Getting Shot

 GETTING SHOT

There is much discussion these past few years about police brutality - - police shooting and killing citizens for one reason or another.  This often occurs after a traffic stop or some other inconsequential interaction with the local police force.  Of course, one can get shot by another civilian, but for our purpose here, we are discussing getting shot (or tased) by a police officer or some other form of law enforcement personnel.

If you look at many of these interactions, where someone ends up deceased, the deceased has not done what they have been told to do or not do.  They have been disobedient - - non-compliant.  They are normally dead because they have decided to disobey a "lawful" command by a law enforcement person.

When you draw a firearm and aim it at another person you are threatening to kill that person.  Officers are trained to draw their firearms in various circumstances - - routinely.  They will tell you it is for officer safety or of the concern for the safety of others or as policy, but in fact it is a threat to kill the person who the firearm is aimed at.  If someone points a gun at me, they are threatening to kill me.  Pretty simple really. 

Guns kill people.  That is what they are made for.  Their main purpose is not to be an article in a museum or a gun safe, but to kill people or other living creatures.  And this is what they are in fact used for - - killing people.  All over the planet people are being killed by guns; it's an established procedure.  And almost always, at least the vast majority of the incidents of death by gun, the person being killed is refusing to do what they have been told to do by the person with the gun.

It is a matter of obeying.  One must obey or get shot.  This is as true here as it is anywhere else - - obey or get shot.  It happens, if not daily, weekly here in the good old United States of America.  One sees the videos; often one can even hear the conversations.  Often cars are involved.  Someone doesn't stop or someone won't get out of the car or someone grabs for a phone.  Oops - - you're dead.  And most often, the officer was following "procedure" or "policy" and is thereby justified in killing the person killed.

Established policy or procedure is a defense to such killing - - "I was trained to shoot  a person under these circumstances hence I am justified".  Enough said.  

It's all for the good really.  We need a compliant public - - one that is in the habit of doing what it is told to do by representatives of the government. 

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo

The War on Raccoons

 A WAR ON RACCOONS

According to the Des Moines Register of 28 October 2022, our legislature is poised for a new war, a war against raccoons.  According to reports, we have been invaded by hordes of the creatures and it is time to act.  Since everyone in Iowa is expected to have a gun, it is only fitting that the people with these guns be allowed to shoot something year around and our next candidate are raccoons.   Can’t you just visualize, or hear as the case may be, gunshots ringing out in the middle of the night in the neighborhood when the local coon is raiding somebody’s garbage can.  Trash day could become hazardous.  

But an act allowing for the killing of raccoons year around serves innumerable purposes:  it of course gets rid of raccoons, it gives an outlet to all our citizens who now have guns but don’t know what to do with them, it gives the legislature something to do to earn their per diem, and it attempts to give the public the idea that our legislators are actually accomplishing something.  With these things in mind, it is a certainty that a bill will be passed allowing us humans, to kill raccoons whenever it is personally decided that one’s neighboring raccoon is no longer cute, but a pest.  All will be well in la-la land once again.

Now, I for one, who have been living in Iowa most of his life, have been living peaceably and quietly with racoons the entire time except for  one winter when a war over dog food ended in a victory for the raccoons - -  by the end of the winter they could get into my garage to get the remaining dog food but I couldn’t.  This defeat at the paws of the coons did not cause me to wish them dead.  After the initial annoyance, I had to congratulate them on their ingenuity, perseverance, and intelligence - - some of the same qualities for which we congratulate our star athletes.

So, if we are to have a vote on whether to kill raccoons all year or no, I will have to vote no.  An occasional annoyance does not warrant the death sentence.

Richard E H Phelps ii

Mingo