Funny thing! I am a 71 years old white woman and no big black man has ever threatened or abused me. Those actions happened to me, but it was always big white men who threatened, abused or conned me. The record is clear to me---a minority of entitled men feel they can get away with most anything, and those men seem to be WHITE.
20
The killing was absolutely inexcusable - but a reasonable admonition mike take the form of:
1. Don't commit yet another in a string of crimes;
2. Don't run when caught committing a crime;
3. When caught trying to run after committing a crime - don't advance towards the police brandishing a cell phone - especially in the dark.
4. Throughout all of the above - follow police instructions
7
To the suggestion that, "These shootings keep happening because, on some level, America finds them acceptable", I would reply by saying, "Speak for yourself."
This argument assumes that if something isn't addressed, it's somehow acceptable, which is nonsense.
I, for one, think that the mass slaughter of innocent people is wrong, and I always have. And I don't think I'm alone in that. Just because you can't prevent evil things from happening, because of a lack of power to change them, doesn't mean you don't know the difference.
There are six million homeless children in the United States right now. Does that mean we're OK with that? I'm not. Not on any "level".
1
Chicago guy, I do not get your reasoning,
Of course on some level police murdering
black people more than whites
is acceptable in this society, and same for
homeless children. And one way to prevent
these horrible things is to vote for people who
will not take corporate dark money. The donors
do not care about cops murdering black men, and homeless children and neither does the NRA. And they control our government. At least
poor teachers and schools somehow feed many
of these homeless children, You could volunteer at soup kitchens and for the organizations who help the homeless. Take back the power and
stand up for black people being slaughtered.
And I will do what I can myself.
5
An honorable French policeman gave his life to protect lives in a clearly difficult hostage event. But a man was shot more than eight times by police in his grandmother's backyard while holding a cellphone? This is not serve and protect.
11
It seems that “objective reasonableness” needs to be better defined and more specific.
The police have resources not available to the public. Perhaps police officer candidates should have psychological tests, handwriting analysis, and other screenings to weed out those whose temperament and biases will likely lead to inept and deadly responses.
5
You would think police are hired and untrained. I do at least.
2
Black are disproportionally affect by police violence. This fact is broadly accepted as wrong by the overwhelming majority of Americans. So what can be done about it aside from "have a national conversation about race" grandstanding? And how will we measure progress?
The Sharpton's and Mr. Blow's of the world seems to have little interest in actionable policy.
1
Although this problem is primarily about racism and guns -- racism because the victims are so frequently African-American or other people of color, and guns because the explanation is always, "We thought he had a gun" -- I think there's another significant factor: the endemic use of steroids by urban cops.
Steroids increase aggression; the drugs have the effect of amplifying perceived threats, and lowering users' social & training filters when it comes to response to perceived threats. For practical purposes, steroids reduce inhibitions towards violence, subvert cops' training, and have the effect of amping up irrational prejudices.
Police officers' use of steroids -- encouraged by an us-vs-them/battleground police culture -- is increasingly endemic. Cops are exponentially more likely to use the drugs, whether they're improperly prescribed or acquired illegally. A
Steroid use by cops has been extensively reported and documented. Police departments are well aware of the problem. They're setting themselves up for a massive liability; some day, someone's family will sue a department's/city's gross negligence for allowing an epidemic of steroid use, turning cops into hyper-violent thugs who are incapable of controlling "roid rage".
Think I'm kidding? Ask any bodybuilder or NFL player if roid rage is a real thing. They'll tell you it is. Now ask, Should steroid users walk around with guns?
8
Thanks for that information, it gives greater
clarity about the lawless aggression and
violence of some of the police. Gee if I were
a police officer I would be frightened to have
someone on those drugs as my partner.
3
The cops screaming orders caught on tape are hysterical, deranged as was the cop who killed Philando Castile. This has to do with the insane number of guns on the streets of America. Police see threats everywhere and they are terrified and reacting in a violent, PTSD way. The killing of Mr Clark is in no way justified for a possible misdemeanor. This is systemic racism but with guns everywhere the police have lost their perspective. How many cops on patrol are in the right frame of mind? They need to be retrained to let suspects go and they need weekly mental health check-ins. At the same time when ordered to you must freeze and drop to your knees and put your hands up. Your life depends on it. I pity the police who are terrified at every turn and of the young people who have to navigate this world.
5
It's the klan manifest as LEO. That simple.
4
Cops, like doctors, range from amazingly competent to unbelievably incompetent, like every other profession. But in both these two professions, unlike most others, a mistake can be fatal. The recourse, most often, is the same - filing a law suit. That's what victims of malpractice and wrongful death do, they sue. That's in the individual basis, of course, but the incidents are epidemic in both fields. What we're concerned with here is the structural, or subliminal racial bias that exists in law enforcement, most often in cities. I think most people agree, it's a societal issue, rather than just a police/professional one.
It's the issue of criminal justice. How do we improve the outcomes for people of color? Bail and sentencing practices have to be changed, first and foremost, to begin to turn the incarceration trends around. Real steps have to be taken in prison reforms, as well. This isn't glamorous work. Criminal justice reforms will be slow and difficult, but policy is where the focus has to be. I think the Black Lives Matter movement needs an organized national leadership structure that can articulate clear goals and strategies. This is where the energy needs to be directed. Protests and marches only go so far. Real organization, lobbying and legislation always have and are the only way to change institutions. To paraphrase Emma Goldman - First mourn, then organize.
3
You have little to no evidence to support your assertions that both professions include the "unbelievably incompetent" - talk about unbelievable hyperbole.
1
And you have no evidence to support
your assertion either. And really you
have never come across an incompetent
professional ? ha ha ha ha!
I have seen my share of comments alluding to Stephon Clark deserved to be killed. I ask myself, for what crime...
Even if he'd been vandalizing windows, did he need 20 bullets to stop him?
He was in his grandmother's backyard, a threat to no one.
Police have an escape clause to define their actions. They always say they are in fear for their lives. I always say if so, why are you a cop?
This country seems to have become numb to these killings. I ask myself did Travon or Stephon deserve to be killed instead of Dylan Roof or the Cruz kid in Parkland.
The rules are different. The fact that black mothers have to have the 'talk' with their children tells you all that you need to know of what's wrong.
If you cannot contain black empowerment and advancement by discrimination then killing them young seems to be the alternative.
This is nuts, it has to stop. We are watching a slow genocide and people should be outraged along with the black communities who are enduring this horror.
9
Windows smashed, vehicles burglarized, the prep runs, runs through backyards, doesn't obey lawful orders displayed aggressive behavior l. Tragic outcome. The cops likey were unaware of the victims race or even cared.
The police can not be at fault in any rational sense,
2
That those police officers felt that their life was in danger from a suspected vandal, while protected behind the house, shows really bad training by the police. I guess that the "objectively reasonable" excuse allows for really shoddy police work.
6
I am old and black. Several times I had police officers reach for their guns as soon as I got into their field of vision. I had a police officer barge into my house and draw his gun because he did not think that I belonged in my suburban neighborhood in my fully paid for house where I paid taxes for over 20 years.
Thing is that southern, rural and conservative white people do not care because they believe in the Great Chain of Being.
8
Yeah they def go overboard. My pitbull jumped the fence once and someone brought her back without my knowledge (she attacked a dog being walked, but I just think she was playing). Someone called the cops about an unleashed pit bull. I live in a majority black neighborhood (I’m a WF) and they sent four cops and an ACO. They all had their hands on their holsters when I opened the door. When they saw me they relaxed. I was shaking even know I knew they were coming and why. At one point I realized that as I was standing on my porch that my hands were in the pockets of my hoodie and I was surprised they didn’t ask me to take them out. They def treated me differently than what I see on various videos.
3
I'm 79 years old white woman, and have always been for social justice. I certainly find this deeply disturbing.
This is the same for hispanics ...
