Flaunt it if you've got it

All right, guys, I know I'm on a posting spree today - but this stuff drives me nuts. I do not agree that police have killed unarmed black men, okay? We'll get that statement out of the way before I proceed.

An 18-year-old man was killed in New York. The man's mother called 911 and in the background, he was screaming that he had a gun. When police arrived, apparently, he was holding an object under his shirt and started to approach police. Police told him to stop and he refused. After 20 rounds were fired at the man, the weapon turned out to be a black hairbrush.

What buggered me about this article was that they interviewed a gentleman who was a neighbor to the 18-year-old man who was killed. He says:

Another neighbor, Wayne Holder, said police should be required to see a weapon before opening fire on a suspect. "At least see a gun before you start to discharge it," Holder said. Police "don't even have to see it, [if] they think you got one, you're going to get shot."

Wow. That is some backwards logic. There is a reason that police ask you to put both hands up. Who hasn't thought of the whole conceal-gun-in-pocket-and-shoot ploy? Yea, everyone thinks that will work. Concealed weapons are the reason why we have to take our shoes off at the airport. Concealed weapons are the reason why we get patted down at the courthouse. Concealed weapons are the reason suicide bombers are successful. Look, I'm not saying the police are right 100% of the time. But they and the military are in no danger of taking over our streets! (See Pakistan and Musharraf; Cuba and Castro.) So why is it that it's unfair to our police to protect themselves under a very important assumption when it is a life and death situation?

The fact that this guy was shot at 20 times is very concerning to me. The fact that Mayor Bloomberg and Rev. Al Sharpton are involved are not surprising. But the fact that people think that forcing a suspect to show they're actually armed, especially when they have proof that the kid confirmed that suspicion over a 911 call, is foolish and dangerous to our police forces. It's not the solution to the bigger problem - and what is that, exactly? Racism? A lack of cultural sensitivity training? That's a whole different bag of frozen peas, people, but I certainly know that visual evidence of a weapon will not save lives on either side of the police tape.