I have just read several nationally based stories which attempt to justify that any time a police officer draws his gun and then discharges it he absolutely must intend to kill the person in front of him (meaning that if you are a policeman, you will always shoot to kill, nothing less).
I am 71 and white (thank God, should I find myself staring down the barrel of an officer’s gun in some areas of the country). My father was a deputy sheriff in Clark County for all my childhood, and I believe we here in the Portland-Vancouver area enjoy professional, competent and humane treatment from our local law enforcement.
But when I read with supreme disgust of the thoughtless killing in Minnesota of Philando Castile, it occurred to me that this can only be termed a police execution, pure and simple. Stories which describe police policies of “shoot to kill — never shoot to incapacitate” could be used to mindlessly justify silencing such an obviously innocent gentleman as Castile. I am rendered sickened and disbelieving of the horrific logic of always using lethal force. There simply must be an alternative to death, even if the suspect happens to be black.