Walking while black, driving while black, selling cds in front of a convenience store while black, in a relative's backyard while black is so suspicious ... OMG calls for police action NOW ... shoot, shoot (nah, don't use your training to be sure you don't over-react, use a taser, etc.) I remember another case where a black man was shot because he was getting his wallet out, as requested.
Many? All? police/sheriff departments need more training so they quit killing black and brown people.
6
In January of 2016 police killed Daniel Shaver, a white man, because the shooter cop said he feared for his life and thought his victim was going for a gun. The cop was acquitted. There is video. It's plain as day the cops were abusing their authority and were little more than malfunctioning robots.
The cops are robots being trained and conditioned to kill, murder. It's not a racist policy. Cops are out of control. They are, and always have been, in American society not the sharpest knives in the drawer.
Our Supreme Court has failed the country. They have allowed police to physically restrain people on a table, put them in a headlock and forcibly stick a needle in their vein to obtain an incriminating, or not incriminating, blood sample, but the court system will allow a person to refuse to submit to a breathalyzer test. It makes no sense.
The courts have allowed the cops to perform cavity searches on people on the side of the road merely because the arresting cop says he suspects the person is concealing marijuana. This happens to white people.
And then there are the home invasion drug raids where the cops go in shooting people's pets and the home's residents, or throwing stun grenades into a baby's occupied crib.
But I generally support cops because in my town the police are actually quite decent, not that they didn't have problems in the past. I say that because I usually get a phone call from one of those cop charities after I write a comment.
2
It saddens me that the impact of segregation still haunts us today. I say that because it is clear that these cops (and frankly a large number of whites as a whole) ingrained to be terrified of black men. This lie that black men are somehow more criminally inclined or more dangerous is what Southern politicians used to justify Jim Crow laws to white Southerners. Jim Crow has fallen, yet the racist justifications used to justify it are alive and well.
5
I'm so frustrated and torn on this issue. Shooting of black men is the modern day lynching. Time after time we see the same story. Body cams are not definitive. Officers say stop or I'll shoot then fail to give time to put hands up. on the flip side, suspects often run. Stephon Clark never had a chance to put his hands up before bullets flew. As an African American I would like to see suspects stop running (but that won't always prevent getting shot), national discussion on policing among police chiefs, and civic leaders and faith leaders meeting with police for determining rational solutions regarding officer training, hiring, discipline, transparency, etc. Police need to show families remorse which they never do. Marches and protests aren't working because the rightful anger in the community blocks out discussion. We cannnot keep going like this. Regardless of what 45 says this is a national issue and not a local issue. A brown man, Bijan Ghaisar, was killed by park police here in DC last November and nothing has been done even though dash cam video shows them directly firing and killing him.
10
Laws follow public opinion, the only issue is lag time. Think the founding fathers were in support of gay marriage?
If they don't step one is people in the street, step two is insurrection. We are starting to see hints of both. If the Republicans get one more Supreme seat we will have both. The Supreme Court is simply theater, nothing more.
Someone had better start making the case that we will not enable Trump or Pence, both elected not by a plurality and with signs of malfeasance to place a new justice, no matter what the cost. We owe that to our children.
2
Why require police to wear bodycams if they feel free to turn them off or mute them? Isn't the purpose of the cameras to document what happens. If an officer can simply turn off a camera, isn't that tampering with evidence? It certainly seems like a tacit admission of guilt.
5
The police act like an army of occupation. Whose army? And occupying where? We need to change the rule to: Cops can shoot back only when shot at, otherwise they are guilty of murder like anyone else. The idea that cops can justify killing people because they 'thought' the guy had gun, or they 'believed he might' have a gun, is ridiculous - a four-lane highway to extra-judicial executions. Who is paying for these police anyway? How about we defund the police, use the money to pay teachers instead, and see what happens?
5
Here's what baffles me. Why is "we thought he had a gun" a reason to shoot someone? This is America. What about his second amendment right? Even if he did have a gun, which he didn't, that isn't illegal. Where is the NRA on this? Where are the people who care about protecting gun rights? They are never anywhere to be found.
The second amendment only applies to white men, apparently.
There is nothing about this case that makes sense unless you look at it through the lens of racially motivated murder.
6
How about...don't call the cops, especially for minor offenses. They have no accountability, and can murder without repercussion. It's not a solution, but to curtail the problem- Don't Call The Cops!
4
Charles once again you hit the nail on the head. One thing I differ with you on - it’s not a sanctioned tragedy but a sanctioned murder.
4
The main issue I repeat is that American police shoot 100x as many people as their British, French and German counterparts combined. I believe part of the problem is proliferation of guns. We have guns for every person in this country. The number of police fatalities overall is declining. American police training is predicated on the idea that any encounter could turn deadly at any moment. We have situations which other countries don't have. We lock up more people than in any other country--and we still don't feel safe. There are huge problems with criminal justice in our country.
5
If it were white men being shot and killed this way at least once a week something would have been done long before Stephon Clark was killed by Sacramento police officers. Apparently it's open season on African males no matter how blameless they are. And Trump's and Pence's silence on the matter is telling.
I can't imagine what it's like to be the parent of an African American boy and worry about him being shot by the police for no reason at all. That's like being in a war zone every day of the week. We're lucky that African Americans are willing to say hello to us in the streets.
7
Actually more white men are shot and killed by police than blacks. Although more blacks are killed per capita, they also commit more street level crime in relation to their percentage. We do need better police policy, as well as individual responsibility. We also need a major solution to deal with mental health which accounts for many of those of all races killed by police.
1
So white men are killed significantly more often than black men. It doesn't get the attention...the statistics are quite clear. Relative to the ratio of convictions for violet crimes, black men are LESS likely to be shot.
2
In America, police lie.
2
Was he in his Grandmother’s house & stepped out into the yard when he heard the shots?
Or was he committing a crime of robbing cars in his Grandmother’s neighborhood & jumped the fence to hide from police chasing him?
That is an important part of the story that needs to be told. I won’t make my mind up on half truth or half lies.
If other people want to do so not much respect for their rush to judgement nor their opinions.
4
Let's say he was robbing cars...does he deserve to die?
2
"In the 1989 case of Graham v. Connor, the Supreme Court ruled..."
a.k.a., it would seem, as the 'shoot first, ask questions later' decision.
1
If the police were worried he was armed they should have never followed him around the side of the house. They had time, they had a helicopter, they had the men they needed to surround the area and find him, without putting themselves in what they determined to be immediate danger (or so they say). They had every strategic advantage, yet they were so concerned they put themselves in the worst possible position intentionally? That doesn't make any sense.
They created this entire mess, and then they shot TWENTY times 'for their safety'.
Please. Only a fool would believe their stories.
6
Crime: Reported Trespassing, while Black.
Sentence: Summary Execution.
America. Land of the Free, and the Dead.
9
Guns, guns, guns. Everywhere. Mr Clark, in my opinion, is yet another victim of this country's fascination and tolerance of guns. Mr. Clark did not have a gun, and it is simply heartbreaking that he was killed in this manner. Yet the cop on the beat has likely one singular goal in his or her day. They want to go home alive. Second, they want to enforce the laws. First, stay alive, second, enforce the laws. So here we are, in the dark, looking for a window smasher. I hope to god they had no idea he was a black man, simply a man at night, seen as a threat in a gun saturated world, with something in his hand. Tense and afraid, they shoot. Who is to blame here? The cops who maybe shot too soon. The NRA, who has twisted the 2nd Amendment into something so absurd that many states don't even require registering firearms and rallys that hand out 30 round magazines for free? Does the black community ever consider the exceedingly high degree of crime committed by black men in this country? Can we actually expect police officers to ignore these statistics? Do the cops see black men as more likely to be committing crimes? Don't the stats prove that to be a general truth? So where is the outrage at all of those black men who have created such horrible statistics that many cops react differently to this segment of society? How can the black community ignore this important reality? How can we blame the police for wanting to stay alive?
