A Dose of Reality for Ferguson, Missouri
Unlike much of America, I’ve stayed quiet about the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. As a cop, I know initial media reports about any incident are usually wrong. I also know that many media outlets and internet commentators deliberately twist facts to inflame emotion. They’ll throw out empty, meaningless phrases like “he was shot in broad daylight, in his own hometown” even though that has literally nothing to do with the legality or illegality of the shooting.
And it goes without saying that in any incident involving a police officer, many people with absolutely no understanding of police work or lethal violence suddenly think they’re experts. After Brown’s death I expected a loud chorus of hysterical cries from people who had no idea what the hell they were talking about. I haven’t been disappointed.
“But he was unarmed!”
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard the term “unarmed teenager”. Yes, Brown was an unarmed 18 year old. He was also 6’4″ and 292 pounds. Anyone who thinks an unarmed, 6’4″, 292 pound man can’t be a threat has never been punched in the face. Unarmed people can be extremely dangerous.
In 2012 an unarmed 17 year old beat an El Paso police officer to death. The officer was 29 years old, a former Marine and veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/tablehome/ci_21708260/el-paso-police-officer-dies-from-sept-25
An off-duty police officer in New York City was beaten almost to death by an unarmed man last November.
In July, an unarmed 21 year old “felt like killing someone” and beat a 56 year old random victim to death at a train station in San Antonio.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/suspect-in-san-antonio-beating-death-i-feel-like-killing-someone/
In 2012, an unarmed 24 year old man beat a man to death for raping his daughter.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/charges-texas-father-beat-death-daughters-molester/story?id=16612071
Those chanting “but he was unarmed” are pathetically ignorant of the reality of violence. Unarmed people hurt or kill others on a regular basis. No, that doesn’t mean every unarmed person needs to be shot; it does, however, mean an aggressive, unarmed person can be a threat to your life. The bigger and stronger that person is, the bigger the threat.
“All Michael Brown did was shoplift cigars.”
No, he didn’t “shoplift” anything. He committed a robbery. Shoplifting is a nonviolent crime, usually committed by people desperate to avoid confrontation. Robbery is violent. When someone uses or threatens force to take anything, no matter how unimportant or inexpensive, that’s robbery. If someone grabs you by the collar, reaches into your pocket and takes a single piece of chewing gum, the problem isn’t the lost gum. The problem is that someone used force to take your property.
Many media outlets refer to Brown’s crime as theft or shoplifting. That’s probably a deliberate lie, chosen specifically to downplay the crime Brown committed. The Daily Kos, which can always be trusted to produce inflammatory stupidity, said “Brown shoplifted some cigars on the day he was killed”, which does not in any way describe what happened (the same article also claimed “Michael Brown was gunned down by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, apparently for the crime of jaywalking”).
Cracked magazine, which usually does a good job of cutting through nonsense, mentioned “robbery” but then decided to go full propaganda: “…the officer (who was aware of the previous robbery) saw Brown walking with the same cigars that had been stolen and suspected that he was the shoplifter.”
http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/4-facts-about-ferguson-media-keeps-screwing-up/#ixzz3BEelkF41
No, Cracked. He wasn’t a “shoplifter”. He was a robber. There’s a huge difference between someone who sticks cigars in his pocket and walks out of a store, versus a guy who grabs cigars, pushes a store owner around and threatens him, and then walks out. The first act is simple nonviolent theft, the second is a violent robbery.
Both Kos and Cracked assert the robbery didn’t matter, either because the officer didn’t know about it or because stealing $50 worth of cigars doesn’t justify a shooting. I offer a counterpoint: yes, the robbery is hugely important. We’ve heard conflicting reports about whether or not the officer was aware of the robbery, and I can’t say for certain he knew Brown was a robbery suspect. But Michael Brown sure as hell knew he had committed a robbery. He knew he was about to be arrested for something more serious than shoplifting. Does that mean Brown would likely react more aggressively toward the officer than someone who had committed simple theft? Based on my experiences dealing with suspects who just committed felonies, I’d say yes.
“The officer shot him six times!”
