Man shot while fleeing fight at city park
Posted by: emperor in Immigration Reform, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social Issues
Sunday, family and friends gathered at a popular Anchorage city park to celebrate my Daughter’s Birthday for a cook out and a game of American Field Crumpets. That’s us in the background of the picture. We’re at the back of the park, furthest from the road and parking lot, but as it turned out, right in the line of fire.
Out of nowhere our beautiful Sunday was interrupted by the unmistakable sound of small arms fire. I looked up to see a man running straight at us about thirty yards away as several shots hit the ground around him, then a couple of more and the man was down, bleeding from his torso, shot in the back. Then I heard the screams, saw people running away and running to the action. Tires squealing in the parking lot as the assailants sped away in two vehicles.
What I missed before the gunshots was that it started with a confrontation out in the parking lot between two groups that moved our way, until someone decided to escalate the conflict pulling a weapon. It was apparent that this was gang related, which since has been confirmed.
At this point you may think I’m going to launch into a rant about the evils of guns in society. I’m not. In fact, I wish I had been armed because if the conflict had moved closer to endanger myself and others I would have taken out the assailant myself.
You may think this is going to be a rant about needing to crack down on “Gang Bangers” with draconian solutions like “stop and frisk”, mandatory sentencing or military style boot camps. It’s not. In fact, I think those types of things just exasperate the problem by further alienating a whole generation.
No, this is about the interaction between people and the police. We watched the police systematically take care of the victim, secure the crime scene, and begin interviewing witnesses. They moved quickly, but thoroughly and with professionalism. When they came to me they asked for my name, address, birth date and phone number which I gave them (even though there is no legal requirement for me to do so). Everyone in my group did. Then asked me what I saw, which wasn’t very helpful since I only saw the end and not the shooter. What they didn’t do is ask me for any kind of identification. In fact, they didn’t ask to see anyone’s ID that I’m aware of, certainly no one among my group.
This made me wonder what would have happened had this event occurred in Arizona with the new Immigration law. Would police be required to ask for everyone’s ID? Would everyone be required to prove they are legally in the US. Certainly this would qualify as a “lawful contact”. Perhaps witnesses that could positively identify the assailant would leave without speaking to the police in fear of being asked for their papers. This is one of the reasons law enforcement officials in Arizona and around the United States are speaking out against this atrocious law.
Tags: Gangs, Gun Control, Immigration
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