1
Think about it- you need only to graduate from HS and get through a selection process to become an officer. There simply are not enough good ones with adequate personal skills and ability. This means, marginals are kept on. What if the the Chief of the department came out and said- if you kill an unarmed black man you will be prosecuted and fired- Quite a few horific phenomena seem to be acceptable on some level
3
Each killing points out the meaninglessness of American citizenship.
2
America finds the shooting of black men no more acceptable than those of white men. All lives matter.
2
Well-said, Mr. Blow.
This is not acceptable.
2
It would be nice if Mr. Blow would read his own paper.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/upshot/surprising-new-evidence-shows-...
2
Perhaps Blow would be more credible if he could enumerate those "race hostile policies" he writes about. But he can't and therefore he isn't credible.
6
He is credible. Those policies are self evident. Read Mass Incarceration: The New Jim Crow, as a starter course.
5
It's the American Way.
1
Every one of these deaths of young men is a tragedy.
In my limited experience (reading the news) they all seem to have one thing in common: at the time of shooting each of the victims was resisting the police in one way or another; fighting, resisting arrest, running away, refusing to obey the orders of the police, etc. Admittedly some of the shootings were on shaky ground but in all cases the victim was not cooperating.
Rather than blathering on about racism, black community leaders should be requiring all young black men to watch comedian Chris Rock's sketch on "How not to get your a** kicked by the police."
He advises, obey the law, follow the police orders, don't fight back, among others.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chris+rock+how+not+to+get+y...
Cops have as their highest priority - surviving their shift and going home to their families. Anything that threatens that, produces the potential for a tragic mistake.
Let's get with it and immunize our young against being killed by police.
2
I've been saying this for a while -- imagine if John Crawford had been a white suburban housewife, or Tamir Rice was a 12 year-old white girl at the park. Oh wait -- no need to imagine. The blond Australian woman shot a few months back? The cop who shot HER just got indicted.
4
I just get feel angry and frustrated that all these black men are being shot and killed mostly with no consequences for the officer involved. Why is this behavior acceptable, why? This young man should not be murdered by being shot in the back, he posed no danger to the officers and was not even facing them. Another black man dead, will his killers walk free?
4
There is no proof that he was the one smashing car windows --- that happened several blocks away from where he lived. And there was no crowbar found (supposedly the tool used to smash the windows)....nothing but racism and stupidity by the cops, including the black one.
4
Mr. Blow says that on "some level" America finds the shooting of African-Americans acceptable. I would say that you cannot speak for America; only a small number of mentally disturbed people might agree with your statement regarding acceptability.
3
An officer was scared. Frightened people see what they are afraid to see. The officer "saw" a gun. When he fired, the others thought there must be a reason for his firing and they did the same.
The root of the problem is that the first officer was afraid the man standing there might have a gun. This fear was not unreasonable. There are almost as many guns in this country as people. A British officer would not have been afraid because he/she could have been quite sure the person was not packing.
As long as police have a reasonable fear that any person who is or might be a criminal, any mentally disturbed person, or any angry drunk in a domestic altercation might suddenly use deadly force on them, mistakes will happen.
As long as the guns are out there police will make mistakes.
3
As mentioned above, don't the police carry flash lights?
1
How sad. How predictable!. But I suppose we should take solace in the fact that the police are good shooters and have received training in how to aim, if not how to judge...........
If the police had a helicopter overhead, WHY did they NOT shine their S-P-O-T-L-I-G-H-T on the suspect and broadcast their ORDERS to the suspect...?
The way the “law enforcement” surprises and springs up over a backyard fence to get the drop on a suspect for a petty crime looks more like a covert hit-job by a rival gang or mercenaries, but they hold BADGES that give them cover...!
People in the Resistance need to teach ourselves SIGN Language. If and when confronted by anyone in uniform that is armed and is being SHOUTED at, that the LAW requires a SIGN language interpreter be called, in order to de-escalate a tense and potentially deadly scenario...!
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ensures access to public buildings and services, which includes interpreters and translators. If someone is behaving erratic in a situation, can we not demand that law enforcement exercise patience, caution, back-up, call negotiators and other RESOURCES before using the heavy hand of force...?
Everyone has a breaking point when humans are under emotional, economic, personal stress and failures. Too often police are called to these entanglements in places where they NO longer are trusted.
1
I don't know if white America accepts the killing of innocent black men as much as it is extremely hard to acknowledge that the country you love, the one "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" is more a myth than reality. It's far easier to think that my country is right and just, with the necessary corollary that people who get shot by police must have done something to deserve it.
2
1. We need to find a better way for police to protect their own safety. Theft and vandalism do not warrant the death penalty for either the criminal or the police.
2. We need to stop telling ourselves that criminal suspects are innocent victims. There are all kinds of education opportunities, job training, etc. for people who choose to live within the law and show respect for their teachers, parents, neighbors, law enforcement, and government.
Yes Karen, you're right. But at times police will need to arrest some very messed-up people. We can't have our police officers imposing a death penalty for having a messed-up life. Or for failing to "cooperate" more fully. A giant takeaway here is that the police simply have to quickly get much better at arresting people--including messed-up ones--in sometimes very challenging circumstances. (And I think this is part of what you're saying, so I think we agree.)
1
The paragraph that ought to be requied reading for news anchors doing this story is the one in which you place this all in context. It is about this shooting and yet for reasons you eloquently set forth it is much more for your brothers and sisters in the community. The outrage and the protests are, as you say, really about the recent past and perceptions that exist like a choking fog or distrust in the minority community.
As a reader who has never been fond of your fulsome embrace of identity politics and its often narrow binary world-view, and lack of nuance, this piece transcended all that. Your discussion of the SCOTUS case law and the reality of an armed to the teeth nation, in the context of policing made an important contribution to understanding and to contextualizing this incident.
6
Thank you for clarifying the horror of the Supreme Court ruling. It should never be objectively reasonable to shoot someone who has not clearly demonstrated their own use of force. The fact that the police were called because of reported vandalism and not a phusical personal threat means the police should have entered the situation with a different state of mind. But as is frequently the case their state of mind is one of fear and fear leads to death too often.
3
Twenty rounds fired at a man with a cell phone during a vandalism beef? What is reasonable or unavoidable about that?
9
The proliferation of guns in this country have to be seen as one of the major contributing factors to the number of police killings. The police almost have to assume that anyone they encounter is armed. This puts them in a hair trigger position. Every encounter could result in their death. We are a society that should be far beyond the need for weapons. Our government is based on the principal of debate of/by elected representatives. We are one of the most civilized nations on Earth in many respects but our gun laws are so far out of date that they keep pushing us back to the days of the wild west. Look at police killings in any other civilized country and you will find them to be almost non-existent. The one thing that makes us an outlier is guns. Guns do kill people and the fact that anyone may be armed may get you or me killed.
6
I'm trained as an attorney. I have seen the video of the Clark shooting. How on earth could it possibly be "objectively reasonable" for two officers, substantially shielded by the corner of a house and under the close cover of a police helicopter, to instantaneously empty their magazines in a hail of 20 bullets, without having (1) identified themselves as police; (2) allowed sufficient time for the subject to respond, either verbally or by raising his hands; and (3) using the visual advantage they had of shining flashlights on a subject in the dark to look more carefully before panicking and raining death on a human being who was, at worst, suspected of a misdemeanor property crime?
It strains all credulity that such conduct is objectively reasonable, and the disabling of their body cameras in the aftermath is evidence of guilt for a jury to weigh.
In my view, as a white senior citizen in a relatively peaceful nearby town, it should be a felony for any peace officer to knowingly and deliberately disable any mandated recording device at the scene of an incident, with mandatory prison sentences and a lifetime ban on law enforcement employment and firearms possession.
Enough is enough.
