Discussion for article #230810
I guess I’m missing something.
Seems like very good advice for parents. These days you need to be careful that your kids aren’t walking around with something that looks like a gun in their hand, because the police are seeing more of the real thing out there.
Thanks, NRA, for making real guns such a big part of our life that fake guns create a dangerous sense of alarm in law enforcement!
13 Likes
Mmmm kay, Ohio is an open carry state, correct? So, while this is useful advice for parents, and as a parent I wouldn’t let my kid carry around any kind of toy gun, it really flies in the face of the fact that OHIO IS AN OPEN CARRY STATE.
This post, while probably well-intentioned and practical, really says “Our cops have terrible judgment, and if they think your kid is the wrong kind of open-carrier, they might just shoot him. So be careful out there.”
It’s sad.
8 Likes
Am I missing something?
This reads like good advice if your child–especially if your child is black or white–regarding having a toy that looks for real. If people on social media are considering this a “problem,” then it only underscores how social media can be a spreader of bad information. This, however, is good information.
So, what is the problem with this?
3 Likes
Yes, logic seems missing from your thought process.
It says, in effect, that cops are really stupid (most are not). It says we as a society are willing to accept substandard behavior within our police force, so, you better watch out.
Heck, I hear Orcs work for nothing, might as well outsource your policing to them.
2 Likes
The article posts this FB information out of context. That’s why folks are looking at this and going “this seems like good advice, what am I missing, why are people angry?”
Because you haven’t seen the previous FB posts they removed, and the previous tweets they have since deleted, mocking the death of Tamir Rice and blaming it on the victim, while doing what they actually claim in THIS posting they are not doing, which is defending the police position and how the incident occurred. What you’re reading above is their attempt at appeasement while trying to distract people from the vile things they posted originally, and trying to distract from the fact they didn’t apologize for any of it.
So this article is really only half complete, and really does a disservice to the whole story, and what epic douchebags the STLPD have been in the last couple of months on social media. And when I say epic, I mean EPIC. I mean mouthing off with total impunity levels of epic, while spouting thinly veiled racist remarks epic.
10 Likes
Thanks for clearing that up. I felt I was missing the gestalt of the post. So many disconnects everywhere.
Open carry indeed.
It’s becoming pretty commonplace in this whole slew of incidents to have media telling an incomplete story. I’ve stopped relying on them to cover it all or explain any sort of context.
This particular article is a glaring example. There is considerable context to what STLPD posted, why it was posted, and what preceded it. In reading the article, a layman who wasn’t aware of all that preceding information would wonder why people were so upset and would have ZERO ability to connect the dots.
It’s lazy reporting. It’s not as though the contextual information is not available. It’s out there. But what I see here from this Catherine Thompson article is a half assed effort to get out ahead of the story. Not only is it weak, it adds fuel to the incorrect narrative fire.
5 Likes
This point needs to be made often. My first reaction to this story was the same as the other first posters here, that it’s just sensible advice [edit: though JJ’s info certainly adds important context that was inexcusably omitted]. But almost immediately thereafter, all of the past year’s stories of open-carry nuts parading down Main Streets and strutting into fast-food joints and intimidating gun-safety activists flooded into my head. Not to mention the Cliven Bundy crew literally taking aim at peace officers. And I didn’t have to try very hard to imagine how all those episodes would have played out if virtually all those folks weren’t so pale. It’s the kind of thing that I really think could produce an “oh, I get it” moment for a lot of benignly clueless white people
5 Likes
hey, stl co police…ur doing it wrong
1 Like
Ohh do stop all that crap. Toy guns have been around for a century or more. Killing kids for playing with them is a new thing. This isn’t a toy or kid issue. Its a cop issue.
2 Likes
i think you are missing something. ohio has open carry laws, and I’m pretty sure you don’t even need a license to carry a firearm openly. i could be wrong on that, though. so the point they made is irrelevant, from what I understood, because it’s perfectly legal to walk around with firearm on full display in the state of Ohio. ie. what that kid was doing was totally legal. This all reminds me of those gun nuts that would terrorize people by walking around with AR’s at peaceful demonstrations. That seems more worthy of a police confrontation than a kid, playing with a toy guy, in a state with open carry laws.
3 Likes
You NAILED it.
The police in the STL area just need to STFU in the worst possible way. But its like they can’t help themselves.
And what I think it says about them is that they have a deeply rooted sense of righteousness, that their cause is just. But that’s not all. They also have a kind of siege mentality.
In short, they literally have been operating on the principle that by shooting the negro, they are doing a good thing.
2 Likes
So, we need to train kids to be more responsible than cops.
Yeah, that sounds right.
9 Likes
So disgusting and I am thoroughly disgusted.
No matter how racist and brutal the police are, in real world terms it’s still good advice.
3 Likes
It’s interesting. When I was growing up, my friends and I played with toy guns all the time. Some of them looked very realistic. But for some reason, no policeman ever shot me. No policeman ever even told me to put the gun down.
But then again, I’m white.
4 Likes
Thanks.
That makes a lot more sense.
Thank you – that was my reaction, too. What are people so heated about?
Exactly. The thought process apparently being: Ohio is an open carry state, so what this 12-year old kid was doing is perfectly legal. We should all just put our trust in the cops that when they see a black kid in a park with a drawn weapon, they’re going to saunter up to that kid and calmly ask him if the gun is real or fake.
Look, some cops do terrible things. Some out of fear, others out of evil. But if we expect all the responsibility to fall on the cops and not parents and community leaders, then we can also expect to have more 12-year olds killed. It seems perfectly reasonable for me as a parent that I would know what my child was playing with, and in this specific case, even if I’ve given my child permission to play with an Airsoft gun (which I wouldn’t), to ensure that the gun was not altered in any way. I’m not defending the cops, but being a police officer is a difficult job, even when you act like a human being and attempt to give people the benefit of the doubt. The more things we can do as citizens to keep them from having to make rash decisions, the better it is for all of us. Not to make their jobs easier, but to keep our kids from getting killed.
We can blame cops, and blame the NRA, but the reality is that the only thing we control is how educated and aware we make our children.
1 Like