Tag Archives: shooting

Police Officer’s Force: Excessive or Essential?

In recent months, police brutality has become a rising topic with many, many different sides and thoughts. One case imparticular that has caused a lot of chaos and controversy is the shooting of Michael Brown which took place late last year. In this case, an African-American man died because of a white police officer. Many people, mostly African-Americans, believe that Michael Brown was killed simply because of his skin color. However, many other people, mostly those who are not African-American, believe that African-Americans are simply using excuses to get out of violence and other illegal acts.

Facts about the Michael Brown Case

To begin, the Michael Brown incident took place on August 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Eighteen year old, Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer, Darren Wilson. Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson, were both robbing a convenience store of several packs of cigarillos. Officer Wilson heard over the police radio from another officer at around 12:00 P.M. of the robbery. Wilson originally approached the two men, not knowing they were the robbers and he simply asked them to walk on the sidewalk instead of in the middle of the road. Brown, clearly angered by this, supposedly retorted back, “What the —are you gonna do about it?” During this time Wilson went to get out of his vehicle, but Brown pushed the door back shut, preventing him from getting out. Wilson told him to step away from the car, but then Brown hit him in the side of the head with his fist. By the way, Brown was much heavier than Wilson and Wilson stated in an interview, “I felt like a five-year old holding onto Hulk Hogan” (“Darren Wilson explains why he kill Michael Brown”). At this time, Wilson drew his gun and told Brown he was going to shoot him if he didn’t back away. Next, Brown reached for his gun and both men were fighting for it. When Wilson finally was able to get both of his hands on it, he pulled the trigger but nothing happened. Again, he pulled the trigger, but same thing. No bullet came out. Finally, he shot for a third time and the gun did fire, hitting Brown in the shoulder. Brown, only became angrier and began beating on Wilson more. The officer tried shooting at him twice more, but the weapon wasn’t working. Brown along with Johnson, both eventually took off running. Wilson yelled at Brown to get on the ground. Then, Brown stopped, turned around, and began charging at the police officer. The officer shot multiple times, hitting Brown 6 times before he finally dropped dead.

Racist or Coincidence?

Honestly, I feel that this was just a police officer doing his job and trying to stay alive. When you have a man, double your size, beating on you with all of his might, you will do anything to not die. Now the question is, was Officer Wilson racist? I could not disagree more. This case had absolutely nothing to do with race, in fact if anything, I think Michael Brown was the racist. I personally feel that if Wilson had been an African-American cop of around the same size, he might have chosen his words and actions more carefully. Is it sad that a young man died? Of course it is, but he would still be alive had he not caused the trouble himself. A police officer literally just asked him to walk on the sidewalk. That is not asking for much at all. There is no reason why Brown could have just walked to the side of the road and kept his mouth shut. To make matters worse for Brown, Wilson didn’t even bring up the fact that Johnson was holding a bag of cigarillos. Do I think that there are some racist police officers out there? Yes, but you could say this about any profession. There are racist dentists, but does that mean that all dentists are racist? No, of course not. Thus, although this story caused a lot of anger and sadness, hopefully in the future people will finally live in peace and harmony without discrimination.

~Samantha

 

#iftheygunnedmedown

michael-brown.jpg

On August 9th, a black teenager named Michael Brown was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, MO.  There are many different views of what happened on that night.  One side claims that unarmed Brown had his hands in the air to surrender but the officer shot him several times anyways.  A witness (the friend that was with Brown) claimed that Michael Brown and him were walking down the middle of the road unarmed when a police officer confronted them and said to move.  They said they would move in a minute but then the police officer pulled Brown into his car through the window.  After they struggled, the police officer shot Brown.  Then, Brown put his hands in the air to surrender but the officer shot him several more times anyways.

Another side claimed that Brown attacked the officer in his car and tried to take his gun.  It was claimed that the officer only shot Brown for self-defense.  Social media is playing a huge part on how the public is forming opinions about the case.  A new hashtag is circling around sites such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter called #iftheygunnedmedown. People are using this hashtag to gain support for Brown after media created a negative image of him to change people’s opinions about the case.

