guns.  For boys and girls all over the land, our love affair with guns began long long ago, after fulfilling some birthday or Christmas wish.

Your first piece was one of those noise making kind that look pretty fake, but made you feel like a cowboy.  These guns are wrought with positives and negatives.  The positive is that a kid with a pretty good imagination could spend hours with that noisy crap and never make you worry about damage to anything but your nerves.

The down side is that kids grow up pointing safe guns at the face of one another, which is not a habit that works well when the trigger finally releases more than a noise.  Our safe guns became like candy cigarettes;  probably okay to have, but an odd behavior to promote.

When I first got a BB gun, I couldn't wait to go outside each morning and try to take out a squirrel or a bird in my area.  I tried to be a safe user of the toy, as did my friends, but most of us remember hitting someone in the face with a pellet, or taking one ourselves.

Firing ranges are probably fun, but don't you ever drive around with your legal gun, or walk in an ugly side of town with your permit to carry and think; "I really hope some idiot gives me a reason today"?

No?

Never?

Well, if you never get the urge to wake up early and clean your new assault rifle and stand with it in your front room and imagine that burglar you bought it for, you are better than me. I had to get rid of all thoughts of video games because I get obsessive over new toys.  An actual gun would have me dreaming of making one of those internet videos, 'murder of a watermelon'. My first watermelon was a poor squirrel that got the unfortunate luck of my sling shot and a strong wind when it fell from the power line to the ground. (Head trauma.....didn't end well).

I am certain that this has something to do with my aversion to weapons of all kind, yet the depravity did not end there.

That dead squirrel that I accidentally killed on purpose did not cure me.  Someone, probably not me, had to finish that squirrel with a shovel and dump it in the dumpster because I made excuses when confronted with what had happened, and I ran from the responsibility in the end.  I wasn't quite 7 yet, but I knew better even though killing that squirrel was the reason for making the sling shot.  If I got caught hitting a person I would not get to use them anymore, so I practiced on bottles until I thought I could hit an animal.

I missed every animal, until I didn't.

Guns are so dangerous that most states put harsh penalties around the misuse of them.  Florida has made it easier to consider the option more readily.  Florida has said what all gun rights activist seem to believe, that our problem is not too many guns, its not enough guns in the hands of good people. What that statement declares is that good people, whoever and wherever you are, must start packing a piece and LOOK for an opportunity to do good for your country.  If you do not feel safe to act, the very concept of citizens with guns loses its value and purpose.

You see, the theory is that criminals need to start getting shocked when they discover that people will defend themselves and pop a cap in your ass.  Once again, this demands the willingness and freedom to shoot first and ask questions later....and not go to prison.  You can't claim the power of a gun in the hands of normal people and not make it easier for normal people to use them without hesitation.  The people who write these laws are the normal people with guns imagining what they might need from the law when they are forced to pop a cap in your ass.

They are absolutely right in regards to the demands of a law that says shooting people is the way to get bad folks to worry about who has a gun.  If you make a mistake in the process, you need only the defense of motive to gain the protection of the law.  Even if their theory happens to one day coincide with reduced crime in Florida, the connection to the killing of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, and others before them, and more to come will be coincidental at best.

If Michael Dunn gets convicted to anything, it won't be hard time like some are hoping for.  Such a conviction and sentence would shoot a bullet into the intent of this Florida law.  A soft sentence like probation and anger management training will preserve the sanctity of this stand your ground law.......and will piss off those looking for justice to high heaven.

Next Post:  The Future of Stand Your Ground Laws