23
We’ve now had several years of conflict on these shootings. But we’ve missed a basic truth—our police officers simply have to get much better at arresting people. We can't control how the potential arrestees behave, but we can control how our police officers do their jobs. In her presidential campaign Hillary Clinton had a great idea that unfortunately was quickly forgotten—that maybe there’s a role here for the federal government. Why not have the FBI develop nation-wide standards for how arrests should be conducted (e.g., never fire into a moving car), and then certify trainers from each department who in turn would train their officers?
3
How shocking that Charles Blow would ignore the facts of this situation.
Local residents call 911 to report a man breaking windows on cars and doors of residences. Police respond with helicopters and on-ground presence. Stephen Clark is identified as being a potential suspect to these criminal acts. Police give him an order to put hands up and surrender for inspection. He ignores and runs. Police give chase into a dark backyard, where Clark turns around and holds up a dark object. Police shoot.
I'd like for people to tell me what police should have done differently. If Clark did have a gun and shot police officers, I promise you that Charles Blow wouldn't be writing an article about it, nor would all these protests be taking place. Maybe Stephen Clark wasn't the individual that was the focus of the police call. But at least allow an investigation to happen first before claiming Mr. Clark was a victim. Quite frankly, this is why Democrats keep losing elections. Liberals keep making criminals into victims and the police as some type of out-of-control force.
There are obviously cases when bad cops do bad things to innocent people, and sometimes those people are minorities. But when reviewing a situation like Stephen Clark's, it's way too early to be bashing police while making Clark look like victim.
9
Waiting weeks or months for a complete investigation (and for the outrage to die down) is a bad idea because often there is NO review of such shootings unless there is an outcry and demand for it by citizens immediately. In the past, a prosecutor simply states that no charges will be filed because in his/her estimation, the shooting was justified because the officer felt his/her life was in danger. End of investigation. End of story.
1
Blow also ignores the statistics that indicate that blacks are not more likely to be shot - and possibly are less likely to be shot - than whites. A skilled writer who plays fast and loose when he wants to make his point.
1
One practically needs a spreadsheet to keep track of these killings, or would murders be a better word?
Eight bullets in the BACK? Spread sheet: Victim's name, location, cop's story, actual story, relevant video, disposition of the case. And if the victim had any "priors," that are published, then the personnel record of the officer - if it showed any disciplinary issues - should also be published.
4
State sanctioned murder pure, simple, reprehensible and unacceptable to any person of conscience.
M
6
It sure does seem that the police can riddle someone with bullets without repercussions.
8
Deadly extra legal actions against black people in this country has been the norm since the beginning of the republic. Old habits die hard. (Pun not intended). It's telling that the majority of white people in this country voted for Donald Trump, 63% of white men, and 53% of white women. Trump didn't hide his racism, his white supremacist views, and his belligerence in support of injustice against people of color. The majority of white people support the police abuse, and murder of black people, it's an important tool to maintain white supremacy, and keep black people in line. This is as old as the republic.
6
Once again....well said Charles Blow.
I'm a 58 yr old white man 3000 miles away in the Republican Bible Belt. I write today as an American. Please don't label me as being white or as being on the left. I am a human being and an American.
Several years ago I quickly dismissed the accusations (they were actually statements but I heard them as accusations) that the police were targeting or at least diminishing the rights of black males. The police wouldn't do such a thing I told myself. And aren't black men are more aggressive than white men? Don't they have an 'attitude'?
Today I'm sure that the majority of police officers are good people. I'm sure there are some black men who are angry militants... AND I'm sure that police departments DO target or diminish the rights of black men.
I was a school teacher back in the 80's. The school was 70% black. We had little to no racial conflict in a school with a white principal and a mostly white staff. Why is that? It's because our school was run by a staff that regarded all students as deserving to be loved.
I wrote a comment in the Times months ago about how I broke up a fight between two black females- one of which had two knives. It never entered my mind they were black or that I should do anything but stand between them and try to stop the stabbing about to take place.
I received comments that I was stupid to do this. Wrong. Stephon was 22. These girls were 17. They deserved our best. The risk I took I would take again.
13
I grew up in the 1970's in a racially diverse neighborhood. Break-ins and vandalism were common and friends occasionally got arrested. It was considered part and parcel of where we lived, and most of us grew up to be successful, law abiding citizens. Many even became cops. The police did not treat petty delinquency as a matter of life and death and did not rush in with guns drawn- thank god. The lack of proportionate response today shocks the conscience. We are recruiting the wrong people to be cops if they are so fearful of their fellow citizens that their response is to shoot first.
8
With all respect Charles, there are two issues and it seems you’re making them one.
Did Stephon Clark pose a threat (perceived or actual) to the officers trying to arrest him? From what I’ve seen in the images, yes, although I’m sure there is much we simply don’t know.
The second issue is the problems with police and African Americans. I’m a white guy, age 63, and for the life of me, I would not want to be an African American, outside, in the dark, in these United States.
I can’t equivocate the issues, because one involves an actual loss of life, and the second merely predicts it - for guilty AND innocent people.
Built we can’t use each instance of police violence on African Americans as a platform for racial injustice, or at least until the facts are known.
To my way of thinking, racism isn’t just a part of America, it IS America. And while I don’t know the solution, I do wonder where our values have gone.
6
"Did Stephon Clark pose a threat (perceived or actual) to the officers trying to arrest him?"
This isn't the standard for determining whether use of deadly force is justified, though.
Better luck next time.
3
The fixing of this tragic problem of racial inequity would be much accelerated if handguns were regulated, so police would not have to assume everyone was likely to be armed.
8
I still cannot fathom how any city or community has enough resources to chase a vandal with a helicopter and numerous police vehicles. Did the the person who called in the complaint about broken windows in his truck know someone in the PD, personally? Was this disproportionate response by Sacramento police the result of cops responding to a request from someone they knew and wanted to please? There must be some explanation for why broken windows resulted in such a police action.
13
Well Susan, imagine if they were your windows and your home.
5
"These shootings keep happening because, on some level, America finds them acceptable."
NO, these shootings keep happening because lately some people in the United States think it's "fashionable" to disobey the lawful command of a police officer. "Stop" and "show me your hands", are lawful commands, when they are disobeyed, especially at night, shootings happen.
8
We don't know how Mr Clark responded to the officers commands because they began shooting immediately after issuing them. If you believe that the problem is the citizen's failure to obey, then you must agree that a chance to show their cooperation must be given before the officers resort to taking the citizen's life.
13
Of course reasonable time must be given after a lawful command. The time it takes to stop one's activity and to show one's hands is reasonable. More than that is dangerous to both parties.
Perhaps I could read any number of comments that seek to find fault with the latest black man to be killed. But after all he was on property where he was welcome and he wasn't holding a weapon. More telling, the autopsy report found he was shot in the back numerous times and video shows that some of those bullets entered his body after he had fallen face down to the ground.
Will the two police officers involved in this man's killing ever be held accountable? That's the big question upon which everything else hangs. Until white people in this country recognize that they belong to an entitled group of people, that the majority of us hold either outright or unconscious racist views, no headway will ever be made. No justice will ever be found, and no African American person will ever feel safe.
7
Please tell the millions of white people living in 50 year old mobile home parks or in their cars how "entitled" and "privileged" they are.
9
me,
You are creating a false dichotomy. When all other things are equal (economic status, education, etc.) it is still easier to be white than it is to be black in this country. There is a profound amount of evidence among which police shootings are just a small data point.
1
Please google what the term "white privilege means" and refrain from commenting on the topic until you understand it.
The sound of this opinion piece just became another beat in America's obsession with divisive tribal politics and reporting.
I'm fed up of it, from both sides.
The "frustrated community" side needs to sit down with local law enforcement and work with agencies to reduce risk to officers so they don't constantly see guns in shadows.
The "let's support law enforcement ad nauseum" side needs to wake up and stop acting like the shadows that aren't guns justify shootings. Then, they too need to figure out ways to reduce the risk to law enforcement.
