Black Cop shot by White Cop

You couldn’t make this shit up. America’s race problem runs deep, and every incident like this will only make it worse. A police officer shot one of his own colleagues who had arrived to try and help during a shootout. Yes, seriously.

An off-duty black St Louis police officer’s race factored into him being mistakenly shot by a white officer who didn’t recognize him during a shootout with black suspects this week, the wounded officer’s lawyer said on Saturday.

Are the cops in the USA so trigger-happy that they won’t even take the time to assess the situation before they open fire? Thankfully, the injured officer was not seriously wounded and is out of hospital. The two officers are part of the same department – and two other officers recognised him when he came out of his house to help assist, despite initially ordering him to the ground. So why did this one officer ‘jump the gun’ and shoot? Apparently he ‘feared for his safety’. It seems to me he was over-reacting and people should think twice before giving him a lethal weapon again.

The common sense answer to all this? Better training. Invest in it. Invest in making sure co-workers fucking recognise each other! Sorry for the swears, but I’m fed up with reading this crap. There are solutions – none of them are quick fixes – but going over the same ground over and over again is tiresome. Let’s change the tune please!

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