"A disproportionate use of force"

I finished a personal illustration the other day, after hearing about the killing of 15 year old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca. Sergio was killed on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, by a Border Patrol agent. The agent has claimed that several people were throwing rocks while he detained a suspect. The Mexican government has called the incident "a disproportionate use of force."


I realize that throwing rocks at a person is not the equivalent of shooting a person with a squirt gun. Neither is a 15 year old throwing rocks equivalent to a trained law enforcement agent using his firearm with deadly force. The issue is "disproportionate use of force," which seems popular these days. Whether it's Palestinian children shot to death for throwing rocks at heavily armed tanks, 9 civilians armed with broom sticks and clubs, shot to death by Israeli commandos, or an offensive operation in the Gaza Strip that kills over 1400 people (while Israel suffered 13 casualties). Glenn Greenwald explains how people justify disproportionate uses of force in his blog post for Salon.com.