I don’t mean to be political but I’m gonna share a personal experience that piddles me off to this day:
When I was in college I went jogging. At night. Because I felt like it and could and this type of activity needs no justification.I was on a track field. I was running to rammstein. I was getting into it and jumped over a thing that I wasn’t sure I could jump over and felt mighty and went “Yeah!”
Five minutes later, no exaggeration, at least three cop cars pulled up, followed me, and I turned around to shining lights and a cop pointing a gun at me — finger on the trigger.
I had to be very diplomatic, cautious, and slow because I trust what that finger was capable of more than the thinker behind it. There was no crime. One of the cops was parked there and when he heard me go yeah, called for back-up because he thought that might be the yeah of someone raping someone.
…….This is actually the explanation I got. The way and fact that they explained it makes me think that these people are so stupid that they don’t understand that summoning a small army instead of having the guts to investigate a weird yell made by one person is um….shitty tactics. The decision to pull a weapon on one person, so as you can MAKE SURE they don’t get away from your imagined crime…. man.
Little eager to assume horrible felonies, aren’t we?
Anyway, I certainly wasn’t traumatized, but to say the least I was very weirded out. I remember not wanting to even tell my mother, because that incident would do nothing but cause her worry. I remember sitting in my dorm room thinking that if I was a true asshole, or hadn’t heard the cop, that maybe I’d be the worst kind of news story. I think most of those cops weren’t responsible. I think one of them even apologized as soon as we had everything sorted and even offered to drive me back to my dorm, but I FELT much safer walking home by myself instead. Something about having a guy draw a firearm on you and yelling demands has that kind of effect.
And I feel like way more pressure was on me to de-escalate the situation and help the cops sort out their issue, than the issue was on the professional cops.
Guns aren’t bad. Cops aren’t bad. But people who don’t have what it takes to be responsible enough with their gun should be banned from having guns and, if they still want guns, they should be told that they have to responsibly take care of a cat for 60 years first. It seems to me that the Kyle Rittenhouse trial is disillusioning this entire country to the reality that too many people who possess guns aren’t responsible enough to use them appropriately, and that too many of them won’t actually be held responsible.
Eric is the Best 