Yes, the officer shot Brown six times. That sounds excessive. It’s not. On TV and in movies, people get shot one time, fly through the air in a spray of blood and immediately die. In real life they don’t.
A police officer got into a gunfight with a robbery suspect in 2009. The officer shot the suspect 14 times with a .45 pistol, and 6 of the bullet wounds were nonsurvivable. The suspect still didn’t go down. The officer finally shot the suspect three more times, in the face and top of the head. The head shot finally stopped him, but didn’t kill him; he died later, at the hospital. An autopsy determined he hadn’t been under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Last year I wrote an essay about what bullets really do (and don’t do). I described incidents I worked where people were shot but didn’t react the way most people think they should. These incidents include a robbery victim who was shot three times including once in the forehead and still ran 500 yards to find help, a young female shot through the thigh who showed no reaction at all, and a man with part of his head blown off who was still conscious and alert.
Police officers are trained to shoot until the threat is neutralized. Under stress we’re not counting bullets, we’re shooting until we’ve eliminated the threat. It is not at all uncommon for a person to take multiple bullets before they stop being a threat.
“The officer should have used his baton, Taser or pepper spray instead of his gun.”
Here’s a little-known reality about intermediate weapons: they don’t always work. In 20 years as a cop I’ve used my baton twice. Both suspects wound up in the hospital… eventually. At the time I was hitting them, they weren’t impressed. I’ve also pepper sprayed around 30 suspects. Pepper spray works on everyone… eventually. Some people don’t react to it right away. And even if you get a hit, that hit might not be enough to stop the suspect.
In 1992 a police officer responded to a domestic disturbance and confronted a violent wife abuser. The officer sprayed the suspect. The unarmed suspect beat and disabled the officer, then fractured the officer’s skull with a stick of firewood. The officer died shortly afterward.
Here’s a video of a March 2014 encounter between a police officer and suspect in a Philadelphia train station. The officer pepper sprays the suspect and hits him with a baton, to no effect. During the fight the suspect tries to disarm the officer.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/video-captures-intense-fight-between-suspect-philadelphia-officer/
Here’s one of an officer who pepper sprayed a combative suspect. It didn’t work. He then shot the suspect. The suspect disarmed the officer and tried to shoot him, then almost beat him unconscious.
But what about Tasers? Tasers work great, except when they don’t. If there’s not enough spread between the darts, the shock won’t disable the suspect. If one dart misses, no shock. If one dart gets hung up in clothing, no shock. If the Taser itself malfunctions, no shock.
And any intermediate weapon takes time to deploy and properly use. If a large, aggressive suspect charges me, I know I have mere seconds to choose a force option and hope it works. Whatever I choose, I know it’ll likely be the only weapon I can employ before the suspect is on me. Batons, pepper spray and Tasers all have significant failure rates. In some cases, the best option is to go straight for the pistol.
“Witnesses said Brown was giving up when he was shot.”
Witnesses have said a lot of things. Brown’s friend insists he and Brown were innocently minding their own business until an evil racist police officer cursed at them, ordered them out of the street, grabbed 6’4″ Brown around the neck (without even getting out of his patrol vehicle!), shot Brown as he was running away, then shot him again after Brown put his hands up in surrender.
There is no reason to disbelieve this version of events. Except for the fact that Brown’s friend was with him during the robbery, has a warrant for theft and giving a fake name to police, and, being Brown’s friend, is biased in his favor. Oh, and the multiple autopsies that show Brown wasn’t shot in the back.
This might be a shock to some, but sometimes people lie to protect their friends. Every time we cops show up to a bar fight, it’s practically a comedy routine from each “victim” and their friends. “Officer, I was walking by the pool table and that guy bumped into me. I said ‘Excuse me sir, I didn’t mean to bump you and I profusely apologize’, but the guy punched me! For no reason!” I’ve lost count of the hours I’ve wasted taking statements from bar fighters and their friends who insist they’re all sweet innocent angels who were viciously attacked for no reason.
