Just Shoot Me

Well, an international organization that represents police chiefs has basically sentenced me to death. How, you may ask? By presenting a plan to "shoot for the head" when dealing with potential suicide bombers. This is supposed to keep them from detonating their bombs. What it will end up doing is getting many innocent people critically injured or killed. "Hold on," you might say, "this is no threat. They're only going to shoot people with bombs." If you were to ask that question, I would most likely sigh, light a cigarette, and give you a ball to bounce, saying something along the lines of "Here, play with this. Adults are talking." Here's the quoted text from the Reuters article, picked up off Yahoo (which I picked up off BoingBoing):

...the guide recommends that if lethal force is needed to stop someone who fits a certain behavioral profile, the officer should "aim for the head." The intent is to kill the suspect instantly so the person could not set off a bomb if one is strapped to the person's chest, the newspaper said.

Among signs to look for listed in the police organization's behavioral profile are wearing a heavy coat in warm weather, carrying a backpack with protrusions or visible wires, nervousness, excessive sweating or an unwillingness to make eye contact, the Post said.

Go ahead. Read it again. I'll wait here. Yes, that's right, they are going to start shooting people in the head if they act suspicious. And apparently, acting suspicious is what I do when I travel, because I always have a backpack with protrusions (laptop) and visible wires (headphones), I'm nervous when I travel, I'm not a skinny guy, so sweating can occur, and in Chi-town, you just don't make eye-contact. Ever. I'm traveling to Florida on Monday. If no one hears from me again, I was shot in the head by a police officer at Midway, because I match the profile of people they should be shooting in the head.

Oh, and just on a lark, this question flew into my brain: HAS EVERYONE LOST THEIR BLEEDING MINDS? The police, those that protect and serve, have taken on a policy of shooting anyone in the head just because they may pose a danger? Did somebody hand out the LSD, and I just missed out? Or has it finally happened? I'm now (and always have been) more scared of my government and it's officials than I am of terrorists. Now I have to worry about being shot in the head if I'm nervous and sweating? Shit, thats enough to make me nervous, and then I'll start sweating and be SHOT IN THE GOD-DAMNED HEAD. Is there no sanity left in this world? We're (passively) taught from a young age not to make direct, lasting eye contact with those in power, and now they're going to shoot us in the head for it. The article goes on to say that the threat doesn't need to be imminent, the officer just has to have a reasonable basis for believing the suspect can detonante a bomb. I can't even speak, I'm so dumbfounded. I'm having trouble even thinking about this without being completely and utterly stupified.

Not only is there the horrible safety concern with this new "approval", but how is that going to stop bombers? If I was a bomber, and read about that, I'd put a secondary trigger on the bomb that would be activated when my heart stopped beating. Make a simple EKG (which you could do with a piezzo sensor) and set it to go off if I died. Well, now, that ruins the whole bloody thing, now doesn't it? Jesus. I just can't comprehend this. I'm going out for a drink. God, I'm going to get shot in the head.

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