To Mr. Blow and everyone else frustrated by the systemic racism present throughout society: put aside your righteous indignation for these shootings, for the sole purpose of getting to the table and stopping future shootings. The greater society can be fixed later...
For everyone who is crying "justified, not racist," open your eyes and recognize the stats don't lie: there is racial disparity, be it overt by an individual or implicit due to undercurrents of history and economics. It matters, and you need to respect that history hurts, especially when it is repeated...
If we can stop with the vitriol embodied in phrases like "moral paucity, race-hostile policies and corrosive jurisprudence," or as a more generic example "just raise your hands [to officers who don't properly ID themselves]," we might be able to actually do something.
Do we want to fix this problem? Or do we want to just keep yelling at each other?
9
Nope. One side is right, the other is wrong. Racism is not the fault of the victims of it and it is shameful that you would imply that. And yes, you did so by saying both sides need to negotiate which means both sides hold at least some position which can be harmlessly cast aside for the sake of understanding. That is not true. Black people are not at fault for the fears of white people and cops, white people and cops are at fault for their own irrational fears.
4
@ Max
You prove my point rather well, sir.
One side cries "this shooting is predicated by racism and fear of black people."
The other cries "this shooting is not racism or someone being scared of black people, it is predicated by the fear of armed threat."
Can we not see that both sides have valid points?
Racism exists.
So does armed threat to police.
The two are not mutually exclusive, yet we constantly make them so during these post-shooting debates.
The two sides need to sit down and embrace the concerns other, to progress towards a mutual understanding of the concerns. We can stand together and fix this problem. I might be fed up with the rhetoric, but I still have hope.
I agree with the comment from Australia: our country is overwhelmed by fear. It's hard to see the way out. Perhaps the Parkland survivors can lead us.
8
Sir, I agree. Sadly, our society has come to accept too high a degree of collateral damage. To me it boils down to the ubiquity of guns in our population. Police officers have a wholly different view of their surroundings given their frequent encounters with armed individuals who would do them and others harm. Our policies in dealing with poverty, crime and guns contributes to ongoing collateral damage. Our country accepted the deaths of 20 children at Sandy Hook as collateral damage rather than pass meaningful legislation to control guns.
6
Every police officer and officer in training should read this and be tested on its implications. Such a test could, if properly administered, be used to weed out officers/trainees who simply should not be in law enforcement.
1
"The sound of his body falling to the ground became just another beat in America’s rhythm of state-sanctioned tragedy" made me weep. Not only because of the terrible sadness of the state of affairs in our country but also because of this columnist's tragically beautiful and poetic prose. As a 61-year old white woman who has marched, protested, written letters, fund-raised, etc. (and voted!) for peace, equality and justice (and common sense) in this country, I too am filled with overwhelming despair. I hope the young people - black, white and brown - of this country do not lose heart.
4
Even if the Sacramento police made a mistake in shooting down a man with a cell phone, is it police protocol to leave a man on the ground suffering for more than 30 minutes instead of immediately calling an ambulance?
12
This is, of course, the result of America's gun laws. Guns being so ubiquitous in American society, the criminals have guns so the police have guns and they use them.
It has to be remembered that in the United Kingdom, most officers don't carry guns. It isn't in some way automatic that police officers have to carry guns.
What continues to astonish me is that the police forces of the United States are not more fervent advocates for more sensible gun laws.
It might take a long time, but eventually relative drop in the number of suspects found to have a firearm would reduce the number of police shootings if something was done to intelligently reduce the number of handguns on the street.
I understand how impossible it is to imagine an America with substantially less than the 300 million firearms currently in public hands, but it is worth imagining that time.
It has been said many times before, but this is the very worst example of American exceptionalism - the determination to remain the most lethal country in the group of comparable advanced nations.
How can it be the case that Americans who want sensible gun laws can't get it together to out number, out spend, out vote and out wit the relatively tiny percentage of gun nuts who drive the NRA?
10
Charles: Let's assume for the sake of argument that you're right and that the current "objectively reasonable" standard for judging the propriety of a police officer's use of force is in fact a "subjective determination" which "can easily become corrupted" when it interacts with "race, class, gender etc."
The problem is that there is no alternative to the "objectively reasonable” standard, which I suspect you acknowledge since you offer no alternative. The fact is that one could argue that given human nature there is no such thing as a truly “objective” standard for any kind of behavior. But given our inherent nature we can only use the tools that we have to try to be as objective as possible. I’m pretty sure you do not advocate having a computer decide when the use of force by a police officer is reasonable (or asking police officers to poll the audience before shooting). So if and when you come up with a practical alternative to the objectively reasonable standard, please be sure and let us know.
7
Didn't you read the article? The "objectively reasonable" standard stems from a Supreme Court case in 1989, and police have been acting on this standard ever since then. It's not about human nature in general, it's about exactly how we expect police to serve and protect us. Charles Blow is right: as long as this is legal--that is, police generally do not face consequences--citizens, particularly those of color, will continue to get shot on a regular basis.
7
Try being a cop for one day, Rita.
3
Um, who is forcing anyone to be a cop? If you decide to become a cop, you do so understanding that you have a job that presents a great risk than average. You also have more rights than the average citizen, but with those rights, more responsibilities.
Are you seriously advocating that we just throw up our hands, say that being a good cop is just toooooo haarrrrrrrrrrrrd and say that they can shoot anyone without inquiry? Really?
1
As a white American, I do not in any way find these shootings acceptable. I am outraged by the abuse of power on the part of many police officers.
7
Another tragedy , another young black American man lost his life in his grandmother yard with a cell phone in his hands . We are living in a country with too many firearms, with too much violence, with too much racism.
The average white evangelical American appears to have blood on his hands for allowing all this horror to happen and justifying it , or at least doing nothing to put an end to such carnage .
4
Is there any research showing police use of force relating to the likelihood of the populace in a state being armed? I wonder if the rate of gun ownership in a state, correlates with police fearing that an individual may be armed thus leading to their being more likely to pull the trigger? I'm sure race is also a factor.
4
America's sick obsession with guns at the expense of quality education will be it's undoing.
7
I cannot for the life of me see why Mr. Clark has to be considered as a lil' angel for anybody to realize that shooting an unarmed man in the back six times is wrong.
26
Having been black for over 84 years. I wonder why police who are armed and protected by the courts in shooting black people can claim to be fearing for there life. Black people have a deadly fear of the police. The first organized police force in America was to catch escaped slaves. That culture still directs today's policing of black people. If police can shoot because they fear for their lives, black people can at least be given some credibility for running in fear of their lives.
3
There is a racist stereotype that causes many police & white civilians to see all young black men as potential threats, criminals, & gang-bangers. The hyped-up fear that leads to this shoot-first mentality is particularly strong among policemen. Even many black policemen buy into this prejudice and are often tougher on black young men than their white fellow officers. Even if a black policeman does not buy into the stereotype, he still has to be the toughest on black youth lest his white fellow officers see him as soft & untrustworthy & will be reluctant to "take his back" in the next encounter.
Police are taught that their first duty is to de-escalate the situation. Next comes non-lethal takedowns. Lethal force is their LAST option. Yet, time & again, we see them resort instantly to gunfire before they have even had time to evaluate the situation. The general rule throughout American police forces is not to use lethal force unless the person is ACTIVELY threatening to shoot a cop or civilian. Even if he has a gun in his belt, the cops are only allowed to shoot if he draws his weapon & starts to point it toward anyone.
In one case in 2016 (IIRC) a white woman was in a car shooting at other cars. The police chased her down & she crashed her car. She jumped out & ran to the cops shooting at them. Due to their training, they were able to take her down, disarm her, & arrest her with no injuries. If she were black, she would have been shot to death the moment she left the car.
8
The reason the stereotype exists is because young black men DO commit a disproportionate number of violent crimes. https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-29/race-and-homicide-in-ame... Bad behavior has consequences. And it is unfair and unrealistic to expect cops to be indifferent to their own safety or life. Blue lives matter, because they protect the rest of us.
