Two-Fold (old) News post - Part 2

I received a message from another friend of mine one day, which so happens to coincide with my news topic for this part. It refers to the shooting of an underage driver by the name of Aminulrasyid Amzah in a car chase by policemen. I can't seem to find a Star online link as their archiving system is terrible, but search for that name and you'll find it.

The question goes:
"Just wondering what's your opinion on the teen shooting case that happened on Wednesday. Think about it this way, if even policemen cannot adhere to shooting guidelines, what more the public?"

Good question, friend.
However, why not think of it this way? Police officers don't adhere to shooting guidelines because they are above the law.

Well now, that brings a fresh change to the outlook, doesn't it? I cannot understand why the common public put themselves as morally inferior to the police. I cannot understand why people treat them as if they are some kind of societal standard that everyone else strives for. I cannot understand why so many people consider >themselves< as rowdy nutcases who are all itching for a fight, yet remain so pacified now; apparently only the object known as a gun will make them go crazy.

To cut a long story short, the general public has more of a reason to be responsible with their use of firearms because the law will judge them strictly. Compare this with the police force, who are for all practical purposes are above the law. Sure, errant trigger-happy police officers are the minority 'bad apples' in law enforcement, but the police force will never charge them for a full punishment. Why? Because if they did convict them of committing (rightfully, a) crime, then police would be admitting that they are capable of doing something wrong, and that they harbor irresponsible, even evil, persons in a government force that is supposed to have the trust of the people and protect them. Thus, the police would always try their best to bail a policeman out if the (lack of) evidence permits, even if said policeman has committed outright murder.

So, NO, I believe the civilian citizens of Malaysia will do better than their blue counterparts at being responsible gun owners.

In any case, moving on to the topic of the news. My opinion is this:
The police patrolmen involved in this case are absolutely incompetent and irresponsible for the killing of Aminulrasyid. Their method of stopping the runaway teenage driver was absolutely disgusting and appalling. In a first world country, police chasing down a suspect would first call for backup, follow the suspect until they arrive, then proceed to stop the suspect by boxing him in to the side of the road with their high-performance police-customized patrol cars. Not so in this case; the policemen -shot- at the tires and later the body of the car (and at Aminul!) while on the chase!

Now why is this wrong, you may ask? Well, three reasons:
Firstly, shooting at the tires of a car (which are relatively small targets), from another car while on a high speed chase, and shooting >out from a window<, is simply too difficult to do in any practical sense. This is a Hollywood stunt that no first-world law enforcement establishment would ever do except in the most extreme circumstances.

However, the wrongness of this action only comes to light when compounded with the second reason; BULLETS GO SOMEWHERE. What I mean by that is, those policemen were absolutely irresponsible and unable to realize that there may have been people all along the car chase route, and that those carelessly fired bullets that missed the suspect's car may have hit someone else! I don't care if it was in the dead of the night with few people around, you simply do not take such a chance! This action is not performed by any first-world police force because firing from a car to stop another car is STUPIDLY DANGEROUS, and that is exactly what I classify those policemen involved.

Finally, even if they didn't hit anyone with missed shots, what happens if their shooting causes the suspect's car too go out of control and crash into other cars, property, or bystanders? Madness!

In addition, I don't care if he acted suspiciously and drove away from the police car, or that Aminul continued to drive on even after having their car severely shot at. You absolutely DO NOT SHOOT at people in the first place until you know EXACTLY who they are and what they are up to (which goes hand in hand with the above paragraph). While those two policemen claimed that Aminul had used his car to try to ram the patrol car, Aminul's friend who was also in that car (but survived) said the opposite, that they never intended or tried to ram the police. I am more inclined here to believe the child who just lost a friend, really, and not listen to a possible cover-up attempt by those patrolmen.

I can say that perhaps the whole force is at fault here too: regular Malaysian patrolmen are not issued body armor as standard equipment. I am loath to do faux psychology, but I do think that the policemen would be more inclined to shoot first and ask questions later if they didn't have a second-chance layer of protection, which would allow them to better approach the suspect first without attacking. The police force is just underfunded, I'd say. Reflects on their criminally-low pay grade too. But I digress.

To be fair, the parents were responsible for this state of affairs as well. Why was Aminul allowed to drive out a car on his own, when they know he's untested, underage, and unlicensed? I might place 1/3 of the blame on them, as I reserve more than half blame for the policeman who shot at him due to his actions being far more significant and severe in the consequences, but I will still firmly put some blame on the parents.

Well, that's all I can say off the top of my head. There may be things that I may have missed, so perhaps you should drop a comment if you want to bring up more things.

!EDIT:
Oh, and his friend claims (and has proof) of being assaulted and beaten by the policemen AFTER he and his (already dead) friend crashed the car. Quite apparent that they didn't even care about him looking like a young child. This is not a case of criminals being brought to justice. This is a case of irresponsible police on a power-trip with no regard for what is right.

Also note that shooting at cars while driving in a high-speed chase is hardly something a civilian self-defense proponent, or ANY civilian for that matter, would be doing. So its kind of wrong to argue that civilians would be less responsible in using firearms by bringing up a situation that we'd never get into.
At least, not by playing the shooter role in a chase... Remember to stay away from crime and running away from policemen, y'all.

!EDIT: HALF THE WHOLE DAMN ARTICLE. Blogger apparently decided to screw me over today and crush the upper side of this post into nothing and remove many line breaks on the bottom half. I really need to back the work up myself every second next time.