Bullets Fly At Lansdowne Park: PATTON

It always astounds me when police say “There’s no risk to the public.” when more than one or more person(s) in possession of firearms have been shooting them in public.

First of all, when they have nobody in custody and often not even a suspect, how could they possibly know what’s coming next? Had you asked them half an hour before this shooting how safe it would be to go for a stroll at Lansdowne, they would have undoubtedly said there was no risk to the public. Are they unaware of the number of times innocent bystanders, oftentimes children, get caught in the incident and are injured or killed?

Second, do they believe that, following this incident, the participants went home and beat their guns into ploughshares with the intention of never firing another shot as long as they live? In this case, there has been no identified victim meaning that the person who was intended to be killed wasn’t. He or she is walking around with a big target on their back … or their face.

May I draw your attention to the murder in July of a man who was shot in the face as he sat in his car outside a burrito restaurant at Hampton Park around 6 pm? He was the intended victim of the multiple shootings at his wedding at the Infinity Convention Centre off Hunt Club last September. Four hours after that incident, which killed two and injured another four, none of whom were connected to the target, the police said there was no danger to the public. When the shooter came after him in broad daylight when other people would have been in the immediate vicinity, were none of them potential victims and in danger?

If I had been, like the two dead men, a guest at the other wedding that was going on at the Infinity Centre or was going out to grab dinner at Hampton Park and I had called the police half an hour before those events took place, would they have told me to exercise caution or would they have wondered why I was bothering them since there was no risk in either case?

I ask the police, define “risk”.