Shootings At Year's End

I was waiting for my car to be repaired, and they had CNN on.
Interesting thoughts:
956 people killed by police this year
25% they figured had mental illness. Does that seem like a lot? Considering the numbers of murders that didn't involve police.
Maybe.
Maybe holding the boys in blue to higher standards than our dumbass selves, is the logic. I'm not sure. I only know I wouldn't want to be a cop. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Recently, Tamir Rice, the kid who was waving around a gun in that Cleveland neighborhood that was shot and killed, the city isn't pressing charges against the cop...who leaped out of the car and started shooting.
The debate is to whether or not having waved a toy gun around would've got him killed. I would HOPE cops had the brain cells rubbed together that no one was running, ducking and hiding. You didn't hear pop sounds. And it's just some dumb kid. So for this kid's stupidity, he is unnecessarily killed. Fuck if they couldn't bust down drug mules and "accidentally" kill them. Or gang bangers or...anyone but a damn kid standing in a playground. Also, the proximity of the kid to the officer once the officer leaped out of the cruiser, it's impossible for me to think he didn't see the kid just standing nonchalantly pointing it around. It must've come as a shock, I'd say that real guns were drawn on him.

Again, I'm not sure what lesson is to be learned here, but you can bet the Mother will most likely sue toy company and blah blah blah. It's all a mess.

I don't know what's changed. We talked about this with the other people getting their cars fixed. My theory is that we just are taking who we can get, in terms of police officers. We don't care what their background is. And the ones who get complaints against, they just move them.
Fun stuff. Wonder what 2016 will bring.