The Other Side Of Police Brutality
It was 5:30 p.m. in San Diego's City Heights area on the eastern part of the city. At a stop light a police officer pulled up to a black Audi that was involved in a shooting incident at a restaurant called In-N-Out about two hours earlier,14 miles away, in El Cajon area. Local police had chased the vehicle on the freeway, however, as the speed of the fleeing car reached above 100 mph, the chase was abandoned.
The officer at the stop light nevertheless was unaware of the previous incident, and he did not make any attempt to confront the occupants of the car. Despite that a passenger in the car shot the officer unprovoked. KGTV reported that the officer is alive but his condition is critical, fighting for his life at Scripps Mercy Hospital.
The cold blooded shooting of the officer led police to track down the vehicle to a nearby apartment, a gun battle ensued and one suspect was fatally shot.
It was just the other day when I wrote about police brutality in an article, When We Feel Ashamed Of Ourselves. There is always a story from the other side—this incident tells me, life is never laid out to us in black and white, it is only spread in shades of grays.
The life of a police officer, especially the ones who frequent crime ridden inner cities live literally on the edges. Every day an officer goes out on duty, the person's family prays that the individual returns home safely. Known and unknown danger awaits them at every nook and corner of the city. Add to that the various stresses the officers are subjected to continually, lack of sleep, inadequate rest, and on top—not having all required ammunition and gears.
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