The number of police shootings of quote "innocent victims" has seemingly increased at an alarming rate in the past few years.
I should fail to understand why. After all the police are robotic, emotionless killing machines, bound through their programming to destroy anything that doesn’t fit their personal political or human profile preference.
If you believe that, I need your social security number and your date of birth. I have more information for you.
Ever watch the TV series "Cops"?
No actors, no rehearsal.
It’s real life. It’s the life of a cop in every state of the union and almost every city from Nome, Alaska, to Key West, Florida, filmed in real time as the events occur.
The story is the same. The crimes are the same. The process is the same.
After watching a few programs you will better appreciate the challenge to the police made by the dregs of humanity that police have to constantly deal with.
Welcome to the underbelly of humanity. Welcome to the epitome of human misery in an underworld of ignorance, alcohol, drugs and violence.
Understand that world, without the Thin Blue Line, will invade your world.
With few exceptions, be it a traffic stop or a more serious situation, the process via which police deal with the multitude of conditions and personal threat levels are the same.
It is a fair and level approach designed to protect the officer, enable him to diagnosis the situation and apply the proper procedures. It is a procedure designed to minimize the possibility of an escalating situation.
It is designed to allow the police, faced with a multitude of unknowns, to maintain control of the situation so that at the end of their shift, they can go home and should the situation require it, the individual in question can be placed in the hands of proper authorities for processing under the very fair laws of the United States.
Videos of more recent nationally televised confrontations taken by bystanders on their cell phones indicate that the "victims" inevitably suffered from personality traits and conditions ranging from arrogance and belligerence, right up to homicidal tendencies, drug induced or otherwise.
They did the wrong thing. They refused to cooperate to one degree or another. Their actions elevated the response of the officer. All too frequently the end is tragic.
For example, a person is stopped for whatever reason. The command to "show me your hands" is not negotiable. The commands to turn off the engine and exit the car and walk backward toward the offices voice is not negotiable. It’s all about safety and control of the situation.
The gentleman in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the most recent "police" shooting, appears to be walking toward his car, his hands in the air.
As in the vast majority of cases, police officers did not know this individual.
The police did not know if they were dealing with the pastor of the local church or a serial killer who didn’t care if he died but was not going to allow himself to be arrested!
I am quite certain that the officers were not asking him to walk toward his car. More likely they were asking him to walk backward toward a voice. He walked to the car and reached inside.
For what? For an ice cream cone melting on the seat or his nine millimeter? That kind of belligerent, arrogant behavior does not work.
There has been a common thread in literally every police shooting. Almost without exception the person of interest, as opposed to simply doing what the police officer tells him to do, has decided to demonstrate his arrogance and ignorance. From refusal to follow the officer’s commands to obvious aggressiveness such as fighting being handcuffed, their actions elevate the response of the officer. All too often the end is tragic. Tragic for the suspect. I am sorry. Tragic for the police officer. God forbid.
Footnote. If you are stopped by the police for an infraction or an assumed infraction of the law, you are momentarily no longer in charge of things. Respect and obey the police. They, in turn, will respect you. Teach your kids that.