August 24, 2014 by David K. Sutton
VIDEO: Police, With Guns Drawn, Terrorize Innocent Mother, Four Children
Police officers in Texas got a report of a car with four black men, one of them waving a gun outside a window. They respond by pulling over a car containing an innocent family, proceeding to terrorize young children with guns drawn. This should not happen in America. I can’t help but think this rarely happens to innocent white people in America.
Police say their actions were justified because of the potential threat. But that threat did not exist here. That threat, if it was an accurate report, existed somewhere else. The police know they were wrong, yet they still justify their actions.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I do not envy the job of police officers, and I want to trust them, I want to offer deference to their expertise and decision-making, but they also have a duty to show restraint and to make sure they’ve done due diligence on fact gathering, even in the heat of the moment. I realize this is a fluid situation, and they are making decisions on the fly, but an innocent family should never be put in this situation, staring down the barrel of a gun, because police justified pulling over anyone they thought possibly matched the description, and then treat them as if they are criminals.
So no, their actions were not justified, because regardless of how difficult a job police work is, the burden is on them to get these things right. And when they’re wrong, they must own up to it, and not make excuses for why clearly wrong-headed actions were justified. That is how you establish trust with the community.
News • Race in America • Video