I worked one shooting where the victim’s girlfriend swore – SWORE – that her boyfriend’s ex-wife had driven by and shot him as he and the girlfriend were leaving a restaurant. No other witnesses said anything even remotely like that. No physical evidence corroborated the girlfriend’s story. Eventually investigators figured out the boyfriend was shot by an unrelated woman during a fight between eight drunks in the parking lot. The woman even confessed. But the girlfriend still swore – SWORE – it was the ex-wife. Amazingly enough, witnesses with an axe to grind sometimes lie.
There are witnesses who insist Brown was attacked for no reason whatsoever. But at least two of those “witness” statements don’t match up to the physical evidence.
“Johnson [Brown’s friend] said the officer hit Brown with another round as he was running away and fatally gunned him down after he stopped and raised his hands in surrender.”
“Brady [another alleged witness] said Brown and Johnson then ran away, while Wilson got out of his car and began shooting.”
No, the officer didn’t shoot Brown in the back as he was running away, unless all three forensic pathologists managed to miss the gunshot wound in his back during their autopsies. Call me crazy, but I’m not going to take their “That cop shot Brown for no reason as he was running away” statements as gospel. Another as-yet-unidentified witness made a statement in the background of a video taken right after the shooting. He said a shot was fired in the police car during a struggle, then Brown ran away, then was shot repeatedly after he turned and charged the officer. The witness statement begins around 6:30.
We will likely never know the identity of that witness and I’m sure that statement will never reach any court. But I think it was from an actual unbiased witness, and is probably closer to the truth than any other “witness” statement we’ve heard.
Bottom line
You’ll notice I said “I think” the videotaped witness statement is true, instead of saying “I know”. I’ve formed an opinion but can’t claim I know what actually happened. Officer Darren Wilson may have stopped Brown for walking in the street, then shot him repeatedly for absolutely no reason. Crazier things have happened.
But you know what’s more likely? Wilson simply ordered Brown and his friend to get out of the street, then realized they were robbery suspects and tried to stop them. Instead of complying, Brown shoved Wilson back into his vehicle, punched him (and maybe broke his eye socket), then ran away after Wilson fired a shot. Wilson jumped out and ordered Brown to stop. Brown chose to charge Wilson, who fired until Brown fell dead.
That’s what I think happened. But I don’t know for certain.
Since I don’t know the actual truth I’ll keep this opinion in the land of conjecture, where it belongs. I won’t scream about racism. I won’t demand prosecution as a way to curry favor with a particular demographic. I won’t excuse the thieving, brutal punks who use this alleged injustice as an excuse to be the murderers and looters they already were. I won’t let dumbass fantasies like “unarmed people can’t be a threat”, “he could have just used pepper spray” or “there’s never a reason to shoot someone more than once” influence my opinion. Instead, I’ll stand by and wait for actual evidence.
If that evidence shows Officer Wilson murdered Brown, I’ll fully support his prosecution. But if the evidence shows Wilson acted both legally and morally, I’m 100% on his side. Either way, I won’t let emotions drive my decision. Maybe a few others on TV and online, and a whole bunch of people in Ferguson, should try to keep their emotions in check as well.
Chris Hernandez is a 20 year police officer, former Marine and currently serving National Guard soldier with over 25 years of military service. He is a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and also served 18 months as a United Nations police officer in Kosovo. He writes for BreachBangClear.com, Iron Mike magazine and has published two military fiction novels, Proof of Our Resolve and Line in the Valley, through Tactical16 Publishing. He can be reached at chris_hernandez_author@yahoo.com or on his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ProofofOurResolve).
Filed under: Writing | 679 Comments
Tags: ferguson missouri, michael brown, police shootings, veteran authors
chrishernandezauthor 
You have put everything into an excellent order, and I agree with your thoughts and comments. There is one very important thing that you have not mentioned. In the video of the cigar store robbery, it show his actions, then leaving the store, and before exiting, he turns and advances towards the clerk. Even your story has the altercation with the officer, his leaving and then returning towards the officer. Do we see a pattern here?
Excellent article! Perfectly articulated. Thank you for having the courage to speak the truth, in public!
Great article and some really great rebuttles thanks for your service here and afar keep up the good work Chris and thank you for being real about this.
