These days, playing "kids" games can get you killed

It has been reported that two Santa Rose, CA cops shot and killed a Latino youth named Andy Lopez, aged 13, after he was seen with what appeared to be an AK-47 automatic rifle. The officers repeatedly told the boy to drop the gun, but apparently he did not comply; there was no indication that the boy actually threatened the officers with the gun. After Lopez was shot, the police actually had the audacity to handcuff the unresponsive body, likely for the “benefit” of onlookers.

It turned out that the gun was a plastic toy; I suspect that Lopez didn’t think that the cops would actually shoot him just for carrying around a "toy" without asking him if it was--or maybe he did tell them but they didn't "hear."  But then again, he should have been sufficiently aware of the fact that paranoid police only require the slightest excuse to shoot-to-kill. 

It is perhaps a disturbing testament to this country’s gun culture that such “toys” are made available to even younger children when there is always the possibility—or rather, probability—that someone with a badge might “err” on the side of “safety.” Back in the “old days” playing "cops-and-robbers" and “cowboys and Indians” was no “fun” unless you had toy guns to “play” with. These days, it might get you killed for real by the "good guys" playing the current variety of urban “games.” 

The officers who fired the shots are on paid administrative leave, but not to worry; it’s just more paid vacation time for them. It is all just a game.