Okay. You can extend that to policing in general, but I believe the interpretation is going a little too far here in this case. Perhaps because the officer in question isn’t a white Caucasian male stereotype in the first place. But again, I will say in his defense that police are people too and they fuck up and that this is what I see in this video.
Are you suggesting that the incident shouldn’t be seen as racist because the policeman wasn’t white? If so, I think you missed the “systemic” in @Wanderfound’s post.
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No. I’m suggesting that my perception may be biased due to the fact that the officer wasn’t white.
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Fair enough. Apologies.
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If you speak to people in marginalised communities, they will often tell you that the police from their own communities are among the most brutal. The cops of colour are under pressure from their white colleagues to demonstrate their “loyalty”.
Which relates to my second point. It doesn’t matter if the cop is the least racist and classist person around; his job is to enforce the existing racial and class hierarchy.
The opportunity for that “mistake” to occur was created by the capitalist/authoritarian/white supremacist society that surrounds it.
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Did this guy have a reasonable fear for his life or the lives of others to the point that he needed to be prepared to use deadly force?
Well, what did he witness? It seems like he believed he witnessed a bit of shoplifting - not an armed robbery. Sorry, looking at this dispassionately I’d have to say shoplifters aren’t enough of a threat to react with deadly force.
So why did he draw? Because cops aren’t required in most places to report drawing a weapon. They aren’t scrutinized for drawing a gun on a civilian so their is no downside to doing it. If cops were questioned about every time they drew a gun on the people they have sworn to protect and from whom their authority is derived then we would see cops think twice about it.
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For some reason I thought police had to fill out paperwork every time they so much as unfastened their holster’s retaining strap. Maybe it’s a state, or even city, thing. Or maybe I dreamt it.
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But they’re not just people. In our societies they have extraordinary powers, and high degree of deference.
Officer Hair Trigger fucked up spectacularly, but if we’re just going to say “meh, people make mistakes”, then what’s the point? He chose to put himself 5mm away from killing Jose and/or the cashier, over a packet of mints, but eh, no harm no foul?
That’s not good enough.
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It’s the exception rather than the rule and you’ll find that in places where unholstering a gun gets you paperwork and additional scrutiny, incidents like these are less common.
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I don’t doubt.
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I agree. Then I can also see how he must have been nervous with one guy out of sight range after seeing a situation which he had possibly completely misinterpreted. But fact is he should have let the two gentlemen go and then ask the cashier if everything was okay. If not, call 911 but in no case act on his own on the basis of vile assumptions. Perhaps he has a hard time proving himself as a non-white Caucasian cop but that certainly doesn’t help him either.
This strikes me as the obvious consequence of “broken windows” policy, being tough on minor crimes will somehow result in fewer serious crimes. So the police adopt a heavy-handed zero-tolerance attitude, and people get arrested for jaywalking, or nearly get shot for shoplifting a pack of gum. News flash: that shit doesn’t make our society a better place, (ignoring the fact that there’s no hard evidence it even helps stop more serious crimes.)
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Black police showin out for the white cop
—O’Shea Jackson
Okay. Now that we reached that point, let’s do it all the way:
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It’s that remain-quiet-and-absolutely-still ‘reptilian’ brain thing that saved your life.
There are far too many devils advocates these days. We need more advocates for right and reason, and fewer people making excuses for bad actors.
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You’re always endangered when it’s one of these psycho police officers. Most of them through no fault of their own are military veterans with ptsd who never got help for that illness. I blame the VA, maybe instead of giving these politicians Cadillac health insurance , we should give them health insurance through the VA.
I think you misunderstand the role of a devil’s advocate. It’s to make sure that the own position can avoid some easy traps.
In theory yes, in practice, no. It doesn’t do that.
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This is what happens when the police are trained to protect private property to the exclusion of all else, especially the lives of people of color.
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