When was the last time you had to make a rushed decision about something? Well police have to do that everyday of their lives. Okay it might not have been something that meant life or death but what I am trying to get you to think about is what would have happened if you did not do what you did? Many police officers are faced with making split second decisions everyday.
“Rice was playing in a Cleveland park with a nonlethal pellet gun when a police car pulled up.
According to surveillance video, officer Timothy Loehmann fired his gun within seconds of exiting his car. Loehmann has said he believed Rice was armed with a real gun” (Williams). This is just one incident that occurred where the police had to make a split second decision to protect the public. In this case they might have made the wrong decision but what would have happened if Rice had a real gun instead of the fake pellet gun and the cops decided not to act on protecting the community.
I couldn't find a better way to describe this other than there are two sides of the story. I found many incidents where the public were the ones attacking the police. One event took place in New York “Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were ambushed in broad daylight while sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn on Saturday” (Calls for Calm After NYPD Union Says
Mayor, Protesters Have Blood on Their Hands for Cops’ Murder). This is just one of the multiple
incidents where the police are the ones being targeted . “Shepherd attempted to place her in the patrol car, DurdenBosley—who was drunk, unarmed, and handcuffed—kicked him in the face.
In response, Shepherd punched her in the face, fracturing her right eye socket (Bluestone). This proves when an officer is out doing their job they will still get targeted.
When you hear about shootings on the news most of the time they take place in places that have a reputation for being a bad neighborhood. In Queens, New york outside a strip club an incident occurred “Sean Bell was killed by NYPD detectives who fired 50 times at the car Bell and his friends were riding in on Nov. 25, 2006” (10 Worst Cases of Police Brutality in History).
Another happened in New Orleans in 2005, a school teacher arrested and brutally beaten. And another happened in Cincinnati, personally I don't think of