Tuesday, September 09, 2008

A moment of difficulty with Romans 13

How, exactly, do we come to the defense of the police officers who did this? About a dozen officers around a single young lady who is offering no resistance, but simply refusing to move at their command, and they repeatedly douse her with sprays and club her with their bicycles.

Did none of these guys have a pair of handcuffs and the ability to put them on her?

Or, alternatively, take a look at the officers, specifically the belts. Look how loaded they are--gun, taser, pepper spray, tear gas, walkie-talkie, billy club, cuffs, and so on. Add the bike, and you'll quickly find that as soon as you grapple with anyone, that person will likely have hold of one of those tools.

Maybe it's time to cut down the number of tools on that belt so that officers in riot control can actually deal with rioters.

2 comments:

Joey said...

It's tough to defend what they did, but at the same time, I have to think the officers just didn't want to deal with the arrest and the paperwork that would go with it. I'm torn on this one.

Bike Bubba said...

That might be. At the same time, spraying someone about ten times with pepper spray (or whatever) and clubbing them with a bike is clearly nastier than simply wrestling them into a pair of cuffs. Sometimes you've got to take the unpleasant reality simply to avoid the even more unpleasant possibility.