Finally a competent article from the “other side”. LEO here and I know firsthand how trying to explain how the unarmed threat can be fatal, is nearly impossible to the lay public. The ROBBERY facts have been completely degraded by the media but offers great insight of the escalation and behavior of the suspect. The key line you wrote was “he knew in his mind he committed a robbery”…Law Enforcement REACT to what the suspect does/says (or what they don’t do) to which LEOs are already behind the curve. I could go on and on about the arguments and points made in this article, but just wanted to say good job on this one! Stay safe. Thank you.
what’s your spin on the hundreds, thousands of minority men who’ve been murdered by police. what you say about the Michael Brown incident may be true but with his killing blacks have proclaimed “This is enough!!” Right or wrong Officer Wilson drew the short straw to be the face of police violence.
Drew the short straw? Wow. I am amazed at the ignorance and stupidity in this comment, Bob. If you want to rationalize it like that, then maybe…… Like it or not Michael Brown just drew the short straw that day. Wow
You can’t compare every police action shooting to every other police action shooting. “Police violence” and taking down a criminal who would have taken down the officer given the chance are NOT the same thing.
Excellent article. I too am dismayed; no disgusted at the way media has reported this story. What ever happened to journalistic integrity. All the accounts I have read or heard have been biased and completely inaccurate, most based on Darius Johnson’s fairy tale “Eye Witness” account. The video you show of the aftermath is very telling, the man in the back ground recounting what happened matches officer Wilson’s statement exactly. The man in the video did testify to the Justice Department investigators recounting the incident exactly as he did on the day of the shooting. What I found disturbing about the beginning of the same video was how the other voices are immediately stating that the MFing cops shot him for no reason, especially the woman who must have said in such eloquent english that he was shot for no reason, and she was breaking her lease. Soon after she states I was in the shower and I heard something I thought it was firecrackers, then repeats how they shot him for no reason. The man taking the video states that he was shot for no reason several times as well and he did not see the shooting either.
What about any of this proves that officer Wilson is racist? Because he shot a black person? The race card was played immediately to fan the flames and peak interest not in the name of the truth in reporting but in the name of $$$$$. I am absolutely sick and tired that every time something happens to a black person at the hands of a white person Sharpton and Jackson come out of the woodwork screaming racism. I may be wrong but isn’t our President a black man???? In this racist america how can that be, considering that the US population is 72.4% white and 12.6% African American?
Thanks for your civil and military service, I spent 26 years on active duty in the USAF.
Reblogged this on the things worth believing in and commented:
Why retype what this guy has already expressed so well?
Totally understand where the police officer is coming from …I wouldn’t want your job….I guess fear resides in all of us ….
thanks SO MUCH. i hope this helps to dispel all the nonsensical arguments that i hear daily!
peace & safety to you & yours.
Reblogged this on Arctic Specter and commented:
A few months dated, but this is a pretty good perspective from a police officer and veteran pertaining to the whole Michael Brown situation. Worth a read. In case you got wrapped up in all the recent ebola drama and forgot about all of this.
Excellent article given your life perspective.
I would like to point out, though, where you mentioned that pepper spray works on everyone eventually, that’s not always the case either. It’s about 1 in 1 million that have no reaction to the stuff. I met a man like that in the Marines. While everyone else was crying on the ground from the OC spray, he walked around like it was a sunny summer day.
Point being, like you said, those “less-than-lethal” options don’t always do the trick. Especially with a guy that has about a foot on me, I’m not going to take the extra seconds to hope it works.
Good work Chris, I believe you are right on! Here is a video that tells the story, beginning to end. It’s not complicated, the truth rarely is! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivH55E7gw6M
I guess my question is why is there so much weight being placed on whether or not to even investigate the actions of the police officer. Not even whether the officer did anything wrong, but whether the officer should be questioned as to whether he did anything wrong. There used to be a saying in the legal community that the grand jury would prosecute a bologna sandwich. But it seems police officers above reproach as if something at the Academy had suddenly made them Christ-like therefore their character can not be called into question.
Who said officers are Christ-like, or that our actions shouldn’t be investigated?
