Bloomberg Scolds Reporter For Questioning Police Shooting Of Nine Bystanders

Chris | InformationLiberation
Aug. 30, 2012

[Mayor Bloomberg] exploded in anger after a reporter asked him what he thought of the officers opening fire on 58-year-old Jeffrey Johnson Friday morning on a Midtown street, injuring nine bystanders who got caught in the crossfire.

“Let me ask you this Miss, if somebody pointed a gun at you and you had a gun in your pocket, what would you do? I think that answers the question,” Bloomberg said Tuesday at an unrelated news conference in the Bronx.

Johnson encountered the officers moments after he allegedly shot and killed his former co-worker, 41-year-old Steven Ercolino, outside Hazan Imports on West 33rd Street.

The two officers fired a total of 16 rounds at Johnson after he pulled out a gun and pointed it at the officers, police said.

“The guy turned and pointed his gun at the two police officers and you can really ask that question after that?” Bloomberg asked the reporter.

The mayor added that it’s unfortunate nine bystanders were injured, but insists the officers “acted more than appropriately.”

First off, if the reporter had a gun in her pocket, and the gun wielding shooter aimed his gun at her, and she took her gun out and shot the man (who did not even discharge his weapon) just as police did, not hitting any bystanders, she would be arrested at a minimum for possession of an illegal firearm. As the man did not shoot his gun, she may have even been charged with murder. If she had hit nine bystanders, there's almost no doubt she would have been charged with a laundry list of crimes. Yet, put on a magic uniform, and all the sudden not only is your actions not illegal, you're celebrated as a "hero" despite shooting nine strangers. This is a complete joke, that's why he "lost his cool" as CBS reports, because when you can't stand behind the facts, you resort to personal attacks and ad hominems.

Meanwhile, the reason the reporter, and no one else on the street that day had a gun, nor has a gun, is because a gun is pointed at them in the form of New York's anti-gun laws. The only reason anyone follows such stupid laws are because of the implicit threat they'd be jailed or shot by some costumed bureaucrat for disobeying the government's arbitrary dictates.

If Bloomberg actually believes it's outrageous for anyone not to defend themselves from armed assailants with weapons, then he should tell the police to put down their guns and let people arm themselves, instead he regularly calls for citizens to be further disarmed while he arms his "personal army" to the teeth.
_
Chris runs the website InformationLiberation.com, you can read more of his writings here. Follow infolib on twitter here.