Last month an Arizona Cop, about a half hour from Tucson, a man carrying a gun was rammed by a cop car. The dashboard video of the intentional hit received a lot of criticism. The video can be seen here at about 55 seconds into the news report. The main criticism of the police officer are the many people saying that hitting a man with a car is too much force. It begs the question of how far is too far in what situations for the police.
In the case of this ramming I believe that the cop was in the right because the man was in fact carrying a gun, and he was reported to have used the rifle to commit a robbery. The man had many chances to give up the weapon and was walking into a heavily populated area and he was a danger. As graphic as the video is, ramming the man with his car was the police officer's quickest way to incapacitate him and protect the community. If a cop had shot this man it would not have made the national news, he was a danger to the public. I applaud this officer's initiative to forgo protocol when the community is in danger.
Recently the nation has seen many unjust actions from local law enforcement. Racism has been seen in some police but it is important to recognize that the police risk their lives everyday to save the community. I feel that the U.S. has gotten into the habit of assuming the worst of law enforcement when the fact is that the majority of cops just want to protect people and help their community--with no corruption or agenda. This Arizona cop may have colored outside the lines, but I still think he was just trying to do his job, not taking advantage of his position or being overly violent.
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