None of us where there at the shooting.

However...I can't help but notice how race is used to cloud the bigger issue. The young man could have been purple and the officer pink. Doesn't matter to me. I want to know if this was a bad government official just gunning down an unnarmed citizen. And, we'll never know now. Because, it all hinges on skin color. We haven't learned a damn thing...

First things first, being a cop or a police officer does not in and of its self make a person a good person or a bad one. That is determined by what you do, that's where things get pretty bad pretty fast. While this shooting has most certainly started a national hat fest.. We should take a look not just at this one thing that has happened but take a look a what has been happening. We have police that have loudly proclaimed on camera that they don't think its their job to follow the constitution. We have road block fishing expeditions, we have TSA feeling up us and our loved ones while stealing our wallets. We live in a world where wrong address no knock raids have become normal, and we are apparently expected to accept that there will be some acceptable civilian losses during those raids. Meanwhile un-medicated or poorly medicated schizophrenics are shot. Speaking of medication, don't dare have low blood sugar problems around modern law enforcement.. Their somewhat consistent response to this medical emergency is a beat down, tazing, perhaps being shot and out here in Seattle at least being thrown into the drunk tank, to die. Speaking of Seattle, last year 23% of the gun deaths were people getting shot by police. Which is kind of scary considering the part where Seattle's violent crimes per 100,000 rate is lower than a lot of the rest of the country. So, we now need to be asking ourselves.. Is this kids death just causing some hate? Or has this kid turned into the straw that is breaking the camels back? If the police/law enforcement wants to be thought of as the good guys they need to start acting like they are the good guys. This means a few things. For instance when a superior office orders you to do something that you know to be wrong, you as an office do not comply. If one of your fellow officers breaks the law, you arrest them since they are now criminals. If you are asked to turn a blind eye its actually time to turn on the camera. Being the good guy is difficult, it means being morally consistent. This may occasionally make things difficult, heck doing the right thing may actually be dangerous. But guess what, we have given the police a monopoly on the use of force under the understanding that they would be very careful using it. So yea.. Actually if a cop wants to interact and get to know the people in his patrol area that's a good thing.. It will be particularly useful later as he will then know who specifically it is that he is flash banging, and will know the name of the dog he just shot.