Cops Shoot Man

Read the title again.

Ok.  Now read it one more time.

What was your first reaction?

Was it, "so what"?

Was it, "again"?

Perhaps it was "so what's new?".

I've never been anti-cop.  When it first came out, I thought NWA's "Fuk da Police" was the lashing out of hood rats who didn't want to assimilate into western civilization.   Look at the some of the lyrics:

Punk police are afraid of me, huh
A young nigga on the warpath
And when I'm finished, it's gonna be a bloodbath
Of cops, dying in L.A

 

Smoke any motherfucker that sweats me
Or any asshole that threatens me
I'm a sniper with a hell of a scope
Taking out a cop or two, they can't cope with me

 

 

When the hook of the song is "fuck the police" repeated over and over, its not hard to see why cops would take the song's message personally.  If I was a cop in Compton and NWA was blaring from a car's radio, I'd approach with extreme caution and be ready for the worst. 

 

That's the way it was in the 90's in urban America.  20 years latter we live in a nation that enjoys the reality of a police culture that places "officer safety" at a premium and views "civil rights" as a quaint idea past it's time.  It's not just cops messing with hood rats, now.  Middle aged white guys get pulled over and have the drug dogs run through their truck on their way to Sunday school.  Vets get gunned down outside of Costco.  Texas man gets arrested for "rudely displaying a weapon".  New York cops shoot two bystanders, then arrest a man and charge him with the assault of the people they shot.

 

Then there is this story from The Guardian, Iceland's armed police make first ever fatal shooting. 

A man who was firing a shotgun in his home has been killed in Iceland in what is believed to be the first time that a person has been shot dead by armed police in the country's history.

Iceland has had a armed police force for about 300 years.  About 1/3 of the population owns firearms.  Yet gun related violence and violent crime in general is rare.  The difference between this story and most of the cop shootings in the US is that the guy in Iceland really had to earn his bullet.  The 59-year-old Reykjavik man shot two cops before the police made the decision to take lethal action.   The cops in Reykjavik only came out to arrest him after he was randomly shooting a gun out his window and threatening his neighbors.  In other words, he wasn't doing something drastic like shopping or working on his sons boy scout merit badge.

The two police officers in Reykjavik that were shot in the incident are OK.  The first officer was hit in his protective helmet and the second shot was blocked by a bullet proof riot shield.  This is of course good news.  No one wants to see unnecessary bloodshed, cop or civilian.   In this case the bad guy got what he deserved and the good guys went home safe.  It's as close to a win-win situation as the circumstances would permit. 

From the news stories I've read, there is no hand wringing going on in Iceland over this event.  Yes there is an investigation into it.  The police chief didn't dodge reporters and newsmen, instead he issued a sincere, un-accusing and un-excusing statement that himself and his department are "deeply saddened" and "extend their condolences to the family".  His statement is a mature and thoughtful way to handle a bad situation. 

Back in the USA, "mature" and "thoughtful" aren't words you will hear used very frequently when describing police reaction to any form of scrutiny.  On one hand we have an out of control thug culture that represents a very real threat to officer safety (and the safety of everyone else, they're called criminals for a reason).  On the other hand we have an increasingly out of control police force that see anyone not in blue as their enemy.   These cops see themselves as free to harass, humiliate and harm anyone they please at any time, without provocation. 

The USA has been decreasing morally since 1956.  As a result the underclass has grown and with it the criminal class.  Cops have responded in kind and its becoming increasingly difficult to tell the two apart.  Now when a middle aged white guy gets pulled over his first thought isn't "I guess its time to get a new light bulb for that tail light".  Cops no longer restrain their violence to "that part of town" but feel free to abuse and kill citizens whenever it amuses them to do so.  As our society fractures more morally, racially and economically, things will only get worse.

The solution needs to embrace several areas that are politically unpopular and ultimately unworkable.  Criminals need to be de-incentivized.  This means decriminalizing at a federal level, and regulating at a state level recreational substances.  Cops need to be de-escalated and demilitarized.  Laws protecting them form prosecution for misconduct need to be rewritten so that bad cops are held accountable for being bad cops.  Thirdly the public school system needs to embrace and began teaching Judeo-Christian religious and moral philosophy again.  Abington v. Schempp was a mistake and the repercussions have been detrimental to our society as a whole.  Besides, they are teaching Islam in the schools now, so equal time for a proven philosophy should be promoted as well.

I don't know how much this would help in the northern states but Denmark has an interesting way of supplementing its law enforcement. Here is a link (NSFW) to an interesting program.  Granted some of the guns in the program are bigger than others, but I think we can agree that they are being deployed in a responsible manner.