MENACE AT 107?

MENACE AT 107?

(CNN, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

(Henry K. Lee, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Menace is an interesting word, can mean as little as a troublesome, annoying person, to threatening, causing evil, and a probable physical altercation. The latter of the meaning of the word sounds like a thousand punks that I have met in taverns. However when somebody has a weapon, the niceties come to an abrupt end, and the training that a police officer receives during his basic training kicks in and…..well the end of the issue usually ends up on the front page of the local newspaper.

 

Cops throughout the nation are taught over and over to take total control of a situation, by force, by common sense talk, or by whatever activity that they deem necessary. It has to be the hardest situation that a police officer encounters during the course of his work week.

 

A police officer has to listen to the different sides of an issue, and make a determination based on the information that he is presented. Not always is that decision the correct one, but invariably the cop in the field makes a decision, and defuses the situation. I think that this is the biggest part of a cop’s job, to defuse a possible altercation, and usually send one person home, and escort the other to jail.

 

There are police academies, in-service seminaries, and periodic conversations with a human resource department person that monitor and track the behavior of all police officers. There is an Internal Affairs division designed specifically to investigate police officer activity and actions with regards to in field decisions.

 

There is much back-up, officials and several different departments all organized to help front line officers in every phase of the job that is considered police work. Yet with little exception every cop shop in the country is guilty of making life changing decisions with far reaching ramifications.

 

To Protect and to Serve is a way overused acronym by our country’s police force, the cops of the country have armed themselves to the teeth, and are willing to use their toys whenever and wherever possible. In fact I think that they look for ways to inflict pain and submission whenever possible.

 

The to Protect and to Serve slogan could be replaced by to Seek out and Kick Butt, you read about the strong armed tactics used by law enforcement every day of the week…..and twice on the week-ends. And there is an atmosphere exhibited by the police community throughout the country that is in lock-step when it comes to protecting their own.

 

MY COUSIN WAS A COP

I had a cop cousin who worked near Detroit, Michigan after his stint in the military police, his tour of duty in Michigan’s law enforcement lasted about seven years. Then one night everything changed for him, when responding to a domestic disturbance he had to resort to the ultimate violent act, after his partner was shot to death by an enraged husband, my cousin calmly stepped over his dead partner and shot to death both the husband and the wife.

 

The action was, of course, justified…..and in this case (I really think his actions were justified) he was given an early retirement. My point in retelling this story is simple, my cousin made a decision, and in his mind both the man and the women were perpetrators and he took the only action that he thought was necessary. It’s why police officers are paid a pretty good rate for the jobs that they do.

 

The jobs that a cop is expected to do is one that most of us aren’t qualified to do…..and thank God, however, most of those people who are serving as cops today, aren’t qualified. To use lethal force is…..well, lethal…..meaning that somebody is going to die.

 

To me, unless a guy is drunk, or drugged out, conversation is the better part of valor, whenever gunfire sounds in a city, the result is usually that somebody either got shot and killed, or that somebody has received some sort of a gun-shot wound and is going to need medical attention. Are the shootings justified, well I guess you almost have to take and research ever single event, and in the end you’d have a book sized blog…..so that’s out.

 

There however is a brief dissertation by Wikipedia that details some of the incidents that have been recorded during the first eight months and two weeks of 2013. The list included those people killed by non-military law enforcement officers. The list makes no implications regarding either wrongdoing or justification on the part of the person killed or the officers involved.

 

The results are interesting as well as scary and should serve as a wake-up call to many of us in the United States. One single question should come to mind, and that question should be discussed, and addressed in the highest places of city, county, state and the Federal Government. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to live in a police state!

 

SOME OF THE LISTED INCIDENTS AND RESULTING DEATHS

As with each of my blogs there is always something that trips my trigger, and of course today’s is no different. I’m talking about the Pine Bluff, Arkansas man who was shot dead over the past week-end as the result of a stand-off with police.

 

This case is however a bit different then you’re random, run of the mill killing, in this case the man in question was a 107-year-old man black man, Isadore Monroe. Here again a decision was made at the scene, based on two people who said that Monroe had threatened them with a fire arm. After several hours of unsuccessful negotiations, tear gas was used as well as some sort of distraction device, gun-fire came from the house, and officers returned fire killing the 107 year old man.

 

I have but one simple question…..what was the rush to storm the house, cops after the negotiations had to know that the person inside the house was old…..really old, fossil old, why in hell didn’t they just wait for the old fart to need a new Depends diaper? I’m sure after several stressful threats and probably counter threats, the old duffer’s pants were full.

 

On August 11, of this year, Wayne Edwards was fatally wounded by a Massachusetts State trooper during an altercation. After the officer approached Edward’s vehicle at a traffic stop, Edwards reportedly became combative. Police began firing; Edwards then attempted to flee and crashed his vehicle. He was brought to a local hospital where he died. A female passenger in the vehicle was treated for minor injuries and released the same night.

 

Here again I have but one question, was it necessary to confront Edwards with lethal force when he clearly had a female passenger on board and became agitated at police officers. Would the decision to simply disengage the altercation have been the wise thing to do, and why did the cops fire their weapons?

 

 

 

August 14, 2013, Donny Simmons of Haywood, California, sought to engage a police officer responding to a domestic disturbance with a knife and was shot to death. Here again I have but one question, why in hell did Donny bring a knife to a gun fight?

 

And finally the strange death of Israel Hernandez of Miami Beach, Florida, possibly a frustrated artist, because around 5:00 A.M. on August 6, 2013, Hernandez was observed by Miami Beach police officers spray-painting the side of a vacant McDonald’s restaurant. After Hernandez saw the cops approaching him, he fled on foot in an attempt to elude them. According to cops the artist refused to stop and in fact turned and ran towards them.

 

One of the two officers gave Hernandez a jolt with his Taser, and the eighteen year old fell to the ground where he was unresponsive. He of course was dead at the scene, but officially was declared dead at 6:00 A.M. at a local clinic.

 

Again I have one burning question to ask, why couldn’t these police officers simply have called it a (night) and left the kid go? Exactly what did he hurt with his artistic flare…..or maybe it was really poor rendition of art, and the cops took the ultimate retaliation as art critics…..and Tased the young man to death.

 

TWO OR THREE A DAY

There have been two or three deaths per day administered by law enforcement across the country…..and that of course is a conservative guesstimate. Is the United States becoming a killing field for military type organized police squads to operate in?

 

To me, one of the most embarrassing incidents that we live with every day is the number of citizens that are shot down in our streets. What in hell is wrong with some of the Gestapo type attitudes that our police forces operate under.

 

Stop and search…..are you kidding me, I’m not a minority, and that pisses me off, and I would maybe not be able to control myself if I was stopped and searched under the guise of protecting the general public. I can kind of imagine the frustration that people of color, those people wearing different attire, and forget those that speak a foreign tongue, there really screwed.

 

No, my friends, we need to monitor what our police do in our cities, counties, and states as well as regions and nationally. Remember we pay these guys…..even those that are ass-----. We need to root these undesirables out; they definitely are the bad guys dealing with the bad guys!

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!