I believe that Michael Brown was innocent.  I believe this because there were many witnesses that said he put his hands up in surrender and also everyone interviewed that knew him said that he was a “gentle giant” and a good kid.  Also, I believe this because there were several cases before him where a white police officer killed a black man that was giving no harm.

~Courtney

Deadly Rampage at U.S. Navy Yard

 

On September 16, 2013, Aaron Alexis, a former member of the Navy, killed 12 and injured 8 people at the Washington Navy Yard. Aaron had been employed at the base by a military subcontractor, was killed in a shootout with police. It was believed that he gained access to the secure facility from the ID of a 50 year-old former Navy Yard employee, however he was also working as an IT company worker that was upgrading the Navy’s computer systems. D.C. authorities did not suspect terrorism, but his motive still remains a mystery. At first, officials believed that two people were involved in the shooting, Aaron Alexis and a white man in a tan outfit. Later they found out that the man they believed to have been involved, was identified and was no longer a suspect. Not all of the 8 people that were injured were shot, some were just injured when fleeing the scene. Some say this will bring back the discussion of gun laws and how we should make them a national matter.

The issue of gun violence in the U.S. has caused the strengthening of gun laws. Mayor Vincent Gray of Washington D.C., joined President Barack Obama in the fight to tighten gun laws due to the recent shootings. Many people think Obama is to blame for the shootings and that these shootings could have been prevented if we didn’t have such weak gun laws. Others say that we need national gun laws. I agree with those people because obviously local gun laws will not work when you could just go to another jurisdiction to buy a gun. If we had national gun laws, maybe this shooting, along with others could have been prevented. For example, after a mass murder in Australia, the Australian government passed strict gun laws. Since then, there has not been another mass murder. In the U.S., we have one shooting after another. Will they ever end?

~Alyssa

Social Media has Distorted Truth about Newtown Shooting

 

On Friday, December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown Connecticut.  He shot and killed a total of 28 people, including himself.  He killed 8 boys and 12 girls, who were all between the ages of six and seven.  He also killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, plus six other adults.  As soon as this tragic event occurred, news, both official and completely made up, began to spread around the world like wildfire.  Many rumors were spread that were later found to be false beyond doubt.  Many sources say that this may partly be due to social media sites, such as Instagram and Facebook.
I’ve had a personal experience with this already, when someone posted something on instagram about the Newtown shooting.  The post showed a picture of a crumpled letter, containing a scrawled out note in a young person’s handwriting.  The letter said “I love you mom and I am happy and well, sorry for not being a good son and not being happy if I ever was.  I love you in heaven. -Brian” The caption read “One of the victims in Connecticut, Brian, wrote this during the shooting.  He was shot and killed.”  However, I have checked the “Newtown Shooting Victims: Names, Profiles of the 27 people killed”, and I discovered that there was no one killed named Brian.  Other such rumors have been circulating around the world of social media since the massacre.  I’m very upset by these made up posts because they are about a true event.  Twenty seven people were really killed, so I don’t understand why anyone would want to create false information about them.  It also disturbs me how many people believe these posts and then repost them.  Some more serious false and misleading statements have also been posted and noticed by authorities, who say that “the misleading statements on social media could lead to arrest.”  As you can see, this matter is very serious, and I wish that people wouldn’t post fake information, because I see no reason for it.

~Miura Wiley

What is Up With the Hostility?

On April 2, 2012 a gunman entered a Korean Christian university in California  and shot and killed 7 people and wounded others. The suspect was a student in a nursing class that had been missing for months. The student first shot a lady at the front desk then started firing randomly into classrooms. The man told the students to line up against the wall, and in one situation went crazy and shot a woman that had been present at the time. The gunman drove to Alameda before surrendering soon after his arrival. The shooter was apprehended because he called his father and relayed the event and his father promptly called the police.

