Sometimes I just shouldn’t read the news. I don’t watch it on TV, and sometimes I should ignore the news links at the top of my gmail screen.
This story sent me through the roof earlier. In short:
Mentally ill (and unmedicated) teenager is running around the family apartment claiming to have a gun. Mother calls 911 and tells the dispatcher her son has a gun. Son is yelling in the background that he has a gun. Police show up, the son goes outside with something jammed underneath his shirt, continues to yell that he has a gun. Police tell him to drop it, kid taunts police, police shoot his sorry psycho ass, now the family wants “justice”. Give. Me. A. Goddam. Break.
The police did exactly what they are supposed to do. Show up, crazy has gun (according to crazy), police warn crazy to lose gun, crazy refuses, police shoot to kill. WTF planet do these people live on? The police aren’t required to actually see the gun, because by then it would be too late. Stupid, stupid, stupid. My guess is that this was exactly what the kid wanted — suicide-by-cop. The makings of a sorry-ass BET mini-series if I ever saw one.
Tags: Baltimore, crime, guns, mental illness