An off-duty black St. Louis police officer who joined the pursuit of individuals believed to have stolen a car ended up being shot by one of his white colleagues, reports say.This has happened before, again and again and again.
A black cop in plainclothes who goes toward a bad situation with his gun out is running the risk of being shot by his colleagues who will conclude that he's a bad guy. A white cop, in a similar situation, does not run that risk.
A black cop in plainclothes is either incredibly brave or incredibly foolish. Or both.
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Meanwhile, three cops in Chicago are being charged with conspiracy and obstruction for trying to hush up the murder of Mr. Laquan McDonald.
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Another cop on why the shooting of Philadro Castile was a bad one.
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Here is what bothers me the most: In almost any field of endeavor that you can think of, professionals are held to a higher standard of care than the general public.
Except police work.
Cops get away with killing people in situations where, if it were two shmoes, the surviving shmoe would go to jail. If you are awakened by a noise at 0-dark-30 and you suspect that your house is being invaded, if you then kill someone else who should not have been shot, you'll go away for manslaughter. But not a cop. A cop is allowed to claim that he was afraid and, despite his superior training, he gets a pass.
You shoot an unarmed man because you thought he had a gun? You go to prison. A cop panics and shoots a guy with a wallet (or for the old standard "a furtive gesture")-- no big deal.
But let's be honest: The cops don't work for the citizenry. Their job is to keep the peace to the point that the rich and politically connected aren't made to feel uncomfortable or unsafe. You can bet your ass that if most white guys in their teens, twenties or thirties were tossed up against a wall and frisked by the cops for no real reason, things would change. You can bet that the campus cops don't stop white guys carrying boxes of books. You can bet that James McEnroe hasn't been thrown to the ground while waiting for a limo outside of his hotel.
As long as the cops keep brutalizing only black and latinos, as long as the cops only shoot those people on bullshit pretexts that don't survive the giggle test, then nothing's going to change.
Anyone not in uniform that goes running to a crime scene with a firearm in his hand is foolish. Best to stay away and let the uniforms do their thing. IFF can be difficult in a stressful situation.
ReplyDeleteWhich does not excuse this behavior.
Although Blacks commit crimes in significantly greater percentages than whites (and often with a gun, or other violence), it still shouldn't happen where a black man is more suspect than a white one.
Yes, I am white. No I'm not ashamed of that fact.
Reading Chris H.'s column was interesting, reading the comments was discouraging. The blue brotherhood assaulted the author, and disparaged a non-cop comments too. The officers who believe they, and only they, can understand what happens on duty are fooling themselves...and it's that mindset, us vs them, that will bite them.
ReplyDelete