Wednesday, October 30, 2013

F.B.I Beings in Police Shooting of Teenager

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/us/fbi-begins-inquiry-in-deputys-killing-of-13-year-old-boy.html?_r=0

2. Category of Issue: Gun Control/Violence

3. Level of Issue: Local, State, and National

4. This article concerns families and individuals all over the nation concerned with their young tween children playing with play toys. There are policies established already for gun control, however, with toy guns this was a huge misunderstanding and over-reacting by the cops.

5. This article affects families and individuals by putting fear into the average americans whose children play with toy guns as well as toy manufacuterers and companies who are involved with distributing toy guns that are beginning to look so real that cops are starting to see them and fear for themselves. 

6. My Views
- When I saw this on the news I was very alarmed so I decided to look this up in the newspaper and do this as my article. I was instantly saddened at the fact that a poor 13 year old boy was killed for walking down the streets with a toy gun. When I started to talk about this issue with other people a couple new understandings were brought to me eyes. When the cops saw the young boy walking down the street they thought he was an older man due to the fact that he was wearing a hoodie. When they instantly saw that, what they thought at the time was a rifle, they took cover and called for back-up. When I look at it this way, the cops yelled at the boy twice to place the gun on the ground and he didn'.t Some articles say that he even rose the gun to his face to make it look like he was about to shoot. So, when looking at it this way I can understand why the cops feared for there lives. It is hard to comprehend this and even for a little bit be on the cops side knowing that the poor boy was only 13. Another thing to look at and something that is being investigated with the manufacturer of this toy gun. Was there the orange plastic tip that all fake guns are supposed to have? Did the boy take this off or color it in? Or did the manufacturer not put it on there. When I talked to a couple different guys about this they said when they were little they always took off the orange plastic tip, making it from a distance look much more real. I am a firm believer that death is never the answer. Cops are trained to be able to shoot a gun and protect themselves and there community. I agree with this. If they felt in legitament danger for any reason they have a right and a duty to protect themselves. But is killing them the answer? Again, cops are trained to shoot guns at certain targets. Could the cop not have shot him somewhere that would have injured him rather then killing him? Again, it is even hard for me to fathom the cops shooting at all in this situation.  But, if the boy did these actions with the gun and the cop seriously feared for his own life, maybe we need to start training cops to react in different ways to protect themselves and us without death being there number one option.

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