Shoot first; ask questions later

“Tragically, we believe this is a case of mistaken identity,” Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck told reporters of two innocent victims of a police shooting: 71-year-old Emma Hernandez and her 47-year-old daughter Maggie Carrazana, who were both gunned down mercilessly by the police.

 It was said that these two Latina women were mistaken for the ex-cop Chris Dorner, who police pursued for several days after a killing spree that claimed four lives in California.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that police believed Dorner died in a fire in a cabin where he had barricaded himself.

The police in Los Angeles have not only a brutal track record in general, but have been seemingly unapologetic as public servants.

Hernandez is in critical condition after being shot in the back by police. Her daughter was wounded.

These women are victims of police brutality at its maximum and they are lucky to be alive, quite frankly. The LAPD has been particularly ruthless and reckless in the case of finding this killer.

When the police gun down citizens who are unarmed, that is very scary for people to think about.

There are many now who do not feel protected by their local police, and rightfully so.

Though the police are supposed to be protecting the public from harm and injustice, it seems that they too have produced some of L.A’.s potential murderers.

This is not only ironic, but terrifying.

Glen Jonas, the attorney for the victims, also believes that the LAPD’s actions were not only overzealous in trying to protect their own, but were being careless brutes. “The problem with the situation is it looked like the cops were administering street justice and didn’t take the time to notice that these two older, small Latina women don’t look like a large black man,” Jonas told the Los Angeles Times.

Street justice is exactly what this seems to be — shooting first and asking questions later. By these actions, the police seem to be continuing a suppressive regime of brutality among impoverished neighborhoods and minorities.

In the case of the LAPD trying to vengefully track down this killer with complete and utter disregard for innocent deaths, these cases and many like them seem to always be a part of some “mistake.”

These men should be stripped of their badges and held accountable because this deadly recklessness should not be acceptable or tolerated by the public.

Anyone who uses a weapon recklessly is a criminal. And a gunman is simply a gunman, regardless of the intentions — or the scrap metal on a uniform.