I can’t wrap my head around what the possible motive could drive people to do such horrendous things such as this. In a way I not only feel sorry for those who lost their loved ones but also the shooter. The reason for this is he must have been in such emotional and/or physical pain that he was driven to commit this crime. The incident has happened before in similar situations such as Columbine, and I hope the world will become a better place where there is not even the slightest hint of the threat for another incident like this in the future. I hope all who have suffered from this will find peace and forgiveness.

~Owen Murray

 

Ohio School Shooting

T.J. Lane, a high school student in Chardon, Ohio was accused of and admitted to taking a .22-caliber Ruger semiautomatic pistol to Chardon High School on Monday and firing 10 rounds at four students at a cafeteria table. He has not been formally charged, but prosecutors said it was likely that he would be tried in an adult court. Three students have passed away including, Russell King Jr., Demetrius Hewlin and Daniel Parmertor. Two other victims were badly injured and in the hospital for medical treatment. David P. Joyce, the Geauga County prosecutor, was stated as saying, “This is not about bullying, this is not about drugs.” “This was an effect of one lone gunman. He chose his victims at random.”

What do you think about this shooting? I would agree with David P. Joyce. T.J. Lane didn’t want to specifically target someone, but whoever he could get to was the prime suspect. “I don’t know why this happened,” said Frank Hall, an assistant football coach who helped chase the gunman out of the cafeteria, and spoke at a news conference on Thursday. “I only wish I could have done more.” I bet many other people would have helped T.J. if he said something, now he will probably be in jail for the rest of his life.

~Katie Caldwell

 

Catastrophe at Chardon High

April 20,1999 a day no one would ever forget and a day no one wanted repeated. On that day only ,13 years ago, two teenagers went into their high school, Columbine High, with guns and shot a total of 37 people, wounding 23 and killing 14 including themselves. Out of those 14 that died one was Rachael Scott who is the reason why we now have Rachael’s Challenge. The challenge is that we can fulfill her legacy of creating a chain of kindness. Wouldn’t you think that with all of the prevention methods that our schools install into the curriculum the rampages would end? Sadly they have not as we had hoped, since that day over 50 school shootings have occurred with fatalities.

Now, here we are in 2012 and only less than a week ago a timid student named T.J Lane went into Chardon High School’s cafeteria and shot 5 students , 3 now deceased. He said he chose his victims at random and gave up after only an hour. Maybe he did it because his father had also had a criminal infested past, but why now, in his school? No word of his motive has been released to the public yet, but when it is maybe it will give us some sort of idea to what this 17 year old boy was thinking of when he walked into his high school cafeteria and took the lives of three of his peers. One family has already forgiven the shooter for killing their son, and they hope along with everyone else that it will be  the last shooting that will plague our schools forever.

-Lizzie Heisler

Eighth Grader Shot and Killed by Police

Two weeks ago on January 5, 2012 a 15 year old boy named Jaime Gonzalez, an 8th grader in Brownsville, Texas was armed with a pellet gun at Cummings Middle School. To the police this harmless pellet gun appeared to be a real handgun. When the police ordered Jaime to put down the gun he ignored their commands and pointed the gun towards the police officers. That’s when two officers decided to fire 3 shots and hit him at least twice, and he was pronounced dead at the hospital. No other students or staff were injured but was it needed to take away a young  man’s life?

I understand that the police had to make quick decisions, but that’s what they were trained to do. They weren’t trained to panic in fast acting situations and fire, especially at minors! It was unbelievable to me that at the start of a new year the police decided to take a 15 year old’s life away. Investigators do not know why he had pulled out the weapon. “We think it looks like this was a way to bring attention to himself,” a police chief said. Yes, Jaime had made beyond bad choices to bring a pellet gun to school and taunt people without taking all the consequences into mind first; but everybody makes mistakes, some are bigger than others, and the police should have calmed him down and been able to effectively handle the situation without death.

~ Sabrina Cuda