Trigger Happy in New York

Shoot first and find excuses later is the new motto for cowardly police officers in New York City who have no qualms about firing bullets into a crowd of innocent bystanders while attempting to gun down an unarmed man.

We have to wonder whether this is what the cops are taught to do in cadet school or whether they learn it on the job as the most expedient way to protect themselves from the slightest hint of potential danger posed by unruly suspects.

Shooting live rounds into a crowd of people, however, simply cannot be justified under any circumstances.

The latest instance involves 35-year-old Glenn Broadnax, of Brooklyn, an unarmed, emotionally unhinged man creating a disturbance at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue near Times Square in New York City. Apparently, he was attempting to commit suicide by lurching himself into traffic and lunging toward oncoming cars.

Naturally, a crowd gathered to watch. Some tried to help the poor man. That’s when the police arrived with their guns. And when the suspect reached into his pocket for his wallet two frightened cops opened fire, missing him completely but wounding to female bystanders.

“Mr. Broadnax never imagined his behavior would ever cause the police to shoot at him,” explained his attorney. Never-the-less, the cops and the prosecutor are blaming him for the shooting. 

He “recklessly engaged in conduct which created a grave risk of death,” claims the prosecution in a nine-count grand jury felony indictment containing charges carrying a possible 25-year prison sentence.

So the situation that left two innocent bystanders with gunshot wounds at the hands of trigger happy police thugs was entirely the defendant’s fault say the authorities. That’s their excuse for shooting at an unarmed man on a crowded street and plugging two women in the crowd with lead.

“It’s an incredibly unfortunate use of prosecutorial discretion to be prosecuting a man who didn’t even injure my client,” said an attorney for one of the wounded women. “It’s the police who injured my client.”

Yes, it’s the police who shot first and found excuses later.

They’re trigger happy in New York.