Talk about a bad idea: In response to the police shooting of 15-year old Paul Childs, there is apparently a flyer floating around the city urging people to shoot police officers.
There are two major problems with this flyer. First of all, using violence to counter violence is always wrong. It is self-defeating, and creates an endless cycle of violence, pain and death.
Second, this flyer is going to make the Denver Police even more prone to using deadly force. The DPD, who have proven to be very quick to shoot someone, will be even more likely to shoot someone, since they will now feel threatened by everyone on the street. This flyer is going to lead to more police shootings.
The police were wrong in this shooting. They’ve been wrong in most of their shootings over the last couple of years. But this is not the way to deal with this. We have to meet the DPD’s violence with peace. We must protest their actions with words, not physical actions.