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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]
Hats off for an intelligent and respectful response - I agree with just about everything you said. Still, I can't help but sigh in frustration when people insist on demanding facts and data for an issue that goes much deeper than what statistics can show. The notion that authorities treat non-white people differently isn't merely a matter of analyzing how many people are arrested in relation to their percentage of the population. For instance, the New York Times article that initiated this discussion - Library Visit, Then Held at Gunpoint - no one was shot or arrested so there's no data to collect, but as the article tried to articulate..."What if?" What if that kids dad wasn't a New York Times columnist? What if he was just another black kid? Would we even have heard this story? Would we have even cared? If such a situation can arise on a college campus how unlikely is it that in predominately black communities patrolled by on a daily basis by equally "cautious" cops that kids are getting guns pointed at them with regularity and then told to go on about their business without anyone shot or arrested - encounters that don't show up in statistics. But does that make those confrontations negligible? And the bigger question...what if? [/quote]

Just curious:  What should the policeman have done?
  
That's a great question and I honestly can't say.  On the one the campus officer was investigating a crime and in search for a suspect and he did come across someone who fit the description of the suspect and acted accordingly - so there's that.  On the other hand where is the consideration for the everyday citizen?  Where is the accounting for potential error in his judgement that maybe this isn't the guy, that maybe It could be a law-abiding citizen minding his own business?  Taking that probability into consideration is pulling a gun really the right course of action?  Could pulling a gun potentially provoke the situation and put that citizen in danger?  It's a quite a dilemma without question but considering officers are assigned with the responsibility of protecting and serving the people and considering most people regardless of race are not criminals much less dangerous criminals, I woulld think the side of caution to err on is that of restraint to avoid endangering the very people he is sworn to protect and serve.  Stop...yes.  Question...sure.  Pull a gun and for all intents and purposes terrorize innocent civilians who's only crime is fitting the description...I can't get with that.
  
 
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