I hope the subject is not getting tiresome to my readers, but I'm continuing to beat the drum about cops who abuse their office and/or commit crimes.
The latest: A policeman from a far suburb of Chicago was driving drunk in the Chicago area, hit another car, and killed a 29-year-old Vietnamese immigrant who held two jobs, went to college, and tried to hold his family together. The policeman refused a breathalyzer test at the scene but once he arrived at the hospital (he was injured but not critically), his blood alcohol was nearly three times the legal limit.
In another case, a 24-year-old man, again in the Chicago suburbs, was wielding an axe--in the streets, I believe. When he was ordered to drop the axe—and the man may have been an immigrant and may not have understood English—he was shot by a policeman. Four times. Fatally.
A friend or relative of the deceased man asked why he had to be shot fatally rather than, say, tasered. The police chief said that, since the axe was a lethal weapon, it was appropriate to respond with lethal force. I guess even to "respond" quadruply is considered appropriate.
In another instance, this one receiving national attention, a group of people in Washington, DC, were having a snowball fight—legally and harmlessly. One snowball happened to hit a Hummer, and the Hummer happened to belong to a police detective. The detective drew his gun on the snowball throwers. I guess everyone should know that you just don't mess with a dude's Hummer.
Copyright © 2009 by Richard Stein
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