I wrote the following just over a year ago – after a series of incidents where trigger-happy policemen opened fire on a suspect in midtown Manhattan and injured bystanders:
Instead of praising these policemen as heroes, Mayor Bloomberg would do more to ensure public safety by requiring all NYC policemen to take remedial courses in target shooting. Not to mention mental/situational-awareness training to know when it’s time to hold friggin’ fire. For, assuming deadly fire was even warranted, all of these incidents should have ended with no more than two clean shots.
In the meantime, all pedestrians would do well to think of New York City as Dodge City; not least because dodging (police) bullets could become a way of life there.
(“New York City Becoming New Dodge City,” The iPINIONS Journal, August 27, 2012)
Many of you thought I was being unfair, even “alarmist.” But bear in mind that the suspect in each case was not only clearly mentally disturbed, but actually within taser range (only 3-5 feet away) when the police opened fire.
Well, now comes this:
Two bystanders were shot by New York police officers in Times Square on Saturday night as they opened fire on a mentally disturbed suspect.
Witnesses said police were responding to reports of a 35-year-old man acting strangely at 42nd Port Authority, when two women were caught in the cross fire.
(New York Post, September 15, 2013)
Was I right, or what? Especially given that, after opening fire and missing so horribly, the Post reported that:
Police finally brought [the suspect] down with a taser….
Unbelievable!
Related commentaries:
NYC becoming DC…