The Old Excuse

Boise police today rolled out the same old excuse after being accused of unnecessary roughness during an arrest. The excuse? The officer feared for his/her safety. We hear this reason after every beating or shooting. When are we going to stand up and say enough is enough. We deserve better from the people that we entrust with upholding safety and protecting society. We have given up many freedoms and rights for this protection and the best we get is frightened people who have to beat or kill the persons they are confronted with. If these people are so afraid perhaps they should seek safer employment.  

If I beat up someone and then tried to say I feared for my life I would still be arrested and have to prove I was in danger. If a policeman does this he is investigated by other police officers who stop investigating the minute the officer says I feared for my life. They will then close ranks and start talking about doing what they are trained to do, having to protect the public and tell any number of lies about what happened and how they were justified in beating an unarmed person. This only gets even more outrageous if gun play was involved. 

How many times do we have to read " Officer cleared in death of unarmed man. Officer followed policy and feared for his life from actions of  crazed unarmed man." It is about time that we demand an end to this old excuse. We should demand that all violent encounters be investigated by an outside citizens group. We should demand that officers be trained continuously on disarming violent or out of control persons verbally rather than physically. They should have to do this quarterly just as they do now with their guns, night sticks, tazers and hand to hand take downs. How about just having the officers spend more time with the public they are supposed to protect rather than just training to take us out.