The Shooting by a Volunteer Police Officer

The news has been buzzing with yet again another police involved shooting.  This time by a 73 year old volunteer deputy in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area.  This deputy mistakenly used his gun instead of his stun gun.

I have several thoughts about this situation, and this is my space to put them out there.  First, with the way things are, police work being inherently dangerous, I do not believe volunteer officers should be on street patrol, leave that to the professionals, There are places they can serve in the department that could better serve the community.  Second, No reserve officer should ever participate in a sting operation, again leave that to the professionals. 

Now I am not one for age discrimination however, Police work is stressful, physical, and requires alertness and use of all faculties.  At his age and training I question the wisdom of his being a gun carrying street patrol officer especially being involved in a sting, and  foot chase. 

Speaking to his use of his gun, instead of his stun gun, besides his apparent lack of experience, the danger and stress of the situation plus again his age, I have to wonder about his mental awareness. 

Does he have a history of stroke, heart disease, dementia etc..  These are just my thoughts about the situation. 

The Shootings!

In the news there have been quite a few shootings that have garnered much attention in the news.  This blog is my opportunity to express my thoughts, mostly on gay issues but anything that I feel strongly about.

I have been thinking about these shootings by police officers, and what appears to be excessive use of force.  Also of shootings by citizens I hear about on the news. I am not going to get into the details of specific cases in this post.  I just want to say here in my opinion, the killings, wounding's, are part of a deeper issue that runs across our society and the world.  It has always been  there under the surface, but in the past decade or two it has become more prevalent. It has a multitude of causations,  race, general prejudices, gang violence, crime in general are talked about in the news, but not any one of these issues is the root of it all.

In my opinion the root cause is a devaluation of human life.  it runs all through our society all the way through our justice system.  To the point that someone kills another human being over a place in line and the charges are dropped, To a person who follows a young man who has done nothing wrong,  and gets into a fight with him kills him in the name of stand your ground, and is acquitted. 

It goes on. So we will continue to see this call it a racial issue, blame gangs, drugs, police overstepping authority... the root is the devaluation of life.