I’m not sure where your information comes from. There was never a question as to whether the shooting would be investigated. That began pretty much right after it happened. The response of the soon to be “protesters”, immediately calling for Officer Wilson’s head, may be what’s confusing you. They began demanding “justice”, which meant they wanted him arrested or dead, right then. The investigation was already ongoing but they didn’t have the patience to let it play out.
Thought provoking and thorough. Non emergency services personnel have no idea except the depictions on tv and movies. Their (our) judgement is clouded.
Well, Mr. Citizen,
It seems you have figured me out. I seem to fit neatly into the category where you placed me. I’m stereotyped standardized, classified, grouped and always typical. Unfortunately, the reverse is true.
I can never figure you out. From birth you teach your children that I am the Boogeyman, then you are shocked when they identify with my traditional enemy…..the criminal.
You accuse me of coddling criminals…..until I catch your child doing something wrong. You may take an hour to eat your lunch and take several coffee breaks each day, but point me out as a loafer for just having one cup. You pride yourself on your manners but think nothing of disrupting my meals with your troubles.
You raise hell with the guy that cuts you off in traffic, but let me catch you doing the same thing and I’m picking on you. You know all the traffic laws but you have never had a ticket that you deserve. You shout foul if you observe me driving fast to a call but raise the roof if I take more than 10 seconds to respond to your complaint.
You call it part of my job when someone strikes me but call it police brutality when I strike back. You wouldn’t think of telling your dentist how to pull a tooth or tell your doctor how to take out an appendix, yet you are always willing to give me pointers on the law and the decisions I make. You talk to me in a manner that would get you a bloody nose anywhere else yet expect me to stand there and take it without batting an eye.
You yell something’s got to be done to fight crime, yet you can’t be bothered to get involved. You have no use for me at all but of course it is OK if I change a flat tire for your wife, deliver your child in the back seat of my car, spend several days away from my family to look for your son or give mouth to mouth to your daughter after she has been in a bad wreck.
So Mr. Citizen, you can stand there on your soapbox and rant and rave about the way I do my work, calling me every name in the book, but never stop to think that your property, family or maybe even your life may depend on me or one of my buddies.
Yes Mr. Citizen, it’s me………the lousy cop.
Thank you for your service.
I have never read this before – it really hits home, doesn’t it?
-Nobody teaches their children that the cops are the boogeyman, lol. Not everybody against police brutality is a criminal.
-Who’s accusing anybody of coddling criminals? I’m pretty sure they’re arguing the exact opposite of that.
-Getting mad at somebody and yelling at them over something stupid is not the same as pulling them over, wasting their time, and making them pay money over it.
-Violence isn’t part of your job? Then stop bragging about how dangerous it is.
-Do you know what happens when a doctor messes up? They get fined millions of dollars. They have a reason to do their job right, so we don’t need to tell them how to do it. What happens when a cop messes up?
-Nobody ever said we have no use for cops. We are not anarchists. Does not liking chocolate ice cream mean somebody doesn’t like ice cream?
Maybe if people like you didn’t make it into “badges vs everybody else”, we wouldn’t call you names.
1. Wrong. Numerous families teach their children that the police are always wrong. I have witnessed it.
2. Coddling criminals or enabling them, or believing their lies happen every day, all over the world.
3′.”something stupid” is very subjective. A violation of law, is just that.
4. You are right. Violence is part of the job. Stop complaining when it happens then!
5. You are again right. Doctors get punished when they do something wrong. Cops get punished when they do something wrong too. But, cops also get punished even when they did nothing wrong! Darren Wilson is a perfect example of this. Doctors? Not so much.
6. “Does not liking chocolate ice cream mean somebody doesn’t like ice cream?” yes. That’s exactly what that means. Wow.
7. Wow! Again.
You are delusional and just plain wrong in everything you said.
1. Teaching their children that cops are not always right is not the same as teaching them that they are always wrong. You just perceive every criticism against you as an angry threat. Either way, there are parents that teach their children scientology. It is not widespread. Just because you see something doesn’t mean you should go on about “you people” as if everybody does that.
