“Armchair” law enforcement is usually easy. The police should
do this or they should do that; however, in Ferguson, Mo. with the racial
tension admixed with gun control, police brutality, militarization of police,
and the current political divide; for some reason it is a different story and
should not be settled by an individual’s snap judgment. The situation has
become more complicated every day and seems to be spiraling out of control.
Like all complex things, it is best to dissect the problem into manageable components.
When I tried to do this, I soon realized the problems require entirely different
solution. Solutions to the short-term problems seem to make the long-term problems
worse and visa versa. In addition, there are racist, black activists, right-wingers,
and left-wingers all trying to take advantage of the situation. +Melissa Harris
Perry and the inevitable self appointed minister +Al Sharpton for example was milking it for
everything it was worth to the point of sounding ridiculous on one side and +Fox
News on the other side, sounding just as ridiculous if not more so doing the
same thing. These people, with the help of the “media”, have turned it into a national
political issue; Republican verses Democrat.
The people involved in the immediate problem framed it as
the “murder” of a “black” man by a white officer, while the man was on his
knees with arms in the air begging for mercy. The armchair solution arrest and
prosecute a law enforcement officer for murder. A segment of society frames the
same exact situation as a law enforcement officer doing his duty by stopping
and killing a dangerous criminal who resisted the officer. That officer’s act
was justified, and that officer should be honored for risking his life “daily”
in protecting society: The news media adds fuel to the fire by showing the now
dead person robbing a store of cigars. Responsible journalists point out that
the law enforcement official was not aware that the person on his knees in
front of him was that criminal. The media, lawyers, and activists talk about
the parents as never being able to hold their willfully murdered, college bound
child, lovingly in their arms. On the law enforcement side, they describe the
exact same person, not as a child but as a dangerous adult criminal. They say that
the police officer has to deal with criminals who are black on a day-to-day
basis implying that all black people are criminals; therefore, he did not have
to know it was that man specifically to turn him into a criminal.
In the background, we have the United States the land of justice
for all. That is what a trail and judgment by a jury of peers all about; it is rational
way of dissecting complex problems into their component parts. In a proper
trail, everything I talked about counts. Parents sentiment surrounding a child’s
death, societies right to feel safe, the rights of law enforcement official of
self preservation, the racial biases, the politics at the local and the
national level, the necessity of doing something quickly, the media influences;
everything counts but it is all mellowed by the judgment of time and
investigation, which are the great equalizers. The very thing that makes mob
rule so wrong and a trail by jury “so right” is exactly what is “so wrong” with
armchair law enforcement; a trail by jury based on facts takes time. Do not allow
your lack of patience to turn society into a police officer with a gun, which
may be right or may be wrong; we should be right.
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