I’ve written before about Monday-Morning-Quarterbacking police officers by civilians: In short, I’m all for it! That angers some in the police community, but sorry, if you are paid by the public, charged with protecting the citizenry and given special authority and power then that power must be monitored, assessed and judged.
However, the caveat to my endorsement for oversight is this: The reviewers absolutely need to know what the hell they are talking about!
Go through specialized training. Do some airsoft or Simmunitions scenarios. Stand in front of a Firearms Training Simulator (FATS) machine and make life and death decisions. Adhere to some of Ken Murray’s suggestions in his book, Training and the Speed of Life. Understand, and prove that you understand state statutes about use of force and what the GRAHAM v. CONNOR, TN v. GARNER and McLENAGAN v KARNES decisions actually mean. Go to a Calibre Press Street Survival Seminar and watch two days of violence, see and hear death, look at body parts, talk to the cops attending about what they face, hear and see daily.
And last, but not least, go for a series of ride-alongs. Not one, three hour stint to say you did it; I’m talking about 100 hours plus. See what we see, smell what we smell, discover what only we know exists. Listen to the lies, watch the body language, hear the anguish, reason with a schizophrenic, calm the suicidal. Then you can sit in judgment.
None of that is happening right now concerning the Ferguson, Mo., incident.
Listen, I’ve been in law enforcement for 34 years. I write, research and teach. I would venture to guess I have more experience than 99.9% of the talking heads on the tube. And I’ll admit something: I don’t know what happened. What I do know is that very little information and almost none of the facts have been released. And I guarantee there is more to this story.
But the total lack of information (and you could argue that information should be coming out faster than it is) hasn’t stopped the cop haters from spewing their “expert” bile. MSNBC's Larry O’Donnel is a mind-boggling clueless clap-trap. Lack of experience, knowledge and information doesn’t stop him from making uninformed, prejudicial and agenda based comments. His take on tactics is laughable and obviously acquired through watching endless hours of T.J. Hooker.
“Legal experts” are talking about a lack of transparency because the officer’s name wasn’t released (there are credible death threats on him and his family). Speculating on malfeasance in the investigation, prognosticating on how the department is trained, and referring to police in general as “untrained and incompetent.”
A story in one paper cited the Ferguson Police as being “out of control.” One article said something about the police response to the “protests” as “thuggish.” Another called all of their collective responses as “going overboard” and “unnecessarily militaristic.”
Again, I don’t know what happened but it always amazes me that people who are prejudicial in their comments, who paint police officers with a broad brush of evil intent and speculate negatively about this particular Officer’s motive, are the same ones who hold themselves up to be the last bastions of free and intellectual thought.
So let’s look at what we do know now.
Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer. He was 18 years old. He was also 6’4” and weighed in the area of 295 pounds. A very short time before he was approached by the police officer there is a very strong allegation (supported by pictures and apparently a video) that he committed a “strong armed robbery” in the vicinity of the eventual incident. In the pictures that I just saw he appears to be grabbing the store employee—who tried to stop him from stealing cigars—by the neck. Brown is more than a head taller and probably more than 100 pounds heavier. He then pushes the employee backwards and leaves with the cigars.
The officer: I don’t know how big he is. We do know he is a six-year veteran with a record that shows no disciplinary issues. I don’t know what happened between him and the 18-year-old though apparently the officer has some type of facial injury purportedly a result of the physical altercation with Brown.
But the very, very strong odds are (here’s my prejudice, based on interacting with over 100,000 cops in my career) this officer isn’t the type of guy who woke up last week and said to himself; “I’m gonna kill me somebody today.”
Can I find any justification for him shooting Brown? Nope. But herein lies the problem. I don’t know all the facts. Very few, if any, actually do. So I’m withholding judgment. But unlike Larry O’Donnell, who is an actor by the way, I’m not going to indict this officer or his department and state they are poorly trained.
No matter what the police say, do, prove or don’t prove, all of it will be viewed with skepticism, derision and disbelief by many who don’t want inconvenient facts to cloud their preconceived judgment.
As for the “protests” where the officers overreacted to by wearing “militaristic gear” and using “weapons that belong only in a war zone” let’s examine.
By most accounts the vast majority of the protesters are exactly that. But, how many other people are necessary to create mayhem, destroy property, commit acts of thievery and violence? Not many. And that to the untrained, safe in my New York studios, sipping java juice with my other clueless and classless intellectuals is the point: What are the actual numbers of those truly causing problems.
Answer is; we don’t know. What we do know is that stores have been busted up, burned and looted. If they were doing that to your house Larry, how many cops do you want showing up and what should they be wearing? Let us know so we don’t offend your sensitive sensibilities.
Rocks hurt; so does fire. Molotov cocktails were lit and thrown at the police. Signs and graffiti around town advocate killing cops (“The only good cop is a dead cop”) and the police department and an officer mistakenly identified as the shooter was threatened as was his family.
If the officer committed a crime he should absolutely be punished. If Michael Brown committed a crime and attacked the officer that needs to come out.
But assigning preconceived malicious motives to this officer, his entire agency and police as a collective whole won’t accomplish anything; unless of course that’s what the point of all this is in the first place.