2. I did not say it didn’t happen. I said people are not angry about it. The only “coddling” we get angry about is when the cop is the criminal.
3. Do not pretend some laws are less important than others. If I get ticketed for jaywalking on an empty street, which has happened to my friends, that is stupid.
4. What are you even talking about? Darren Wilson did not get punished. He is walking free. He got half a million in donations and decided to quit. He got the same public outrage that would have occurred if he were a citizen. If I killed somebody, whether it was self-defense or not, I would be looking over my shoulder too.
6. Do you know how to read? There are hundreds of flavors of ice cream. Not liking one does not disqualify me from liking others. Not liking bad cops who threaten my life does not disqualify me from liking good ones who are saving it.
*civilian not citizen
1. You are right, that it is not the same thing. But you don’t make a point here, your comment is just nonsense with no point. You said “Nobody teaches their children that the cops are the boogeyman”. You are very wrong on that one. Many, Many families teach their children that. Society teaches our children that. It is a widespread problem. I did not say “you people” but I am talking about the majority of society so I guess that fits anyway.
2. “the only coddling we get angry about is when the cop is the criminal” Is it because he is a cop, or because he is white? So you are either biased against cops or biased against white people. Which is it?
3. I can understand your frustration with enforcement of “stupid” laws. It frustrates cops too. The problem is, it’s not optional. If you have a problem with a law, it is not the cop’s fault. Maybe you are confused or misinformed, but cops do not make the laws.
4. “Darren Wilson did not get punished” That is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. He had to live in hiding, lost his career, constant death threats, threats of prosecution locally and federally, wrongful death suits, on and on………. All for defending himself, exactly as he was trained, and exactly as he should have done morally, ethically, and lawfully.
Wrong, you would not be looking over your shoulder unless you are a white cop.
I am a cop and a couple years ago I was forced to shoot and kill a man. There was absolutely no media or public outrage. Absolutely nothing. Even his family agreed in a media interview. Why? Because the man I killed was white. Funny how that works isn’t it? If he had been black, It would have been a very different story. Not because of the circumstances or the facts of the incident, but because of skin color. That, by very definition, is racist. The medial loves racism and they perpetuate it at every opportunity.
You know what is sad: immediately after my shooting incident my comrades and I that were involved all looked at each other and said “thank god he was white!” because we knew if he would have been black there would have been widespread outrage regardless of whether or not it was justified.
5. I guess i misread your first comment on this one. You are right about ice cream. You are wrong about not liking all cops. Darren Wilson, again, did nothing wrong. He is being persecuted for being a white cop, not because he did something wrong. He did nothing wrong. I am a cop of 10 years, and every cop i know or trained or trained with would and should do exactly as Darren Wilson did under the same set of circumstances.
Everything police do is in response to resistance. Response to something that is being done by the subject or suspect they are dealing with at that moment. The subject or suspect has complete control of what force gets used. That means that everything police do is dictated by the subject or suspect. Police respond, they do not attack.
6. In reference to your comment about doctors. The public doesn’t question what a doctor does because you are not a doctor and acknowledge your lack of understanding. Doctor’s criticize other doctors on various boards and licensing agencies.
Everyone is quick to judge and question everything a cop does. Do you understand the science of force? Do you have any training at all? Probably not. Do some research about force and why cops do what they do and then you could maybe have some ground to stand on. Otherwise you are just ignorant and probably racist.
7. This is probably the cause of the “badges vs everybody else” you describe. Only cops understand cops. You do not understand cops and you are attacking cops by your comment and your opinion (which is dead wrong). You are a perfect example of why the “badges vs everybody else” is out there. People like you force this to happen. Stop attacking cops for doing nothing wrong and you wouldn’t have this. Maybe try to learn about the issue and study force instead of just throwing wild accusations around and hoping something sticks.
8. You are right. Violence is part of the job. Stop complaining when it happens then!
9. Another very sad point: I actually think the cop that killed Eric Garner would have been prosecuted. I think the cop was and is culpable in the death of Garner. I don’t think he meant to kill Garner, but he should have known that choke could do just that. I believe he is culpable or negligent in Garner’s death.
