Back in June, Seattle resident Oscar Perez Giron committed the most minor of crimes, and ended up dead.
When fare enforcement officers approached 23-year-old Giron and his two companions on the light rail and asked for proof of fare payment, they could only produce two valid ticket stubs.
The officers ordered them off the train at the next stop, and detained them on the platform, calling for backup from the King County Sheriff. Giron tried to run. A scuffle ensued. He grabbed a gun from his backpack. A King County Sheriff’s deputy shot Giron, fatally wounding him.
This sort of incident is becoming more and more common in Seattle, as it is around the country.
But our city has comparatively little crime, and an enviably minuscule number of homicides each year.
Last year we topped out at 29 homicides. The killer in six of those incidents was a law enforcement officer.
How did we get here, to a point where more than 20 percent of murders are at the hands of the very police who are supposed to protect us?
The ongoing confrontation in Ferguson, Missouri has a lot of people pointing fingers at the ‘militarization’ of local police forces.
Has over-reliance on heavy equipment, coupled with a military mentality that frames citizens as threats, rather than allies, turned our local cops into killers?
[For more of this story, written by Lael Henterly, go to http://www.seattleglobalist.co...uson-shootings/28591]
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