Saturday, November 07, 2015

RIP Jeremy Mardis

Louisiana Police Arrest 2 Officers in Boy's Shooting Death

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/louisiana-police-arrest-officers-boys-shooting-death-35037587

Louisiana State Policecharged the city marshals that killed six-year-old autistic boy Jeremy Mardis (pictured) and critically injured his father Chris Few with second-degree murderĀ 


Does anybody else find this disturbing? I find it disturbing on so many different levels that I don't even know where to begin so I will begin by sharing a photo of the little boy who died instead of a photo of the police officers who shot him dead. I will not go back over the sordid details. If you care to read them, the link to the story from ABC news is at the beginning of this posting. The only thing I do want to share from the story is this quote from a press conference held Friday, November 7, 2015.

     'Let's make tonight about Jeremy Mardis. That little boy was buckled in the front seat of
     that vehicle and that is how he died,' [Col. Mike] Edmonson said. 'He didn't deserve to die
     like that.'

This is not about race, there are some out there who are jumping on this band wagon.  This is about police authority gone crazy. This is about officers who are not as well trained as they could be. (One of the officers arrested was a reserve officer.) This is about police officers who have forgotten what it means to "Protect & Serve".  Recently I saw a police  motto that read"Prevent Crime & Disorder". Initially it made me smile until I thought about all the implications.

While I realize I have not offered any kind of solution to prevent tragedies like this, I am not sure there is a solution. The public in general don't seem to respect law enforcement anymore, some with good reason. It used to be that respecting law enforcement was safe to do. I am not so sure that it is anymore. Law enforcement also needs to warrant that respect. This means obeying the law in the same manner that they expect the public to obey the law. This might be a good start, mutual respect and mutually obeying of the law.


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