There will be many that will disagree with me. Then again, as I have said before. I try to be honest in my posts in the way I think and feel. I do believe, frequently, I do have proper and or logical reasons for what I write.

There has been a recent news story about a 13 year-old shot by police in Utica. To be sure, I cannot claim I know everything about the situation other than it was a tragedy and that should never have happened. Yet, it happens all the time. As I said in one of my first posts, sometimes decisions are made that cannot be undone. I did so by saying that life does not have “undo” functions. There are no backspace keys. I used the case of an old woman shooting her own son thinking that he was a burglar. Certainly that woman would have done anything to reverse the last ten minutes. But, sometimes, it is just impossible to change the past.

Sometimes, while driving, I take a wrong turn. It can have consequences, but generally, I think little of it. On the other hand, I have made mistakes, big ones that I will never be able to change. It does happen. I am sure most others have too.

Going back to the shooting and what I know and what I suspect. I would think right now, the officer that shot that boy would do just about anything if he could hit that backspace key. When he left for work that day, I am pretty sure he did not say to himself, You know, I think I will just shoot a 13 year-old-boy today. It was not part of his plan. It was likely the farthest thing from his mind.

In one of my books, a detective told a woman that his greatest fear was to look down the barrel of gun being held by some 14-year-old. The book is fiction. However, I am sure many policemen do live in that fear for real.

As near as I can tell, he saw the pellet gun and thought it was real. So I ask, one and all. If you were a policeman and some thirteen-year-old was pointing a gun at you, would you shoot him or would you let him shoot you and others.

As I said, it was and is tragic. It should have never happened. As with most tragedies, there were likely many things that led to the time the officer pulled the trigger. Now, I am going to guess at some of it. They said he was an alien. I would suspect he and his parents were here illegally.

Does that make it alright to shoot him. Of course not. However it is part of what led to what happened. He ran from the policeman. Why? Maybe because he was illegal and didn’t want to be caught. No one will really know the reason he ran.

The instant the policeman confronted him, he should have told the officer he had a pellet gun and then followed the instructions. Regardless, run or not, he should have never pulled the gun out. He had to know the policeman would have thought it was real.

Running was a mistake. Pulling the gun was a mistake. Then again, 13-year-olds do make mistakes. I certainly did. It just so happens, the mistakes he made became fatal.

And now, the shooting will have repercussions. It will change the life of the officer who shot him. It will likely change the city and the police department. I guess it can be said that there are and will have repercussions throughout the country.

There will be those who will say the officer should not have shot. There will be those who will rush to the officer’s defense. I suspect that few will consider that which led up to the tragedy.

In the end, as bad as it is, we the public will have to face it. It was a horrible accident. However, it was an accident. It was one that did result in a death, which I hate and I’m sure most others dislike it too.

Now, let’s get realistic. As the official observer of Memphis, I notice that there are shootings about everyday in the city. It seems there is an average of a murder a day and most go unsolved. There are just so many they don’t have the manpower.

Where is the concern for those lives. And I might mention, many of those people killed are not running from the police. Sometimes we are talking of children lying in their bed at the time the bullet hits them. Where is the concern for them? Where is the outrage? Why are we releasing people guilty of crimes involving guns without bond?

Sorry. I don’t understand the outrage of a policeman doing his job and the lack of outrage at real murders and murderers.

Also, let’s take another look at the media. Why do they like to make the officer the villain before the investigation is started, while making the criminal just an unfortunate man down on his luck. To me, that in itself is a tragedy.