Bending the Third Rail
Because We Should, We Can, We Do
Friday, January 13, 2006
Shoot Him Dano
I was reading through my usual stuff today when I read about Kevin Drum's lack of objection to Scalito. That's almost predictable and worth a post itself. But Kevin quoted this blogger in describing his opinion of Alito:
He's on record in a memo as believing that to shoot an eighth grader, known not to be armed, who was trying to climb over a fence in escape, is a proper use of deadly force by a policeman.
That statement is also worth some discussion in my opinion. But what really freaks me out is that a little later, I ran across this news story:

AP
LONGWOOD, Fla. — A SWAT team member shot and wounded an eighth-grader who appeared to be carrying a handgun at his middle school, leading to an evacuation of the school Friday morning.

The student was taken to the hospital and his condition was not immediately known.

Details of the shooting were sketchy, but Seminole County Sheriff's officials said no other students, teachers or school staff members at Milwee Middle School were injured.

Sheriff's officials had originally said the wounded boy had barricaded himself in a bathroom.
Now that's just too freaky that these two, apparently unrelated, stories actually, like, relate? I guess if the Florida kid ends up in the Supreme Court, we know how Scalito will vote.

Regarding the story, the first thing that strikes me is that the SWAT team is called out to deal with an eighth grader who locks himself in the bathroom? The article says it "appeared" he was armed. Wouldn't they know? But then again, this is Florida.

I hope there's more to this story that's not reported here. Otherwise, the officials in this story sure do have some serious problems.
Written at 2:05 PM by Greyhair.
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