I know that we all have common sense, however, it appears that one (well, I guess five) of the officers employed by my university's police department don't. My sister's Geography professors was shot in the face Tuesday night by a University of Florida police officer. According to the local papers, FIVE university police officers were not able to calm him after shooting him with a beanbag gun, AND after stunning him with a tazer gun. The papers also report that he was threatening police with a knife and a pole. SERIOUS?! WTF? The man suffered from polio as a child, and the "pole" was his ALUMINUM CANE he needed to walk with--even with his cane, he walks with a hunch. (He calls himself the "three legged child of Africa".) I REALLY doubt that the knife would have caused any harm to five fully protected police officers--note the shield in the posted photo.I am disgusted by this whole situation, and shocked that no national news source has picked it up. How is it that when Andrew Meyer, and "Don't taze me bro" went down, EVERYONE and their mother knew about it, however when a crippled man gets shot in the face, and is lying in critical condition in the hospital, no one gives two shits? Whats even more disgusting is that they are trying to say Kofi is mentally ill, and somehow blame the whole situation on him. THAT is wrong! According to my sister and her classmates Kofi was completely competent. IF Kofi were in fact mentally ill, that makes this situation even more disgusting! Is this how were treat out mentally ill? Shoot them in the face to shut them up rather than give them the counseling they need?
I can go on and on, and probably will come back to the subject as the matter unfolds, but I really want to get the word out about this appalling event.
Here is a link to the story as covered by one of the area papers. Please dig around some more, as I mentioned, a lot of the coverage is SKETCH and stuff is being left out.
Ebb
Sources: gainesvillesun.com
yes please do keep us posted on this!! how outrageous!! and i reserve the term "outrageous" for only the most ridiculous of matters. i get tired of police, i swear...mannnn...i hope this story does get picked up nationally. i'm glad you like my glasses btw : )
ReplyDeleteyeah, the whole situation is rather appalling. i'll be back in gainesville wednesday so hopefully i'll be able to see whats going on up there regarding the whole story.
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