I was thinking about this post on the way home from work.....

I was reading somewhere today that the police officers opened fire with non-lethal ammunition in response to OWS protesters throwing rocks and otherwise assaulting police officers. The cops were defending themselves, not opening fire on unarmed civlians.

Okay, for the moment, I will assume that that is true (there are pictures and other evidence to the contrary on the Internet).

Like I said before, violence rarely solves anything. Escalating to non-lethal ammunition will only galvanize the (alleged) rock-throwing protester into further acts of violence, if not escalating their level of commitment to their cause and the willingness to fight back.

You're going to anyway, however, please do feel free to re-escalate to lethal ammunition. Ironically, you're going to be shooting with them with ammunition that they paid taxes to purchase. You know, unarmed civilians' (ahem, collateral damage) bloody body parts being ripped away from their torsos. This makes for GREAT copy on YouTube. Oh, you're going to censor that, and you may even succeed. There are other servers. You are NOT working in the dark anymore, little man. What's going to happen is that you're going to further galvanize the protesters. And let me break the news to you-- not only are you horribly outnumbered-- they have more guns than you do.

OR, you can do the right thing, and "protect and serve" those you swore to defend. You can lawfully disobey an unlawful order. You cannot be lawfully terminated for such a refusal to to your job. You know you can do it.

Or, you can imagine you or the guy standing next to you engulfed in flames. You know, crude but effective, Molotov cocktails. Galvanize the protesters. Those who know how to fight back will appear in the shadows.

Choose.