When This is Considered Justice, a Society has Gone Mad

   Police are out in the street, away from his house, yelling, "Drop that knife. Drop it. Drop that knife." The victim, Jovany Mercado-Bedolla, walks casually out onto car port and toward the street, getting as far as the sidewalk before officers unleash a fury of bullets, dropping him dead.
   The officers did but as they are trained. When he got within the specified distance, they killed him.
    From this person's viewing the video, the killing does not appear to be warranted. He did not say anything threatening. Nor did he brandish his knife as if to use it. He did not even appear to be looking too directly at the officers, but rather was as if in a daze as to what was going on.
   Bang, bang, bang. They shot him dead.
   Could they have backed up, but continued to keep a bead on him, to see where he headed? Could then have shot him with a taser? Could they have shot to wound, instead of firing multiple shots aimed to kill? From my watching of the video, I can see no reason not to back off, keeping a bead, thus allowing to see where he was headed. You don't kill a person unless you have to, and they didn't have to kill him. There were other options.
   Nor should it go unsaid that we have been told officers in Utah are receiving training on how to deal with the mentally impaired. Mercado's composure was consistent with being disoriented, drug-impaired, or that of someone mentally ill. Had the officers actually been trained to recognize such demeanor? And, if so, should not their training have dictated they react differently?
   A man is dead. He didn't need to die. He was killed on his own property. His Second Amendment rights say he could bear arms. I repeat, on his own property.
   August 16, 2019, Ogden, Utah. Police and the district attorney say it was justified. Twenty bullets fired, 16 hitting the victim.
   Many there will be who say the police were justified. I am among those, though, who would suggest we are as a society gone mad. We follow a textbook as to when the law says you should kill instead of being level-headed and realizing it wasn't necessary. When this is considered justice, a society has gone mad.