Featured Six Bullets ... and their lasting effect on the integrity of a police force

An Uneasy PEACE?

When race riots explode, I have to wonder if there was truly any progress in the area of race relations!

True as it is, the greater numbers of blacks are not buying into this way of conducting justice, but it is the "fringe element" the "radicals" among any culture, just like with the Muslims and their terrorist break off groups. And the white has the Klan and the neo-Nazis', and the Mexican has cartels, and the Asians have their radical gangs.

So in some way, race relations has made tremendous strides in this country. You and I need to remember that the melting pot society called America, has always been looked upon by the other nations as a work in progress, and riots are social hiccups, sent to remind us that their is always going to be an underlying, smoldering fire, and when a white cop kills a black, the brush is pushed aside and the radical, anger-hate filled blacks and whites and browns and Asians join to rise up and remind America we are but one mistake or wrongdoing from setting off a series of events that could wipe out this society.

As long as America is America, there will always be an unspoken, uneasy peace; waiting for one more "flashpoint, to take us over the brink?" Still, as long as the good in the society reigns supreme, these times of anger will fall flat on their face, and once again, we will go on living with the reality of an uneasy peace, just under the brush covering the ground we walk, live, play and work upon!

What can't we all just get along? To answer that question one must realistically remeber that America is an experiment in mixing multi-ethnicities, and from time to time, there will be flare ups. I mean just look to speace, and you can see that even our sun has solar flareups from time to time!. We just need to make sure, that as a society we don't mess up and go super-nova when a flare up explodes!

I prefer to trust God with this, and believe our prayers and the peace of HIs Gospel can keep the greater good in control of the radical few! :thumbs:

 

You are right...

First, like Zaac, "Welcome to the board!"

I agree with what you said. People seem to forget that the badge and aura of authority a cop brings to the event is smoke and mirrors. Most of the time, it is more than adequate in getting support and respect from the people you are forced to approach and deal with.

However, once that mystic aura is broken, and the citizen goes from compliant to defiant, their hands are a weapon to be reckoned with. I know that as a private citizen, should someone break into my home and not leave when I caught them and ordered them out, but instead charged me, I would have no problem using my semi-automatic weapon do my speaking from that point on!

I am not frail, but I am older, and I have several serious physical disabilities, which makes a charging burgler a threat to me, and I would have the right to protect myself!

I believe this is the same with any police officer. The authority barrier can be challenged and broken by a belligerent person, and even if they do not have a weapon, cops are not hired to be fighters. For example, in the army, they taught us hand-to-hand-combat, and said there would be many times that or life or death would come down to that one on one conflict.

Like the Drill Instructors taught us, use any mean possible to kill the enemy, because once you engage them physically, you are in a one, life-and-death struggle to the end! And it is your goal to get back to base camp after the mission on your own two feet, and not in a black bag. This is why we were taught to make a quick assessment of the enemy and the area around us, and to utilize whatever was seen, to give us the upper hand in the fight!

The police want to go home after a shift. They don't want to leave a wife and three kids. Thus, they will take whatever action, and that may even be lethal, to maintain the upper hand in the battle.

When the cop and Mr. Brown met up that afternoon, both had a plan. And if, in fact, the victim did go after the weapon, that takes the cop to another level, and in order to come out of this confrontation in one piece, he made a life-and-death decision!

We read that the officer had not been previous knowledge of what Mr. Brown had just done at the market, which means the officer had no preconceived notions of Brown, other than his blocking traffic, and failing to obey the order of the officer to get to the sidewalk. It appears the officer was driving off until he saw in his mirror that Brown defied the order, and continued to walk down the middle of the street.

This kind of behavior was not only dangerous to Brown but to drivers on that road. And because Brown had just pushed around the store employee, I'm sure he felt a certain emotional high, and was not about to listen to the white cop!

From there, you know what happened. As I say, had the victim only obeyed the cop, knowing that the robbery was not the issue the cop stopped and talked to him, he'd probably be alive today! Maybe in jail for stealing whatever he stole, but alive.

Most people don't realize how many kinds of thoughts flash within your mind when a non threatening situation escalates, and turns physical! Both men were looking for a way out, believe me, and both men wanted to avoid being the dead victim. So, within both men, scenarios and training, and the fight or flight emotions were running at full speed. Which led to a tragic set of circumstances.

Let me post this: Had Brown been able to subdue the officer and get his gun and kill the officer, do you thin we'd be where we are right now?

I say yes. Because the family and the black community would be saying that Brown was a quiet, shy, good kid with good grades. He only shot the cop because he was defending himself from an aggressive white racist cop, intent on harming him! And I think we'd still have a riot, because now Brown would be in jail for killing a cop, and the community would say he was pushed into the corner by the racist cop! So now they arrested a black man for protecting himself from the white cop, who went for his gun, and had it taken from him in the struggle and an accidental discharge killing the cop, happened to happen.

Sorry ... but this was a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation! And Brown would have won. The only question that remains is, had he simply obeyed the order and went to the sidewalk. And that we will never know!