Police who shoot unarmed civilians use incredibly lame arguments to justify their actions. They thought the wallet in the victim’s hands was a gun. They were distracted by onlookers. Most often, it comes down to being scared. A cop’s vague feeling that he or she might be in danger, without that danger being clearly evidenced, ought not to be cause to kill.
Cuz I Was Scared
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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This is true, but ignores one of the root causes: cutting the social safety net. Our political class has spent literally generations attacking the last refuge of the poor. Of course the law in its great equality forbids rich and poor alike from begging in the street, sleeping under bridges and stealing bread.
In any case, the police have to face increasingly desperate people. Shootings are inevitable in this environment. Blaming individual officers caves to the political right who would have us ignore systemic problems, citing individual responsibility as the only cure for what ails us.
End result of Chauvin being found guilty (assuming he doesn’t still beat the rap thanks to Maxine Waters’ idiocy)?
The cops will simply get a little more creative. “What’s that? Jerry was on his way to work and got pulled over? And they found WHAT in his pockets when they took him downtown? Crack cocaine, an unregistered gun, AND child pornography? That doesn’t sound like him at all. I mean, he likes them young, but not THAT young. Was anyone recording from the sidewalk in a safe, respectful, nonviolent manner? What? They found all the stuff on him inside the police station and the camera somehow wasn’t working? Well, I’m going to write a very sternly worded letter to the editor.”
Saying “I feared for my life” ought to at least be a license to run away from the scary man without fear of being shot in the back.
For police, the absence of a past criminal conviction should not be seen as prima facie evidence of present good intentions.
Police don’t usually call the police on the police.
I don’t know the day when I took out a water bottle from my pants and was mistaken for a weapon to be killed. This is stupid, and it happened more than once.