But, all the lies and false propaganda a police hate spread by the Michael Brown incident has just cheapened the whole movement. Every reasonable person out there who has actually looked at the evidence agrees Darren Wilson did nothing wrong, yet we still have all this outrage. The outrage doesn’t have much meaning or value because of all the lies in the Michael Brown incident and therefore less of society is listening. People just assume the protesters are being unreasonable because thats what they did last time in the Michael Brown incident.
Do you have any other invalid arguments to discuss? or just the false ones above?
You make plenty of valid arguments, but the main thing you are missing is you keep thinking we are somehow biased towards cops. What would happen if a black civilian did the same thing Pantaleo did? He would either be shot or arrested in 3 seconds. What would happen if that guy walked free? All hell would break loose. We don’t need to get outraged when things like that happen because when they do they get justice. Find me one instance of a citizen killing a cop who is now walking free.
Do you really think the only reason the guy you killed didn’t come with outrage is because he’s white? There are over 400 people killed by police every year, about 100 of them black. How many names have you heard?
Also, if you read blogs like CopBlock they actually do post MANY stories about the deaths of white people IF they were unjustly killed. But odds are you had a very good reason for killing that white guy. He was armed, wasn’t he? What was the reasoning for Eric Garder?
You are definitely right that I have no way to get into the head of a cop. However, this guy does. I think you would find this article by an ex-cop interesting:
“I, too, have faced mortal danger. I’ve been shot at and attacked. But I know it’s almost always possible to defuse a situation.
Once, a sergeant and I got a call about someone wielding a weapon in an apartment. When we showed up, we found someone sitting on the bed with a very large butcher knife. Rather than storming him and screaming “put the knife down” like my colleagues would have done, we kept our distance. We talked to him, tried to calm him down.
It became clear to us that he was dealing with mental illness. So eventually, we convinced him to come to the hospital with us.
I’m certain many other officers in the department would have escalated the situation fast. They would have screamed at him, gotten close to him, threatened him. And then, any movement from him, even an effort to drop the knife, would have been treated as an excuse to shoot until their clips were empty.”
“The problem is that cops aren’t held accountable for their actions, and they know it. These officers violate rights with impunity. They know there’s a different criminal justice system for civilians and police.
Even when officers get caught, they know they’ll be investigated by their friends, and put on paid leave. My colleagues would laughingly refer to this as a free vacation. It isn’t a punishment. And excessive force is almost always deemed acceptable in our courts and among our grand juries. Prosecutors are tight with law enforcement, and share the same values and ideas.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/06/i-was-a-st-louis-cop-my-peers-were-racist-and-violent-and-theres-only-one-fix/
Angelica, I do appreciate your argument and I thank you for being respectful. I apologize for calling you dumb.
As a cop I feel like just about everyone except some military and cops, are biased against cops. The reason is because everyone hates you. You walk out in public with that uniform on and everyone is out to get you. Your colleagues, your agency, the public, the media, the bad guys, the good guys (because they got a ticket or a family member got arrested sometime) …… The list goes on and on. It’s just reality. I, like most young cops started with all kinds of optimism. We really wanted to help the community. We really wanted to put the real bad guys in jail. But, as you gain some experience you realize you can never win. False complaints from the public, constantly being called a racist every time you deal with a black person. Most of the time because it is night time I don’t even know what color someone’s skin color is, let alone their gender, age, or anything else. About the same time you are being called a racist devil is about the same time you realize it’s a person of color you stopped. It’s ridiculous. It feels like everyone wants to accuse the cops of doing everything wrong and they just hope something sticks. Cops are people, just like people, we are a product of our environment and upbringing in the same community as you. I swear some people think cops are made in a laboratory, that they are aliens or something. Some of the things people say to me would get get them either shot or hospitalized if they did that to a civilian on the street. There’s no respect when in the uniform.
The other night a white girl said she though we were going to rape her. For no apparent reason I guess. Why do we feel like it’s cops against everyone else? Because it is. Everyone hates cops right now, it’s like the trendy thing to do.
