“You shot him?! He'd better not be dead!” Loved ones desperately seeking to process the incomprehensible. I have yet to hear a coherent, satisfactory answer as to why law enforcement officers shoot to kill. When asked, instead of responding to the concerns about the unnecessary bloodshed and loss of lives, enablers and apologists respond with, “This is not Hollywood.” They’ll patronizingly ‘splain that it is beyond silly to expect the police to do anything but aim at center mass and to continue to fire until perceived threat has been “neutralized.”
"Killing isn't the objective," said Geoffrey Alpert, professor at University of South Carolina who researches high-risk police activity. "The objective is to remove the threat."
Well, I guess that makes perfect if macabre sense.
That being so, Imagine my surprise when I read the account of how New Jersey police went about capturing accused terrorist, Ahmad Khan Rahami.
Rahami, 28, was captured after a gun battle with police in Linden, N.J.; images shown on local TV shortly before noon Monday showed Rahami on a stretcher with what looks to be a wound on his upper arm or shoulder, with his hands behind his back.
Despite coming under intense fire from Rahami, police took pains to avoid killing him. They needed him alive and they need him with his cognitive abilities intact. Mr. Rahami was shot on his arms and his shoulders and successfully apprehended...alive.
So what is it? Are law enforcement officers forced to kill? Or are they choosing to kill?
“Legally, can I?”
Darren Wilson made clear that he chose to kill Michael Brown. Wilson told of his internal debate as he tried to find legal cover for what he was about to do. You'll note that the murderer wasn't wracking his brain trying to find ways to de-escalate and preserve life. No, his concern was how to kill and get away with it.
At that time, I gave myself another mental check, "Can I shoot this guy?"You know, legally, can I? And the question I answered myself was, "I have to."
So what if he’d found that he had no legal umbrella under which to hide? Would that have stopped him from firing the execution-style shot that ended the life of Lesley McSpadden’s son?
The law provides for the police to use reasonable force when and if necessary; but it also provides for a penalty if the force is deemed unreasonable.
When police officers are arresting someone for a felony, the courts have given them a little more leeway. The police may use all the force that is necessary to overcome resistance, even if that means killing the person they are trying to arrest. However, if it is proved that an officer used more force than was necessary, the officer can be held criminally and civilly liable.
Problems?
- A significant percentage of those killed are not felons.
- Even when there's overwhelming evidence that cops violate the "objective reasonableness" standard (and thus a person’s absolute right to life), prosecutors, grand juries, and jurors have all refused to do their jobs; which means that cops are almost never held criminally liable.
- Cities are held civilly liable; not individual cops.
Out of control
According to The Guardian, police have killed over 800 people year-to-date. For this month alone, police killed 70 people! Some were unarmed, some had knives, some had guns, some were suffering from mental illnesses, some died as their loved ones watched in disbelief...helpless to prevent the madness, unable to render aid. The youngest killed was 13-year-old Tyre King and the oldest was 86-year-old retired Navy veteran Eugene Craig who sought to protect himself and his 90-year-old wife from intruders.
Police said they were at Craig's house to perform a welfare check. After trying to enter the home through the front door, deputies entered through the back where they found Craig allegedly armed with a gun. A deputy shot and killed Craig after he ignored commands to drop the gun and began to raise it, authorities said.
Police killed 73 people in 30 days!
Back in 2006, then State Senator David Patterson — who’d later serve as Governor of New York — introduced legislation to force the police to use minimal force; to push them to shoot to wound rather than to kill, or face felony charges. As was to be expected, there was immediate, furious, even vicious pushback from the law enforcement community. The Police Union led the charge against the proposed legislation and relied heavily upon the expertise of Dr. Bill Lewinski, the man known as The Angel of Death. Lewinski, generally regarded as the architect of the comply or die philosophy, provided (pseudo)scientific cover to support the claim that the only possible response to perceived threats is to shoot first and shoot to kill. From Lewinski:
"Given what science tells us about armed encounters, this most recent proposal is a fantasy, just like Paterson's legislation before it. They would hold officers to super-human performance and punish them criminally for being unable to achieve it."
Lewinski would then go on to advise cops to, “Shoot first and I'll answer questions later.” Advice that has proven profitable for cops and even more so for the odious adviser. See here for a look at Lewinski being exposed for the absolute fraud that he is. (h/t Yas)
What works?
How about:
1. Fall back.
2. Form a perimeter.
3. Negotiate.
And when and if negotiation fails, how about shooting to disarm? You think that doesn't work? Take a look at this:
Let us empower ordinary citizens to police the police. We must hold cops accountable when they stray from the straight and narrow. Our Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act aims to do just that. We haven’t given up. We cannot afford to give up. Our children deserve better.
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What to do with our Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act:
- Print out the Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act and send it your representatives.
- Email the law to your representatives and to civil rights organizations.
- Tweet the law to your representatives and to the Democratic presidential candidates.
- Call your representatives and ask what are they doing about police brutality in general and implementing our law in particular.
Contact your United States senator and contact your representative in the United States Congress. Call their office. Talk to a staff member. Call every week. Set up meetings. Organize a group to go to a meeting with your congressperson.
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Introducing our Asshole of the Month Award
The Zimmerman Award, also known as “The Zimmies,” will be awarded to the officer who, in our opinion, acted with such callous disregard for human safety and dignity that it just took our breath away. We invite Kossacks to send nominations to our group and on the 3rd week of each month we’ll have a poll to determine who most deserves our prestigious award.
This month’s award goes to Officer Michelle Casady of the Muskogee Police Department.
About 30 seconds after Blackmon is tased, officer Michelle Casady is heard telling Geneva Smith, who is backing away: “Turn around, face that way now, or I’ll spray you.” She directs a brief burst of spray at the elderly woman’s head, causing her to reel.
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