October 27, 2015

  • Corey Jones (and maybe more about the job)

    I'm posting tonight because I'm sick about the death of Corey Jones, a 31-year-old black man who was returning from work and had car trouble at 3 something a.m. and while waiting for roadside assistance, was shot by a policeman who just happened to be in plain clothes and was investigating what he thought might be an abandoned car.

    You can read about it at http://news.yahoo.com/corey-jones-may-called-roadside-assistance-moments-deadly-160054879--abc-news-topstories.html

    Here's an excerpt:

    The Palm Beach Gardens Police said Officer Nouman Raja, who was driving an unmarked car, had stopped to "investigate what he believed to be an abandoned vehicle" around 3:15 a.m.

    "As the officer exited his vehicle, he was suddenly confronted by an armed subject," a statement from police read. "As a result of the confrontation, the officer discharged his firearm resulting in the death of the subject, Corey Jones."

    *********

    I'd love to know what Raja has to say about this, but of course his lawyer won't let him say anything publicly.  

    I'm inclined to be supportive of Raja, because he was face to face with a man holding a gun.  A policeman's job is perilous, and I can't think of a safe way that Raja could have defused the situation.  Jones would be alive today, I believe, if he'd never bought that stupid gun in the first place, but I think all you readers know how antigun I am, so there you go.

    Still, the death was tragic.

    Mainly, I want to suggest that it should be protocol for the roadside assistance company to immediately notify law enforcement so there would have been some chance, however slight, for Officer Raja to be apprised of the situation before he decided to investigate that supposedly abandoned car.

    Of course, that slight chance equals about 0.00002 percent, but at least it's something.

    I know I promised to say more about my new job, but it's late.  So maybe another time.

Comments (4)

  • There is so much of this thing happening these days. CBS this evening showed a cop who was a school officer, manhandling a student and dragging him out of the class room. Made my skin crawl.

  • @ZSA_MD: Yeah, I saw that on the news earlier this evening. I believe it was a female student, but either way, it was a shameful way for law enforcement to treat someone. I've seen situations at the hospital, where a combative patient was able to be subdued without the kind of extreme force you and I saw on our TV screens.

  • It's happening everywhere -- I wanted to say that it's less rampant in So Cal, but it's not! How sad for the country. There seems to be a backlash rising about "Black Lives Matter," but I would say that ALL lives matter.

  • I've created a new post -- "How to defeat ISIS" and for some reason it's not viewable, unless I log in. Older posts are visible to all. What gives?

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