7 Times

After reading Erica's post and the Article on the 13 year old boy who was shot for caring around a fake fire arm, I begin to look at myself kind of scared, yet relieved. Because when I was around the age of 7-8 years old I too ran around with a fake gun, (like most younger boys would) but my gun was a old rifle that did look very real if you looked at it. Me and a friend of mine at the time were outside playing with our guns, and as we played we thought as a joke to hind behind parked cars and as soon as we saw a car pass by we would jump out and aim our fake guns at the cars passing, well from a innocent impulse of fun turned into a very serious situation, because the driver stops her car and  immediately runs out with her phone in her hand yelling to drop the weapons and that she was calling the police. Thankfully my parents saw the situation and came running out to clear the air of confusion, I was amazed to see the lady get so afraid, that after that moment I never brought my gun outside like that again. Now the reason why I bring up this story is because well, what if what happened to this young boy happened to me? What if the lady did call the police? Now I wouldn't have aimed the fake gun at the officer but I would've definitely been traumatized by the officers presents. Now looking at my view on this tragic moment, the question comes to mind... Why did the boy aim the gun at the officer in the first place? I mean I was 7-8 years old if the officer came up to me at the time I would've dropped the gun immediately! But this boy was 13 years old about a 4-5 year difference, wouldn't the boy have more common sense to have put the gun down like I would have at a much younger age? The situation could've ended on a much better and less tragic note then how it did. Now I'm not on the officers side because shooting the boy more than one time is pretty ridiculous, because one shot would've just been enough to end this terrible situation, so the officer is wrong for that, but yet the officer had a right to fire his weapon, because what if the gun was real? If the officer waited to figure out whether the weapon was fake or not, their life could've been just as easily put in danger as of anyone else who was around to witness. I just don't think it makes sense for the boy at his age to have made such an honestly stupid move such as to aim the weapon at the officer. So my view on this is this situation goes both ways, but its tragic and terrible to have happened, but it could've easily ended on a much better note than it did if only the young man had obeyed and put down the weapon like he should have, he would still be a live, a mourning mother wouldn't have to bury he own son and possible a police officer wouldn't have to go to sleep every night knowing he killed a young 13 year old boy.

Racial Profiling Lives On

As I read the article it began to make me a bit furious because some of the examples of actions that Bloomberg stated did actually happen to me. During my sophomore year me and a friend were walking down to this new Dollar Tree that just opened down the street from our houses at the time. After receiving applications for a job at this Dollar Tree, me and my friend head back home where we unknowing are being followed by a Santa Barbara County Sheriff. Now me and my friend didn't notice but the officer was literally following us on the side of the road in his patrol vehicle until he finally drives up and pulls us to the side saying in a very sarcastic tone "So what... you two couldn't notice me trying to flag u both down?" Now me and my friend were confused because we never noticed that the Sheriff was even following us? Then he began to question us asking our names, home address, and if we were on probation or not. Now, this whole situation was completely irrelevant from the beginning because why did this officer have to stop two Latinos who are not doing anything at all but walking home and question them like they were doing something wrong? It makes me mad to know that some officers take there badge a bit to seriously, its in uncomforting because when u read on every patrol vehicle they all say some quote like "protect and serve" well who are they protecting and serving if there basically harassing 2 teen aged Latino boys for no apparent reason. Its one thing if we had an ankle brace on, dressed like thugs and or in a bad neigbor hood but we both hold clean records, dressed like any average teen, and were walking in a very calm and quiet neighborhood in Orcutt, CA ? This article to me just shows how certain people don't see the other side of the badge and how it effects everyone in there own way. Til this day I shall never fully respect a Sheriff or Police official, now I'm not saying I'm going to be rude and disrespectful, but if the officer is going to be cool with me, I'll be cool with them about the situation, l but if they are going to be rude like the Sheriff that pulled me over then yeah, they can basically kiss my rear end! Police officials shouldn't base there suspicions on race, because race doesn't commit crimes, people do such as guns don't kill people, people kill people.