“The big bad dude was my twin brother. That big bad dude was a father ... That big bad dude was a son. That big bad dude was enrolled at Tulsa Community College, just wanting to make us proud. That big bad dude loved God. That big bad dude was at church singing with all of his flaws, every week. That big bad dude, that’s who he was.”
- Tiffany Crutcher, talking about her brother who, unarmed and posing no threat, was murdered by Tulsa police on Friday.
Sometimes, all we can do is bear witness.
May justice be served.
It's hard to imagine what went through that cop's mind when she chose to shoot that man. She was plainly predisposed to shooting the man. He was stationary, his hands raised, and a good safe distance away when she fired. She had backup. The video shows her victim had never lunged at or threatened the officers. This was an execution just as the killing of Sammy Yatim was an execution. Perhaps we don't put killer cops away for life or, in American jurisdictions, on death row because we feel somewhat culpable for having vested in them the authority and firepower they use to put innocents to death. That would then make us partly responsible for every other idiot in a patrol car with some cognitive or psychological malfunction. The thing is, this isn't abstract. We know they're out there. We know this female cop, just like Forcillo, comes from a police culture that has turned malignant. It is no coincidence that the especially thuggish rise to senior positions in police unions. Those leaders exemplify the culture.
ReplyDeleteYour points are well-taken, Mound. The only thing society can do is to send a clear message that a cop murdering an innocent will pay a very heavy price. So far, there has been scant indication that society has the intestinal fortitude to send that message. After all, it's always somebody else who gets killed, until the time comes when it isn't somebody else.
DeleteIn officer school I argued that William Calley (My Lai) should receive the death penalty on the basis that it was not merely justified but critical to the maintenance of military discipline. Part of the argument was based on Calley as a commissioned officer rather than some draftee. He sought the commission and the lethal power and responsibility that went with it. Collateral deaths were one thing but wanton acts of mass murder deserved the ultimate penalty especially given the precedents established at Nuremberg. How could anyone demand discipline and restraint from draftees if murder by their officers was condoned? What predicament would that pose to other enlisted soldiers when ordered by their officers to commit war crimes? The death penalty was the only fitting solution.
ReplyDeleteCops, likewise, are not draftees. They apply and compete for their jobs. We entrust them with authority and the means of lethal force. They deserve some leeway for negligent death but not for wanton execution. For that there should be a provision for life imprisonment with absolutely no prospect of parole.
Like so many other pursuits in life, Mound, it would seem some want to be officers for all of the power that that position entails, but don't care to accept the great responsibility accompanying it.
Delete.. its a valid point.. raising the examples of William Calley.. or the Forcillo syndrome.. and there are so many others.. so many. The RCMP in Vancouver another, the G20.
ReplyDeleteWe're confronted with the 'double standard' whether in regsrd to policing, the military.. or as we now know.. our elected public servants in government, who will obstruct justice with impunity via 'immunity' or Cabinet Confidence.. and those in Big Business who of course are to big to jail..
Its a sickness.. Its a crime.. Its verging on an insanity.. It deserves a clinical name or DSM categorization.. probably collected under psychopathy or sociopathy.. an extreme & murderous disorder connected to authoritarianism
I suppose another factor as well, Salamander, is the human weakness of taking on and embodying the ethos of the organization. The 'us against them' mentality that so many seem to have seems significant in an organization that dresses differently from the rest of us, has guns few can carry, etc. Consequently, the rest of us are 'the other,' fair game for their predations.
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