If you are struggling to understand why people are calling for police departments to be defunded and have those funds reallocated to human services such as mental health professionals, then please allow an incident that occurred with the Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday to serve as one glaring example.
The Los Angeles Times reports that officers with the LAPD responded to a call of a suicidal man in Hollywood on Wednesday afternoon, and when they arrived on the scene, they encountered the man—who was holding a pair of scissors—as well as a Rottweiler.
Josh Rubenstein, a police spokesman, told the Times that what happened next is unclear, but somehow at the end of everything, both the dog as well as an officer had been shot by so-called “friendly fire” from another officer.
We have questions:
- How many officers responded?
- Who was the target of the gunfire?
- Are scissors considered a deadly weapon when matched against police officers with guns?
- Is pulling out a gun standard protocol when a person is holding scissors and threatening to harm themselves?
- Do y’all get it yet, or nah?
Rubenstein said that the incident is still under investigation, and confirmed that, while both an officer and the dog had been shot, the dog was taken to a veterinarian’s office for treatment.
Meanwhile, the reported suicidal man was taken into police custody for…??? We don’t even know yet actually, but we are confident that the LAPD will come up with some kind of trumped-up charge as a way to place the blame for them shooting themselves while on a distress call.
Defund the police. Defund them now.