Hi!
Before I get started, I wanted to let any of you that read my blog (yeah, all 2 of you, lol) that there is a lady who needs help. Although my battle with breast cancer is at a stand-off (my own Murphy's Law response, lest it return), there is a lady that is right in the middle of her battle and is having some financial difficulties, and is asking for help - even though it is always so very hard to ask. Please go here to read her story, and if you have a few extra $$, please donate. Thank you.
Facebook. I was so excited at the idea of it, I joined a few years ago. I don't post every day (or even every week) but I have lots of "friends" who do. Most are posting family photos, or letting us know about a trip they took, a great restaurant they ate at, silly antics of our pets, etc. But some people insist on attempting to solve the great issues of the day, or going off about an injustice they perceive. Here in Albuquerque we recently had a police shooting of a homeless man who was camping/living in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains. Someone called the police, because he was doing so illegally. This man has had previous issues with police (burglary I think, maybe more), and was mentally unstable. Notice the word "was". He was shot and killed during the confrontation with police. One of my Facebook friends posted a pro-police remark, and I responded that I certainly appreciate our police force keeping us safe, etc, so on - but that I thought that they didn't need to use lethal force on a man who had a knife. I was villified by some of her "friends". Apparently we are to support the Albuquerque Police Department, regardless. No. I still believe that the situation could have been handled differently. He couldn't be tazed because of all the clothing he had on. But still. In my opinion, they put him down like a rabid dog. He was a human being. In the meantime, the DOJ came out with a report of the APD that is less than exemplary, stating that they used lethal force in more than a few instances that was not considered justified.
***I hoped that Facebook would be a fun way to keep in touch. I suppose it's human nature to take something that could be fun and uplifting, and turn it so it gives people a way to be rude and disrespectful to others that they wouldn't dream of doing to your face. I recently posted this:
Just for the record, I appreciate all that our police force does to keep us safe. But to give a blanket "OK" to everything they do is to deny that as humans we all make mistakes ~ but to make a mistake with a gun is an awful lot of responsibility that some on the force are unable to handle.
Love, 365
Thank you so much...so touched you shared of yourself and my story. Huge hugs, Sarah <3
ReplyDeleteI wish you well! I will be keeping in touch with you...
DeleteI didn't find that to be a rant, really... probably because I agree. It makes me so sad that mentally ill people are sometimes shot and killed by cops.
ReplyDeleteOf course the police officer doesn't know when arriving on the scene that old Fred is just off his rocker... they just see a screaming person who might have a gun or whatever.
I have family in law enforcement, though, and things can escalate quickly. It's easy to analyze what happened after it's all over and we know what kinds of weapons the dead criminals had or didn't have.
Personally, you couldn't pay me enough to be a police officer. They do a very hard job and every shift that they come home alive is reason to rejoice, especially in the bigger metropolitan areas.
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I hope that Sarah will get the help she needs, too. I have lost three friends to cancer in the last five years. It's a horrible, ugly thing. And it makes me angry that we're so helpless against it.