And the Response
Where do you stand?
I personally can see the idea that just owning these targets as controversial. Even with my own personal review of the documents on the Martin shooting, and my feelings that it was a clean shoot, I would be very uncomfortable with owning or shooting these targets. I get the point of them being a no-shoot, and using no-shoot targets.
Still I don’t see anything in this case that warrants the level of termination. Also given all the horrible cases I read about officers acting beyond the pale in many compromising situations (officer “Roid Rage” Harless being the best example) who are suspended with pay pending an investigation, this seems politically motivated more than logically.
Yeah, these targets were in clearly poor taste. This does NOT merit firing the guy, though. It’s just the usual CYA political move that is so common these days.
The designer of these targets was/is kind of an idiot. It’s obviously meant to be Martin (the skittles and tea give it away, not just the hoody since there are plenty of targets which feature those,) which is in execrable taste. Whether or not you think of Martin as a hardened gangster or a drug addled idiot, he’s still got a family (of sorts) and they really don’t need this kinda crap.