Monday, April 15, 2013

What Boston Should Do Today to Promote Nonviolence After the Bombing

One of my first suggestions to the FBI after the first attack upon the Branch Davidians went wrong and ATF agents died was that they should not have sent in a trailer load of World War II looking ATF agents dressed in Nazi styled helmets and black storm trooper uniforms to get David Koresh.  Rather, they should have sent in the local sheriff in boots and a cowboy hat.  Then, if they needed backup, the ATF agents could help out behind Texas State Troopers, Texas Rangers, etc., but not dressed in black. The bad guy wears the black hat in all the western movies, remember?

In Boston, after the bombings at the marathon, I would:  1) get every officer in plain clothes, dressed in a suit and tie, like a polished FBI agent.  2)  I would require that all weapons were concealed.  You see, if the state is gonna intimidate good citizens from open carry, then the so-called "peace officers" should not be brandishing instruments of violence in the face of the good citizens.  3)  I would require new officers to have a master's degree, if they are gonna carry and act with the power of life and death.  We don't want bums enforcing complex laws.  4)  I'd put the new Bradley Fighting Vehicle in Boston and every town in America in a storage shed and not brandish it to the people.  Nonviolence is about not being threatening to others.

That should get you started.

Gene Chapman