6
The negative stereotype exists for one reason - because African American men DO commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime. https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-29/race-and-homicide-in-ame...
3
Unfortunately, this is true - it isa national problem which needs to be addressed. People are not expendable. Black Lives Do Matter.
8
Blue lives matter, too.
3
Blue lives don’t have the right to commit executions without an utterly clear threat to their lives; they don’t get be God.
2
me,
Who said otherwise? And before you bring up Dallas that person was condemned by all and very few complained about the fact that he was killed without due process.
But...but...but; the rejoinder goes:" He was a Convicted Felon" - screechers & trolls exhort (some of them here).
Police report states: He turned in a "shooting stance..." (Have-cell-phone-will-travel; sorry Paladin).
The none-too couched inference; he deserved to die. Of course that is offset by the fact most mass murderers of late- "get" to walk to the police vehicle: Dylann Roof "arrested without incident some 200 miles away". Nikolas Cruz- walked freely for over an hour...
If the only criteria for getting shot in one's backyard is being a Convicted felon- there should be numerous deaths: Martha Steward- convicted felon is alive and well; Former Interior Secretary- James Watt: convicted of 25 counts of Perjury and Obstruction of Justice; actor Tim Allen- convicted of Cocaine drug trafficking...point is; "I thought he might have a gun" is a license to murder-selectively.
7
This indictment leaves this white man's ears ringing. It's uncomfortable and it persists. I know it's nothing compared to real pain.
Solutions that bring change - where are they? Solutions aren't coming from those who believe peace officers should profess “objective reasonableness” as a standard of conduct.
Read the "Graham v. Connor" link in Mr Blow's opinion. A black man "hastily" entering and leaving a store was stopped - for no other reason. Mr Graham was a Type 1 diabetic searching for orange juice due to a bad reaction to his insulin; and city police treated him atrociously.
All SC Justices concurred with a judgement reversing Mr Graham's lower court success. The SC decision included:
"Whatever the empirical correlations between "malicious and sadistic" behavior and objective unreasonableness may be, the fact remains that the "malicious and sadistic" factor puts in issue the subjective motivations of the individual officers, which our prior cases make clear has no bearing on whether a particular seizure is "unreasonable" under the Fourth Amendment. a "police acted reasonable" decision that applied the 4th Amendment."
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/490/386/case.html
Mr Blow alerts "This ruling has become scripture for law enforcement." Thinking it as a shield will hurt new officers! "To Protect and Serve" should be law enforcement's only affirmation.
Give them all the body armor they need, and train OUT the hair triggers! Prosecute crimes!
2
I see some people think the police guard the public against violent crime! In my experience, the police start to act AFTER the crime has been accomplished. Many crimes become lethal because of the availability of a gun. The wide spread publicity given to mass shootings has promoted the notion that people who decide to go on a rampage can not be stopped because they will find a way to get the weapons. These people are overlooking the thousands of cases where there was no plan to kill dozens. Just a hostile situation that quickly went bad because there was a gun around. This is what proves the statistics that countries with less guns per capita have less gun deaths. Many countries do not arm every police officer and do not train every policeman to shoot to kill as we do. The deaths of our citizens of color is another aspect of our strange national belief that guns will make us safer. Guns make every instance of anger an opportunity for tragedy.
3
A non-negligible number of comments assume the black man had to be killed. Why was he in his grandmother’s backyard, after all?
These commenters prove the point of the column, but that just makes the situation sadder.
99
Clark lived with his grandmother so there is nothing odd about his being in the yard, especially if someone was out in the neighborhood breaking windows.
I watched the infrared video and wonder how much of this is because whoever in the chopper is reporting it seems to have seriously mischaracterized Clark's actions. He says things like "suspect is running around toward the driveway" when Clark was plainly walking, not running. That's a big deal, when the officers haven't sighted Clark yet. It creates a strong expectation that the suspect is trying to escape, which in turn creates the expectation that he is running to escape from having done something wrong.
But I also wonder about the video plainly starting with Clark jogging over to some kind of trash bin or something and jumping up on it and over the fence. What was he doing in someone else's yard? Perhaps he was looking for someone going around breaking windows. Maybe the other homeowner would not have been unhappy if he was doing that, but maybe he was the window breaker. Those are the unanswered questions that we will never know the answers to because Clark is dead now.
In any case I surely thought that the cops fired way too soon, giving Clark no chance to respond in a way that would have let them wait a second or two. He was not facing them, after all. But the moment they saw something in his hand they fired. I know in that situation, they had to make an instantaneous deadly decision, but still ...
6
Perhaps they are trying to point out that he ended up in his grandmother's backyard because he was running from the police. He wasn't, after all, innocently standing outside his grandmother's back door while he placing a call to his children. He was a fugitive.
1
I don't equate running from police as being a fugitive. You assume that he was guilty as accused and therefore has no right to the presumption of innocence and due process of law. Is this because of his race? What if he were your child?
Most of the police shootings that have gained the national attention were avoidable, by one simple act by the victims: When a cop says “Do . . .” something: Do it!. The police have to make split second decisions regarding whether an action contrary to their instructions presents a threat, knowing they can die if they decide incorrectly. And the rule in shooting (I learned in a class on the topic) is to continue firing until one is certain the perceived threat is neutralized.
I drive my old sports car “enthusiastically.” On the rare occasion when I am pulled over for exceeding the limit, I do the following:
1. Pull over at the nearest safe location, stop, turn off the motor and lights, put the car in gear (or park).
2. Roll down the side window.
3. Put my hands on the top of the steering wheel.
4. Wait. Do not move, particularly your hands, until asked to do so. If asked to stay in the car, do it. If asked to step out, do it.
I’ve behaved that way my entire life. When a man with a gun and the authority to use it gives an instruction, obey it. No protesting, no arguments; save that for your court date.
I’m 79, white.
12
If you watch the "Rodney King video" you can see that King is complying, on the ground, not fighting back, not resisting; yet...
The man reaching for his wallet, after telling the officer that he had a legal, registered gun, complied, and yet...
The 12 year old boy with the toy gun did not have a chance to comply, he was executed within 2 seconds of the police's arrival.
9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OflGwyWcft8
I worked in the criminal justice system. I entered courthouses daily, often several times a day. Once I walked up to the security checkpoint as a yelling and pushing match between two litigants began. Deputies, whom I knew, started loudly telling me where to go and what to do as the chaos spilled into the area where I was standing. I completely froze. For probably 4 or 5 seconds, I couldn’t make sense of what was happening and I did not follow directions.
My point to this story is that many police involved situations don’t come as neatly wrapped as your traffic stop. You knew exactly what was expected of you when you saw the flashing red lights. And you had the time to react with thought, choosing the “nearest safe location”. Most of us know the traffic stop drill.
Don’t be so sure that, just because you know how to interact with the police during a speeding citation, that you would also know what to do if the whole thing spins out of control.
1
Charles continues to mislead. He cites a 2016 study reported in the Times which says African Americans are far more likely that whites and other groups to be the victims of force by the police even when racial disparities in crime are taken into account.
That's simply false. The report states that cops use force against Blacks at a rate 3.6x that they use against Whites. However, when it comes to arrests the rates of use of force are almost even. And for violent arrests the use of force is greater against whites. The study also didn't take into account the nature of the encounter between the citizen and cops -- i.e. were they resisting arrest, in the process of committing a crime, etc.
Moreover, this study only uses data from 12 cities --- not the entire country -- and only 2 with over a million people. However, here are the FBI national stats on % of Blacks arrested for violent crimes. Blacks are about 12.5% of the population but commit violent crimes at an overall rate of 37.5%, 3x of their representation in the population:
murder -52%
rape -29%
robbery -54.5%
aggravated assault -- 33.3%
SO -- the Black VC rate almost perfectly proportional to the use of force data and clearly police use less force when arresting Blacks than Whites. So let's not pretend violent crime rate doesn't matter.