The less respect that society shows toward police, the more the cops will have to defend themselves. The more cops defend themselves, the more protests and looting you will see. It’s a vicious circle. Nobody wins.
The problem is not the cops. It is a society problem. You can’t blame these problems on only one demographic. You can’t expect cops to fix everything ,especially when they aren’t doing anything wrong in the first place.
You are right I guess. The guy was armed with a gun in my incident.
I guess we will have to agree to disagree. You think it’s a rave issue. But it’s not a race issue. Garner’s and Brown’s deaths had nothing to do with their race. Absolutely nothing. There’s zero evidence that either incident had anything to do with race. It’s just not true. I can’t understand why everyone wants this to be a race issue. It’s just not a race issue!
The guy you quoted is probably a jaded ex-cop who was fired for doing something stupid. I would bet a month’s salary on it. That article is anecdotal at best. The author, Redditt Hudson, is speaking as a leader of the ACLU, not as a cop. You can’t tell me he is impartial and unbiased. The ACLU is one of the most racist legal organizations there is and they have always hated cops. When was the last white person the ACLU came out to support? The NAACP is racist by very definition, the ACLU is pretty much the same organization.
I could keep going on and on for days about these issues and that article you posted, but I have to draw the line somewhere. God bless and good luck.
This is just heartbreaking to read.
Please come visit Manhattan.
It’s very different from what you see on TV. Most people here *know* cops, firefighters, EMT are heroes because they see them act heroically every day. Yeah, we do have our share of criminals, sickos, and idiots, and we have the New York Times brainwashing the nation worse than Pravda and I
Isvestia did under communism.
Come here, and watch how tourists pose with cops. I recommend the Feast de San Gennaro — it’s crammed, but there’s happy cops at each intersection. Summer Streets is another event when Manhattanites worship police. Or have a coffee at The Bean and see everyone’s faces light up when firetrucks or police cars park in front of the store and then the men come in to grab a coffee and chat with the regulars.
it’s people like you rachel which keep evil at bay with such refreshing commentary
I second that.
Jeremy and Angelica. I applaud your maturity of the way the conversation ended with you both. When I first started reading your messages I noticed that there were a bit anger and some strong words used, especially Jeremy and I totally understand how Jeremy felt cos he’s cop but he apologized and spoke well to respond to Angelica and I think it is a beautiful and a peaceful thing to do no matter the race.
Please Jeremy, try to see how best you can interact with your victims before you take action. And it is true some people get angry when cop stops them or when they see the police. Which is wrong, if, only the cop is doing the right thing and not using his or her authority to impose on the civilian wrongly. I love the cops, they are there to protect us from the bad people. Can you imagine a country without the cops? In where I come from “Ghana” police and civilians are really friends and that’s what we want. God bless you both. Love all race no matter what!
Thanks
Eugene
ok great the saint shot the demon, instead of the focus on that tragedy, lets look at this tragedy. The police chief is ignoring a felon leaking from his department on fox television, if fox had manufactured the eye socket sources story up they could be sued for large money. The chief in a huge revelation about him and the department debated a leak online and did not prosecute the leak. So what stories did you sell when you were a cop, and how much did you get for the leak? Do you think if they sell the big stories to fox news they don’t sell the little stories like drug raid t nine pm on tues
day?
Reblogged this on My Blog JsJavaScript and commented:
Big Mike Brown was a unarmed teenager, Begs to be answered
Wilson stated that Brown reached into his waistband underneath his T-shirt as he charged him. We can assume now that that was to hold up is pants as he was running, but at the time Wilson had to assume that he may have a weapon on him. Also, Brown had already tried to take Ofc. Wilson’s gun. So he would have to assume that if Brown reached him and assaulted him again, he would then succeed in taking his gun and turn it on him. So the fact that we know after the fact that Brown was unarmed is irrelevant.
A belated comment but I still found it appropriate given the issue. This news link speaks volumes of what most “objective” people already know that it is very easy for those to monday morning QB a police stop…but this news piece is a quick take on what it is like to ” walk in their shoes for a day in their work life” and it gives one pause on what they do every single day.
Keep up the good journalistic work Chris and stay safe out there.