My name is Ginny Lynn and I am part of a huge family.
I have an Uncle and two cousins who are LEO but they haven't been much help since they are not really involved in the family anymore
(a nasty divorce between my aunt and uncle,the boys went with dad and the girls stayed with mom).
Anyway the problem is this... my nephew has always been in awe of LE and he looked up to and bragged about our Uncle Mike and our cousins to anyone who would listen, needles to say he has wanted his whole life, to be a cop. His goals didn't change much throughout the years, only from wanting to be a beat cop to wanting to be a fed.
Well now that's changed. My sisters husband, his father was shot and killed by a cop in a nieghboring town . It was a total accident but my sister and a lot of my other family members ( small cowboy town, in the town we live in there is actually only one cop!) are very angry and my nephew now refers to cops as ... well you know.
I am very close to him as he is the only nephew I have and I know I am a bigger influence in his life than the others but his mom is not doing very well emotionally and I don't want to step on her feelings or "take sides with the officer". I really want my nephew to continue to pursue his dream and to get the heck out of this town since there is nothing here for him. Since this happend he has gone from a A student and football jock to hanging out with the not so nice kids around here. It's not like a regular town here, not a lot to do so there is a lot of drinking going on with the kids and some of te adults, here you either own land and ranck or you work for the land owner. Thats it, no McDonalds no Mall no nothing, just a lot of idle time and trouble if your'e not careful.
Any advice on what I say or do to help him see the truth?

whew...have to think on this one first before I open my mouth.

yeah,what they said.

Well, like the other comments, I agree that I don't have enough facts, however I will actually venture this bit of info... I don't know if the officer made a mistake or not in the shooting, but ASSUMING it was a mistake I will say....

We are all human, and mistakes happen, no matter what profession.... Cops have guns, so the mistakes they make are often looked at with a microscope a little more. It's too bad they don't all work in an office, so a little white out can make it all go away. Reality is that mistakes of that nature are unlucky, but yet they do happen. I think that is important to realize.

Hope that helps, and if you can, please provide more info on the incident itself. :)

First I want to thank ChaplainKeppy, you "got" what it was that I was asking help with and after I read your advice I thought to myself wow! how simple, I then went and picked up my nephew and brought him to ride fence with me, I listened and I really think he was able to say what he needed to say because after he was finished ( screraing and sobbing uncontrollably at times) I just held onto him and assured him of God and God's idea of justice, that accidents, as tragic as some may be are not meant to be punished by an eye for an eye and it seems that he is now finding some relief from the grief. it has been about a week since we talked ( he exploded) and he has stopped partying with the guys at the river and he is spending more time at home with his mother. he has actually come back to work at the ranch and it seems the sparkle is returning. I am a little embarassed that I did not just listen before but I was afraid of causing him more damage than good, I just assumed that the counselor was handling it. I have also been treading very lightly, as you can imagine there has ben a lot of angry and sad folks around town since then and even though I am family my family is very old fashioned in our ways and you just don't side with anyone other than family so I keep my feelings about what should happen to the officer to myself and just pray for God's help in my families recovery from this which is going to have to entail forgivness as some point. Just not now it seems.
And secondly... why is that the rest of you need more infomation?
I wasn't asking your opinion on whether or not you thought the officer was in the wrong, in fact my nephews future has very little to do with how it happend. The circumstances surrounding this innocent mans death are tragic, at this point I am only interested in helping my nephew and my hope was that someone on here would have some information on maybe, some type of a on line group for children who have been through events such as this as I am sure that there are plenty of fallen officers who have died a similar death that left behind children or what about the camp that children who are interested in law enforcement, what is the name and contact info for that.
What is wrong with giving me some positive happy things about law enforcement and what it has to offer, why in the world would any of you need the details of this sensless tragedy? This experiance has left a bad taste in my mouth, it is the same as witnessing the morbid interest of the public as they all slowly drive by and gawk and a fatality accident on the highway.
But, Again I do feel like I need to say thanks to ChaplainKeppy, you are what my idea of a police officer is and should be.
And one other thing... I have read a few posts in these forums and the way 2 officers ( if they really are officers at all) conduct themselves and speak to others is disgraceful! All any libertarian group would ever need to do is to go to these forums and read the nonesense that two supposed sworn officers of the law have posted in public forums and then submit it to the public on a greater scale. What would your commanding officers think of your PR skills then? Your represnting more than just your badge! You represent officers everywhere in the United States and you obviously lack the ability to have a civil, adult and intelligent debate so perhaps you should either stop claiming to be a law enforcement officer or stop posting your asnine juvenille name calling rant in the public forums.
I still have faith in the professionalism of the majority of officers but the crap I have read from odin and val.
Your treatment of people, even other officers is a telling sign of how you handle yourself in all aspects of your life including your supposed carreer. Why would you even think it's okay to taunt and name call ANYONE while claiming to be an officer of the law, especially.
My mother raised me to treat all people respectfully, even if their acting disrespectfully and to be able to do so proves a persons character superior.
What did your mothers teach you? Especially Val, maybe it's because I was raised in the south and where my family comes from women are expected to carry themselves with class and cooth at all times, it is shameful to do otherwise.
I have no doubt I am not welcome back at this point and it truly is alright with me, I will take the good part of this experiance with me to share with my nephew and I will move on to the next web site that supports the sworn officers of the law in hopes of finding a group that will indeed welcome it's members and represent the uniform and their badges in a good light.