13
Blow does not acknowledge these points and it weakens his case.
1
Shame on all of us that in 2018, society says it's ok that a police officer can shoot me in the back because of my black skin. What a shame!
66
He was shot in the left side, which spun his back toward the police, and then he fell front down. 7 of the succeeding bullets hit him in the back. Multiple bullets were expelled at once. Once his back was to the police, did they stop and decide to shoot him in the back? You will have to wait for the investigation. Muliple studies show that police hesitate longer before shooting at a black suspect as opposed to a white suspect. Statistics show that police are more likely to be killed by a black man than are unarmed black men to be killed by police. And finally, Ronald Fryer, a black researcher, found no racial disparities in police involved shootings.
3
It seems to me that many young black men's deaths are because they were shot in the back while trying to run away. Thus, it seems, that the police are too lazy to run after to apprehend the fleeing person. They are too lazy to shoot to wound rather than kill. It's simply easier to shoot someone fleeing rather than run after and tackle them. Is that what life has come to mean to these police officers regarding their fellow human beings? I speak particularly of Walter Scott in North Charleston, SC who lost his life when he ran away from a policeman (Michael Slager) over a broken tail light. Walter was shot in the back multiple times. You may ask, why would he flee a policeman? What would you do if you were a young black male and have seen what's been going on in the past few years? How much trust can we have in our police when life is so cheap that they would rather shoot than tackle someone running away?
6
If this shooting was an aberration it might be explained, but it is rather a planned attack against not only the black minority, but any group which is not lily white. It is acceptable because white men rule throughout our system. Their days are numbered as their redistricting plans clearly expose the measures they will take to protect their positions of power and control.
The women and young people marching in support of change will be heard and followed. We will take control or the United States we know will perish.
Mr Trump and his lost followers are being led through the nose by people whose names we never hear, but the times are changing and while the old boys club is still around and calling the shots their days are numbered.
The true American tragedy is trusting those we elect to lead our nation in a direction beneficial to all of us when in fact thanks to our "independent judiciary" they are only accountable to their wealthy, indeterminable support.
1
I fear a taxpayer revolt if law enforcement intelligence (such as a master's degree) is required for application of carry a firearm.
Second, the Great Civil War continues and only ended on paper.
2
It appears that police officers are terrified of black men. I think that the truth of this is an subconscious realization that they know that in many quarters, black folk are in a desperate situation, living as second class citizens in poor neighborhoods, with high unemployment, and little resources.
I think that as long as we as a country are willing to accept the status quo of income disparity, and the high unemployment of black men, and the lack of respect for them these black men will be feared.
We need to provide opportunities for black men to succeed. We also need to have police officers to walk a beat to change their perception by getting to know and meet with them, and see that they are people like everyone else.
3
when police officers go unpunished after shooting a 10-year-old with a toy gun less than 10 seconds after arriving . . .the sad, sad truth, as Blow acknowledges is that it wouldn't have happened if it had been a while child . . . I don't see any hope . . .
7
Sally, learn the data. 13 whites were killed by cops in 2017 when the weapon they were brandishing was a toy per WaPo. Six Blacks were killed when the weapon was a toy.
8
It's all about training. In moments of fear the training kicks in and when you are trained to survive no matter what then you shoot first. When we change the training we will change the killings.
2
Of course, Mr. Clark could have obeyed repeated police orders to halt, and he'd be alive. Why do some people insist on not heeding lawful police orders, and/or resisting arrest?
7
I look to Mr. Blow for a reasoned, data-driven, rational perspective on issues of public import. I am very disappointed in this column. Statistically speaking, police officers shoot far more whites, and police shootings of unarmed African-Americans are relatively rare. I also noticed the idea that somehow because Clark had fathered children he was to be considered something other than another criminal shot by police. It is a shame Mr. Blow did not take account of another part of this trend: the revelation that the police acted properly, that their victim was a not a good person, and the activist community has lied to us yet again to maintain their aggrieved victimhood. Real reform cannot take place while lies and propaganda take the place of truth and good intentions.
14
I am curious as to how you know all this, given that we do not have national stats on police shootings.
I'm also curious as to how you figure that shooting somebody in the back six times jibes with the police claim that the dead guy was advancing on them.
3
" the police acted properly, that their victim was a not a good person, and the activist community has lied to us yet again to maintain their aggrieved victimhood"
You may use "Liberal Liberal Liberal" as your username but your comment says you're not an American American American who has a basic grasp of the US Constitution and the right of every American to a fair judicial process before being executed by police because they are "...not a good person".
The part you got right is "Real reform cannot take place while lies and propaganda take the place of truth and good intentions." The part you got wrong is attributing "lies and propaganda" to the "activist community" instead of people and police departments who deny their own racial prejudice and fear.
Too many "brave" cops, like the Sheriff's Deputy in Parkland, are too fearful, inexperienced, wrongly trained, or prejudiced to properly do their jobs.
Too many genuinely brave and heroic Americans -- including a disproportional number of Blacks -- have died defending America's promise of equal justice to have incompetent police racially profile, shoot first and later ask questions of a dead suspect who can't answer.
2
"another criminal?"
Were you there for his trial on vandalism charges? Oh wait.
Do criminals just deserve to die because they're criminals?
Do you realize you're saying its okay to kill someone because "they're not a good person"? Please seek help.
2
this link is from national police data compiled by WAPO - by gender, race, weapon, situation, etc.
in 2017 of the 457 white mostly males shot by officers, 289 were armed with guns. Of 223 Blacks shot, 132 carried guns. Whites are armed and dangerous. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2017/
4
The "Post," study specifically says that their data is incomplete.
3
This data is complete https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-29/race-and-homicide-in-ame...
Shootings do not happen, as Charles suggests, because on some level Americans accept them. They happen because the GOP Congress (and the Dems before them) are beholden to special interests, not to voters. Big money governs us, not the people!
6
Mostly they happen because thugs don't obey police commands, and because police have a right to defend their own lives. Whether you want them all dead or not.
8
Blow that dog whistle a little louder, why don't you?
1
Hearts and minds. That’s a tough nut to crack.
Fifty years ago, as Stokely Carmichael and Martin Luther King were arguing the relative efficacy of non-violent versus more direct action, King was shot to death, abruptly raising the profile of violent action.
And yet, fifty years on, we still haven’t solved the hearts and minds problem. It’s hard to say whether King or Carmichael had the more effective approach, yet it is clear that neither was effective enough. For that matter, the Black Lives Matter approach is out for judgment.
It is obvious that in some ways the situation for African Americans has improved, but at the same time it is just as clear that in many ways it has not. The election of 2016 showed that racism wasn’t extinct, but it didn’t clarify which strategy (of any of the available choices) would be more effective.
Hope springs eternal, but one has to wonder: had King lived as long as Gandhi, would the relentless patience and commitment shown by Gandhi have survived in King’s non-violent movement, and would it have been as effective as it had been in India?
Regardless, the fatal flaw of slavery lives on in America’s racism. We aren’t the only place in the world it thrives, but our ideals make its survival that much more disheartening.
5
As usual, thank you, Mr. Blow.
We also need to thank two sources of information on police shooting and gun violence in the US which have come about in the last five years.
One is the Washington Post which is continuing its data set on shootings by police:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/police-shootings-2...
The other is:
gunviolencearchive.org
The latter site also compiles statistics on how many police officers are killed or injured by gunfire.
One of the consequences of police shootings of unarmed men in predominantly black neighborhoods
appears to be residents reluctance to call the police or to respond to questions about the whereabouts of suspected perpetrators. There are traditions and circumstances in many communities (not just those of color) which often make people reluctant to call the police. One is not being a "snitch" or a "rat". It is not limited to communities of color. The other is the fear of possible retribution by local gangs (also not limited to communities of color).
If the fear of having the police, once called, shoot unarmed people (even perpetrators) is added to these other concerns or traditions, it leaves these communities open to more violence and leaves the police less able to protect and serve them.
