This is going to be brief. Don’t really have a lot to say about this, but what I do say matters, I think.
The NYPD’s facebook page gave a warning to stay away from the area where a driver in a truck mowed down a bunch of people because “there had been a shooting.”
The driver after being stopped got out of the truck with fake guns (BB guns, I believe). The only actual shooting was by the police.
Look, I don’t object to the police shooting. They guy just committed several counts of murder and aggravated battery. (Hey, I’m not a court. I don’t have to pretend I think he’s innocent until proven beyond reasonable doubt to a jury of his peers.) He came out of the truck doing his level best to look like he’s armed. As far as I’m concerned you can add attempted suicide to the list of his actions. Police were fully justified in opening fire.
No, it’s calling the incident a “shooting” when the only shots fired, indeed the only firearms present, were those of the police. And, right on cue the usual suspects started crying, waving the still-wet bloody shirts of the victims of this asshole in their cry for “a conversation on gun control”. They con’t mean “conversation” of course. They mean “give in to our demands on more restrictions on your rights.”
They’re using this incident–after all the police called it a “shooting”–to call for more gun control. Control what guns? The only guns involved were those of the police. Somehow, I don’t think they’re calling for disarming the police. Of course, logic an reason need not apply. Any excuse, whether relevant or not, will be used by these people to push their views on the rest of us. And the more blood they can paint themselves with, the better.
To be blunt, the last thing they want is an end to massacres and crimes. They’re too useful for getting what they want.
The victims, therefore, have been victimized twice, once by the criminal, and once again by those using their death and pain to further political ends.
The Writer in Black 