Acceptable Use Of Force Essay, Research Paper

Acceptable Use of Force

Who really decided what acceptable use of force is? How thin of a line is it? To me the line seems so thin that it virtually does not exist. Or does the line fluctuate? Does it move from one person’s beliefs to the another? I believe it does. We all have our views of what is right and what is wrong. We set our own limits for ourselves and at the same time forget that others may have different limits. The law that I am referring to is, to me, a law that is not really a law. When I think of a law I think of something that is concrete, set in stone, like that of a murder or rape law. But the Acceptable Use of Force Law has no spine it seems. It does not have that one line that says, Yes, that is illegal. It seems as though if the judge wakes up in a bad mood one morning because this judge could not sleep that night, that a man might go to jail for murder. Now suppose that that same judge got plenty of rest and had a good breakfast with his family, sets a man free of the same crime because this time he felt it was Acceptable. Does this seem right? I do not see the justice in mood swings and spineless laws.

Mr. Goetz was a man who had been picked on often in his life. He felt like he was always walking in a dark alley with no one by his side to help him. He felt that if he could not protect himself that he would have to get something that would. How could he know that the decision he made when he decided to get something to protect him was going to change his life forever?

One day Mr. Goetz was in a subway car with a new sense of security. He boldly sat down beside four delinquents almost like he was looking for trouble. The next thing he knew the four kids approached him with sharpened screwdrivers and asked him his money. At that point Mr. Goetz reached for his protection, a silver revolver that sent piercing bullets through each of the four young men. The four young men lay bleeding on the floor of the subway car as Mr. Goetz helped a few women to their feet and left as if he never did anything wrong. Should he have left that way? Did he really do anything wrong?

I can relate to why Mr. Goetz could do something like that. But I can also relate to the boys that he shot. I can remember one time a few of my friends and I went to a house that was supposed to be haunted. As we slowly approached the house, out of nowhere came a shrieking voice that said, Get out of here, get the hell out of here. Everybody ran as fast as they could back to the cars, except for me. A girl tumbled down the very hill we climbed up just a few seconds before hand. I hid behind a tree hoping no one saw me, and then I heard, Do you see this? This is a loaded gun! My eyes got big and my mind started to wander. Within second of that statement I heard the cocking of a semi-automatic 9mm gun. The sound echoed through the air and hit my ears with a thunder. I can only compare the sound to when a doctor snaps a bone that was broken back in place. That s how it felt as well. I thought to myself that if I only had a gun I could instill the same fear we had, in him. The situation ended up in everyone getting back into the cars and leaving with a warning, but how was I supposed to just walk out from behind the tree like nothing happened and get into my car? I had no choice but to do that. As I walked down the driveway the man holding the gun saw me and said, Who the hell is that, as he raised his gun and pointed it directly at me. I looked into his eyes and saw a man that was not crazy. Somehow, I know when a guy will do something crazy by looking into his eyes. This time all I saw was a man getting paid to scare people away. I said, I m Brent, and got in my car and left.

Now when I look at that situation and relate it to Goetz s situation one thing that is apparent to me is obviously that fact that both men had guns. All of the kids were basically defenseless against these two men. So, is it really necessary to pull the gun out and point it directly at them, or in Goetz s case, shoot them? I do not see how a man can do that. A better result could have come out of both situations if perhaps the men would have just shown the kids the gun. I really believe that Goetz is not a sane man. He is an adult and if he is exonerated of this crime then that will open doors for others to do the same. Everyone always tries to say that parents are the role models for young men and women. Those same people say that teens should not be using guns. If this case is dropped then that message will be completely ripped to shreds. We cannot have a country that shoots people day in and day out for a few dollars. Is life not priceless? We believed it once, let us believe it again.