How the law encourages police brutality [View all]
Had any of the men made any suspicious movements?” I asked.
“No,” said the cop.
“Did you have any reason to think the men were armed?”
“No.”
“So why did you draw your gun?”
Trial lawyers are taught never to ask a question to which they don’t already know the answer, and I was breaking that rule when I asked the last question. But I figured no possible answer could hurt my client. Still, the cop’s answer stunned me:
“I was outnumbered.”
I looked around the courtroom, making a show of quietly counting on my fingers the other people there – the court reporter, opposing counsel, the clerk, the judge. Then I asked the officer, “Are you outnumbered right now?”
It is hard to imagine moving through the world and seeing every other human being around you, no matter how ordinary, as a threat. If I lived like that, I wouldn’t leave the house. But police are trained to see the world that way, and for at least fifty years, our courts have ratified their worldview."
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/31/why_did_you_draw_your_gun%E2%80%9D_how_the_law_encourages_police_brutality/
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