It seems that almost every day I read another story about a guy getting shot, beaten or roughed up by the police for one reason or the other. In Seattle, there is a minor controversy over Christopher Harris, a young man who was falsely identified as a suspect in a stabbing and subsequently panicked and ran when he saw a couple of burly guys dressed in black running toward him down an alley. He ran to a movie theater — probably to seek safety. Apparently, when he realized the guys chasing him were cops, he threw his arms in the air, then was promptly thrown headlong into a stone wall (there is a video of the incident if you scroll down the page a bit — it’s pretty grisly). Unfortunately, we may never know what exactly prompted Christopher Harris to run, because he is in critical condition and in a coma from which he may never recover.
As shocking as the video of the incident is, what disturbed me the most was reading some of the comments in the Seattle PI’s “soundoff” about the police action. Although it was made clear in the article that Mr. Harris was innocent of the crime, a number of readers assumed that he must have done “something” to deserve what he got. One reader went so far as to suggest he probably owed child support, so he had it coming! Now, would anyone ever make this assumption if an innocent young woman who had lost her head and run were beaten into a coma by police? Perhaps a few cretins, but they would be utterly reviled.
Of course, there have been the usual shootings of distraught fathers. It is a depressing drumbeat of trauma and death, and certainly doesn’t seem to be the hallmark of a healthy, happy society. The reports all look the same: distraught man holding child hostage, police shoot him, everyone cheers… I have to wonder whether it is really always this simple. There have been a number of mass shootings in the national news lately, and there was a familicide in Washington state recently, but in the latest incident a suicidal man was shot in the face by police (fortunately, he survived) while distraught and with his 20 month old child. Evidently, he was upset about the recent death of his wife. His behavior may suggest an attempted suicide by cop, but the very fact that it all began when he reached out for help from a relative, who then called the police, doesn’t seem to fit the standard suicide by cop template. The police claim that he threatened a “bloodbath,” but did not threaten to harm the child.
I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the very culture that demonizes men has prompted a parallel movement in law enforcement to treat men in general as dangerous psychopaths, and the body count is going up because of it. Perhaps men who see no option but jail or death from police feel that going out in a hail of gunfire is their only – or least painful – choice. Indeed, when faced with a family breakup or even a lovers’ spat – often the catalyst for these police calls – men know deep down that they are about to get put through a meat grinder.
Couldn’t there be a better, more humane way to deal with the men who, these days, find themselves as vulnerable as any segment of society? Is it really necessary to break a man’s skull because he runs in fear, or shoot him in the face because he is distraught and threatening to kill himself?
3 responses so far ↓
1 Rebel // May 23, 2009 at 8:31 am
The only solution I can think of is to emigrate.
Do not stay in a country intent on killing you because you are male.
Run and don’t look back. Leave the “land of the free” before you are put in jail until you die.
Most of all, do not expect anything good from your government if you are a man.
There are many places in the world where life is still worth living.
The U.S. are on their way down, sinking. Abandon ship!!
2 Thras // May 23, 2009 at 9:35 am
Nothing can be done unless the bad apples can be removed from the police force. That would mean breaking the unions, among other things. It would probably also mean fixing the overall American culture that produces the uniformed thugs. I don’t know how to do that.
Now, one of the intelligent things to do is get more tazers into the hands of cops. The media’s reporting on tazers is 180 degrees from reality. I want the cops trying to arrest me to have tazers. It’s by far the safest way to take me down, for me and them.
3 miles // May 23, 2009 at 11:01 pm
I watched the video Welmer.
The suspect ran, but had stopped and recognized the police uniform (emblem on shirtsleeve) and gave up with his arms at his sides with no threatening gesture whatsoever. The cop is -entirely-at fault here. The suspect had given up and was peacefully facing him. What is supposed to happen then is you inform him that he matches the description of a suspect in a crime and will be taken into custody, and for him to slowly turn around and place his hands behind his back for you to cuff him. He will be mirandized thereafter. The guy has plenty of time to tell you that “hey fellas, youve got the wrong guy”. That kid didn’t do anything except run, and when he started running all he saw were two big men wearing dark shirts chasing him. We dont know if he even recognized their badges or if he heard anyone yell “police” (how much does someone hear when running for their lives?).
Bottom line, one son-of-a-bitch pushed a kid who had his arms at his side, obviously surrendering to be taken into custody, WHEN HE HAD BACK UP THERE, into a wall and put him into a coma. Did he mean for it to happen like that? No, but if Welmer gets in a bar fight tonight and lands a straight left uppercut on a guy’s nose, and the cartilage gets hit just right and goes into that guy’s brain killing him, the other dude will be just as dead, and Welmer will be just as arrested for manslaughter.
Its considered “aggravated” assault if you bodyslam someone (my state anyway) on concrete, and that wall was made of cinderblock. Aggravated Assault is what the cop should be charged with. I don’t care about intent. The kids in a coma, and his family may never get his life back. It doesn’t matter one whit that the injury’s extent wasn’t on purpose. He CERTAINLY should at least be looking for another job. The public loses faith in law enforcement when a cop gets away with abusing the public, but especially the -innocent- public (and I dont want to hear about evading arrest, he was just a scared white kid on foot, what was he going to do, call his posse on his cell?).
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