There is no doubt that the police are poorly trained, poorly paid and poorly supported. Thus, they are prone to hiring less competent officers. Our culture pays professional athletes and pop singers millions of dollars, these type of people deserve only $30,000 or $40,000 dollars/year.
Most police officers do a lot better than that, about $54,000 before overtime.
Police Officer Salary in United States
And entertainers are worth whatever income they bring in, just like other people who create things. That includes athletes. They are worth whatever we are willing to pay them. In a socialistic system, you would be right. But we don't do it that way here.
By the way, the kid was white.
Which means he's a trigger-happy moron, who doesn't care if he puts little kids at risk, but at least we can't say he's a trigger-happy racist moron.
Yes. Police are just not adequately trained for situations like this. If it comes down to a situation where a cop has the choice of firing into a group of kids and letting the perp escape, it should have been drilled into his skull to not endanger the kids and let the perp escape.
Public safety should have a group of people who are trained to handle social disruptions like a mentally-disturbed person or the like. In a rational system, regular police officers, unless certified to handle this sort of thing (and certified by professionals, not other police officers) should be held criminally responsible if they get involved and hurt someone.
And we need to get control of "qualified immunity." "There's no case law where it was held that an officer shouldn't shoot into a group of children, so he's off the hook." That's absolutely crazy. The worst thing is, that officer was taught that he can endanger kids recklessly without consequences. And he's out there, loose on the streets with a gun.
