Priests and cops

I really don't want to keep writing about trigger-happy cops gunning down unarmed citizens, but, unfortunately, the hits just keep on comin'.

Have you seen this month's outrage, the video of the shooting in the small town of Pasco, Washington, one of the so-called Tri Cities in the southeastern part of the state? This shooting occurred on Feb. 10, when a 35-year-old orchard worker named Antonio Zambrano-Montes was reported to be throwing rocks at cars in a downtown Pasco intersection. So the cops show up and they try to get the guy to stop and get him calmed down, but Mr. Zambrano-Montes, for whatever reason, was uncooperative. It's quite likely that he was mentally disturbed. Reportedly, he threw rocks at the cops, and the cops then, quite rightly, tased the guy, but the zapping didn't seem to have much effect (which leads one to immediately suspect that the Taser didn't even hit Zambrano-Montes or if it did, it didn't work worth a damn and that the Pasco police need to re-examine those units pronto) so Zambrano-Montes took off. He just started running away. He wasn't attacking the cops. He was doing the opposite. He was fleeing, trying to get away. The cops, all three of them, chased Zambrano-Montes across the street, firing shots as they ran, and then, on the sidewalk, as ZM turns to face them, the cops, from a distance of maybe 10 feet, very very close, just flat out executed the guy. They didn't fire warning shots into the air to scare him into stopping, they didn't shoot a couple of shots at his feet, which from that range would certainly get a man's attention. They didn't shoot him in the leg, which even cops, at 10 feet, would have been able to do. They just gave themselves the green light to blast away and kill the guy. Because he—might throw another rock? Are you kidding me? Zambrano-Montes goes down and is apparently killed instantly. The count of bullets fired was 13.

Yes, Zambrano-Montes was probably mentally ill. Yes, he was throwing rocks. Yes, he dared to throw rocks at the cops. Hey, if you're a cop, and a crazy man is throwing rocks at you, you're thankful! Right? You're saying to yourself, “Thank God this guy is armed with only rocks!”

It's seriously chilling. The cops were two to three seconds away from jumping on the guy's back, taking him to the ground, putting him in a hammer lock and cuffing him. Subduing him professionally. Taking care of business.

Instead, they choose to ventilate his torso with 13 bullets.

It's very sad. It's very disturbing. If American police don't lighten up and lighten up fast, they're going to do to their image the same thing pedophiliac Catholic priests did to their reputations a few years ago.