Alone Where I'm Meant to Be Protected

Imagine a world where the people that are supposed to protect you are the ones that are bringing about the chaos in the world. Now imagine the person you love most being killed by those very same people that were put forth to protect you. The pain. The misery. The sorrow. Every last negative emotion that you can think of, and imagine knowing that the person who's job it is to prevent these emotions are the soul cause of them. Now let us zone out and see a scene that has managed to play out in one of the most devastating manners.

Four officers to one man, a handicapped man. That very same handicapped man being held at gunpoint for a weapon that he did not have. This is the tale of Jeremy McDole who was also known as Bam by his loved ones.

On Wednesday, September 23, 2015 Jeremy McDole was unjustly shot and killed by four officers in Wilmington, Delaware. The reason that I am speaking out on this specific case is because not only is it recent, but it is also extremely close to my home. Alongside its proximity to my home it is also an area that I have a large group of family members, and it's anyone of my family members that it could have been. So let us first look at the facts.
 

On September 23, 2015 Jeremy was shot by four officers for allegedly having a gun. In the video that is presented you can see that he was shot at by one of the officers in the arm and was left bleeding for not putting his hands up. The the officers continued to shout for him to put his hands up and put his weapon down. It is because the officers repeatedly asked Jeremy to put his weapon down, and he did did not that the rest of the incident occurred. However he did not have a weapon to put down in the first place.

So, when he went to place his hands in his lap he was shot. However, it was not just a bullet or two shot at him, instead his body was sprayed at with bullets so badly that he fell out of his wheelchair, with no weapon in sight.

It may be true that all he had to do was put his hands up and his life may have possibly been spared, it doesn't account for the shock one may feel after being shot at. In the face of fear everyone reacts differently and as we can see from this paralyzed mans attempt to walk away, his main concern was to get out of there. Not hear the shouts of the four men surrounding him.

Of course in the defense of the officers they were following protocol. When faced in dangerous situations such as these they are to put their own lives first and remove the problem being presented, right? Wrong. The job of a police officer is to protect and serve the citizens of this grand Nation that we call America, and that includes the lives of those that are in trouble as well. There are ways to ensure ones own safety without the death of another. It is even more grim to say that this entire situation is being investigated by the same police force that killed this innocent man.