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Just
another day in South Central Los Angeles
Whatever
happened to a little thing called personal
responsibility? It used to be that when
a person did something stupid or life threatening
to others, people wouldn't immediately point
the finger and pull the race card on the
police or other law enforcement that tried
to stop the person doing the stupid act.
Nowadays, this is all too common, as demonstrated
recently in the killing of a 13-year-old
by cops in South Central Los Angeles. Why,
in today's modern age, must personal responsibility
take a backseat to cries of racism and foul
play?
In
the early morning hours of Feb. 6, 13-year-old
Devin Brown should have been sleeping, but
instead he was joyriding in a stolen car
with a 14-year-old friend. The car, which
was driven erratically and wouldn't pull
over after repeated requests by the police
who were chasing it, finally backed into
a police cruiser, prompting the police to
use lethal force. Officer Steve Garcia fired
10 shots into the car, killing Brown, who
was unarmed. It seems the fact that the
cop killed a kid is the only thing that
the community, which is now up in arms,
is seeing.
Before
demonizing the cop who was just doing his
job, allow me to break down the situation,
as seen through the eyes of an LAPD officer
at almost four in the morning. It's late,
and Garcia
was cruising through a dangerous area under
any circumstances, but even more dangerous
in his line of work. Suddenly he finds himself
in a chase with a stolen car that is weaving
all over the road, presumably driven by
someone who is drunk and possibly armed.
When the car finally backs into a police
cruiser, the cop is abruptly placed in a
situation where he has to make a split-second
decision, and he made the decision to pull
the trigger and stop the threat.
People
don't seem to realize that cops are paid
to make decisions such as the one that ended
Brown's life and for anyone to think that
a cop easily made the choice to pull the
trigger is ridiculous. Cries of foul play
and racism, however, are already widespread
regarding this situation.
The
extremely liberal Web site www.Indymedia.org,
for example, has already run several articles
and reader submissions lambasting and vilifying
police officers. One piece, called "Devin
was 13...and the Police Killed Him,"
proclaims that, "Devin Brown's life
was stolen by the police without a moment's
hesitation. It was almost commonplace, routine:
chase, stop, shoot."
This
kind of disregard for the work that police
officers do is sickening to me.
Rev.
Andrew Robinson-Gaither of Faith United
Methodist Church was quoted in the article:
"Another senseless killing by the police,"
he said. "They just like to take out
young people's lives. They don't value us."
What kind of an idiot actually believes
that the police like to kill young people?
This is exactly the kind of ignorance that
breeds the we-are-victims-of-the-big-bad-cops
mentality.
When
are people going to look at things in context
and stop pulling the tired race card? Police
are paid to protect the citizens and Garcia
was doing his job. Sure, it's sad that a
kid got killed, but why the hell was an
8th grader out that late, and driving a
car, no less? Maybe people should start
asking themselves that and hold the community
responsible, rather than blaming the police
for what could have been prevented.
Gerry
Wachovsky is a senior broadcast journalism
major at CSULB and the diversions editor
of the Online Forty-Niner.
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