Deadly Weapons

I'm...confused, I guess would be the best way to put it. Aside from the fact that we now have a "group" fighting against every conceivable societal ill, these groups also define situations to suit their respective causes, and no one in the media seems to ever notice the contradictions. Perhaps they simply choose to ignore them.

Case in point: MADD (Mother's Against Drunk Driving) has a noble platform, however convoluted it may have become with the ether of power, that is dedicated to eradicating the horrors of losing loved ones to drunken motorists. One of the tenets of their charter is the definition of a motor vehicle as a "deadly weapon". I can understand that; an object somewhere in the vicinity of 3000 pounds that can accelerate to 60 MPH in the span of, say, 10 seconds can be lethal.

Many liberal-minded people would be enthusiastic about this definition. But...when it's not convenient, that is another matter.

In New York City, three police officers were recently acquitted of murder charges in the shooting death of Sean Bell, a young black man who was out with friends, late at night, enjoying his bachelor party. After the acquittal, "civil rights leader" Al Sharpton mobilized a large contingient of family and friends of Mr. Bell and began vociferously protesting the verdict, claiming that New York City police officers don't have the right to "gun down an un-armed man".

Testimony in the trial stated that when police officers identified themselves at the scene, Mr. Bell attempted to either leave the scene in a hurry or tried to run down the officers with his car. Officers felt that their lives were in jeopardy and opened fire on the vehicle.

My question then is, if a motor vehicle can be classified as a deadly weapon in a DWI case, how can the Reverend Sharpton make the claim that Sean Bell was "un-armed" on the night he was killed by police who, ostensibly, were acting in accordance with police procedure in regards to self preservation? I must also wonder that if the police had crashed a speeding cruiser into Mr. Bell's car, killing him, whether they would feel the same outrage.

-Woody

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