Can the State Be Reckless?
by Joe?Pulcinella
Apparently, so. Fairfax VA police shot and killed an unarmed?man suspected of gambling?(hat tip to the LRC blog).
Fairfax County's police chief said yesterday that one of his officers accidentally shot and killed an optometrist outside the unarmed man's townhouse Tuesday night as an undercover detective was about to arrest him on suspicion of gambling on sports.
Police had been secretly making bets with Salvatore J. Culosi Jr., 37, since October as part of a gambling investigation, according to court records. They planned to search his home in the Fair Oaks area, just off Lee Highway, shortly after 9:30 p.m.
[...]
?"As they approached him . . . one officer's weapon, a handgun, was unintentionally discharged," said Fairfax Police Chief David M. Rohrer.
So let me get this straight. The State entraps a non-violent man by breaking their its laws against gambling. Then they send in armed police and an accident happens. Unpreventable? No. Because this is the sort of thing that is made much more likely as local police forces become paramilitary in nature. Fact of the matter is, the police did not have to search, arrest or kill this man. He was not partaking in ant activity that the State itself does not partake in.
Here it is in a nutshell. The State moves the margin between criminal and non-criminal (or in the State's eyes, the "not-yet-a-criminal). Each they do, more and more of us end up on the other side of that line. When that happens, more and more police are needed with more weaponry thereby increasing the chances of a fatal accident.
This is reckless endangerment. We go to jail for this sort of thing but the cops get a paid vacation.