Super Duper Lethal Force

I watched a video clip from the Sean Hannity Show recently and the ignorance of the guest as it relates to the situation in Ferguson was unbelievable. It was good to see him attempt to educate the ignorance, but we as a nation can no longer stand to have this type of ignorance go unchecked.

Cause and effect

I fully support the right of everyone to speak their mind, I am 100% behind the idea you can say anything. However, that doesn’t mean there are not consequences and especially when you are completely ignorant to facts and get called out on them. I sat there and listened to this person who aside from being clueless is inciting more rational tension with what I consider to be complete lies, total fabrications to fit an agenda. As to what agenda that is I don’t know, but suffice it to say it is counter productive. In fact, her words are no better than the looting and robbing that transpired when a community allowed itself to be manipulated by race baiters and those with an agenda that was anything but supportive of the Ferguson community.

Third level of hell

So, what was the main point of contention I had with her statement. Never mind how she was completely oblivious of the circumstances that lead to lethal force. We will put that on the shelf for now, let’s just simply talk about the use of lethal force. Once lethal force has been justified it’s application is one where there are no multiple levels of dead. You cannot overkill someone, you cannot send them to deeper levels of hell. There is just dead. If it took an entire magazine to neutralize the threat then get over that fact. If the threat is still a threat, they are still attempting to cause injury or death then justification for the continued engagement is not only justified, but necessary.

Hollywood lies

Her next point was how the suspect was shot in the head, twice. Again, so what? If he was a threat where lethal force justification was meet then it doesn’t matter where the shots were displaced. On top of that there is an understanding that lethal confrontations are fast, dynamic and unpredictable. We have no idea if the officer leveled up on the suspects chest initially being the largest target zone then recognized his shots were ineffective and transitioned to shots to the head in an effort to quickly neutralize the threat and save his own life. Then there is an overlooked notion the suspect could have been moving and moved his head into the pathway of the bullets. The bullets were not aimed for his head, but a by product of the dynamic engagement.

Humility

It infuriates me to see this kind of blatant ignorance in what we are suppose to acknowledge as “leaders”. These people are not leaders, they are border line perpetrators of misinformation, conjecture and confusion. Are these the traits we want to see in our leadership? I hope the hell not. We need educated leadership, those who can recognize  their own ignorance. Who are not afraid of it, but instead humbled by it and seek out to educate themselves in order to better contribute to the world. This lady may have good intentions, but we cannot allow this type of ignorance to go unchallenged.

We must seek to either educate or address these misunderstandings or in some cases the lies. Here is a great quote from probably one of the best examples of leaders we have seen, it sums up our charge pretty well.

"When the Eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber", Sir Winston Churchill