Education of citizens to overcome the traditions and fears is necessary. Education of police and adoption of strict standards by them is also necessary and may be a prerequisite.
4
Apparently every officer in America knows to say, "I feared for my life" after a shooting. Their lawyers certainly know it. It's their Get Out of Jail Free card. And, as we have seen here in Minnesota, there are tax-payer funded training programs that encourage officers to believe that their lives are in danger every moment. Juries are put in a very difficult position.
78
It's not a Get Out Of Jail card. It's a Stay Alive When Confronting a Suspect card.
Stephon Clark would be alive if he'd obeyed the pursuers' instructions. Doing differently, when the instructions are from those with guns and the authority to use them, is plain stupid.
Stephon Clark brought his end on himself.
7
Thanks to anti LEO hate speech, cops' lives increasingly ARE in danger almost every moment. Murders of cops are increasing, and cops are the only protection from predators that law abiding citizens have.
3
Please provide a citation for your assertion that "failing to obey" police instructions is justification for summary execution. You don't need to bluebook it; just please provide a simple citation to the statute, case, or regulation upon which you are relying. Thanks in advance.
I don't understand-- shouldn't there be some protocol in place where police don't randomly fire off their guns?! What about using stun guns if the police are uncertain? And why shoot a man in the back? This is a real tragedy, not just for people of color but for the entire country.
13
Several years ago I heard an interview on NPR with a psychologist who described a police officer’s confession that he is afraid of black men. What can we do about that?
12
Police are super jittery thinking someone may have a gun. Isn't it common sense to realize that the proliferation of guns in this country is a big factor?
9
Could a contributing factor to these terrible acts be the voluminous glorification and hero-worship of "first responders" by public officials at every possible opportunity?
3
"The courts have given police officers broad discretion, but they simply aren’t applying that discretion equitably." Exactly.
It isn't the legal standard for police use of force that is the problem - it is the application of that standard by racist policemen. Perhaps these policemen are not attending KKK rallies when they're off duty. But nonetheless, they do value black lives much less than white, even if they refuse to admit it, or perhaps even realize it.
But I contend that these shootings are now being done in an environment that condones them, much more than several years ago. During the Obama administration, we had a national leader who openly questioned the militarization of the police, and its targeting of the African American community. Now we have a "president" who believes neo-Nazis and KKK are some very fine people. And as long as our nation is led by people who believe this, wholly unjustified, racially motivated shootings will continue unabated.
9
Charles, I usually agree with every word you write…but not this time.
Is it racist for me to wonder (and then ask) what Stephon Clark was doing ‘back there’ when the police were called?
Is it impertinent to point out that this young man had an extensive criminal record AND that these policeman (one of whom IS black) could hardly have been expected to know what they were dealing with…IN the dark with a helicopter whirring noisily overhead?
What if he DID, after all, have a gun and NOT just a cell phone?
Why, by accounts, did he not cooperate?
These policemen risk their OWN lives every day and did NOT set out to kill someone on their shift.
You call Stephon an “unarmed black man, a young father of two boys”…sort of like when Rodney King was referred to as a “motorist”. There is always ‘background’.
The news coverage of this incident reminds me of Tom Wolfe’s “Bonfire of The Vanities”.
11
they weren't chasing a murder suspect. had no evidence this was the window smasher. when did we start shooting vandals? if cars were broken into for theft, fingerprints would have been available. what if he had a gun? a lot of people have guns. are we going to start shooting them too?
10
If they didn't know who they were chasing how could they possibly know what his background was?
The race of the person committing the murders is not at issue, the race of their victims is.
4
winchestereast -- please. You expect the police to have super powers of knowing what this guys intentions were - that he was just a vandal. His record certainly substantiates that he was violent.
why do some commenters suggest that it is reasonable to kill a man who is suspected of breaking car windows? what about gathering fingerprints, evidence, making a case? we don't kill the white collar thieves who loot our pensions and bank accounts. not the guys like Trump who stiff workers, investors, contractors. disarm America.
19
Will this go down the same path as the Michael Brown/Ferguson events? Make up a story, flood the press with false allegations and then riot.
. .
Did the Police tell Clark to stop? Did Clark start fleeing? Maybe we should get a few more facts, before we eulogize Mr. Clark and go rioting. If the cops are wrong, that will be found out in good time.
7
Protests are not riots. What aspect of the story has been made up? What false allegations have been made? When there are no consequences for the murder of unarmed black men there will be a response from reasonable people who see this for what it is, a criminal conspiracy by law enforcement to excuse murder.
6
Protests are organized, and do not prevent ordinary citizens from going about their business. When the protesters intimidate the latter: They are rioting.
I lived in Oakland in the early 2000's, and witnessed a massive protest by the Hispanic community. They marched down one side of 12th, carefully restrained to one half of the avenue by police -- who had been part of the planning -- and the other half of 12th split to allow one lane of traffic in each direction. Point made, no issues.
Of course, that doesn't have the same impact as disrupting a city's operation. Doing the latter is a riot.
Mr. Blow has a difficult time grappling with the American System of Justice. All he has done is to offer a rationalization for Mob Rule. Mob Rule is something that the American Justice System is indeed constructed to RESIST.
Protesting. Burning. Venting Rage. Looting....willl never accomplish anything as long as America remains what America is.
America is a nation of individuals, not "blacks" and "whites" and other assorted political marketing groups.
Individuals banding together to protect their individual freedoms, liberties, and rights....without regard to race, religion, sex, national origin.....
The Media capitalizes on Old World biases and cultures to fan the flames of Mob Rule and, of course, Media Profits....."if it bleeds....it leads." Give us dirty laundry.
.......
Police respond to a report of car vandalism. Stephon Clark identified in the area, evades police, smashed window for unknown reason, then turns on the cops, with a phone.......let a jury of twelve decide.
Thank G-d for the AMerican Justice System.
NO MOB RULE.
6
We don't know that he smashed windows. It was dark. If I were a black man I would run. Because talking, walking, sitting quietly in their cars hasn't worked out so well.
104
This simply is madness. Wish you all the best with such a sick kind of reasoning.
5
But a jury didn't decide. The police committed a state sanctioned execution without any due process. What is wrong with you that you condone a broken legal system? Wall Street punks steal $billions with nary a consequence but a black man is executed for running? I think you have some very messed up priorities.
6
In America, cops are legal to kill. It's all about guns in America. Cops kill, kids kill. Kill, kill, kill.
6
Sorry Charles. You are the king of the straw man argument. That’s why you have no influence.
6
Maybe the reason everyone has tuned out, is because the Ferguson Don't shoot, hands up" and the Baltimore Freddie Gray incidents turned out to be Fake News.
3
there was nothing fake about either of them
3
There is a headline in today's Washington Post that says there is little political price for Israel in killing Palestinians. How different is it to say that there is little political price for police in killing people of color in the US?
12
Just another beatin Americas rhythm of state sanctioned murder.
5
There's been a groundswell of hate crimes, andpolice brutality since Trump took office. Predictably so. During a speech on Long Island on Friday, July 28, 2017, President Trump took a break from discussing gang violence and illegal immigration to give the law enforcement officers gathered for his remarks some advice on how to treat suspects.
“When you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over?” Trump said, miming the physical motion of an officer shielding a suspect’s head to keep it from bumping against the squad car.
“Like, don’t hit their head, and they just killed somebody — don’t hit their head,” Trump continued. “I said, you can take the hand away, okay?”
Look at this way: First Police shot Blacks;Then they shot Hispanics; Next were American Indians; After that they shot Muslims; Persons in Mental institutions, got shot too;Cops also shot homosexuals, lesbians, transgenders, prostitutes, etc.
And when the "Very fine People," trained their (NRA Approved) Assault Rifle sights on the "Goobers," there was nobody left to defend them!
Amerika über alles!
5
If this is the proper response to a broken window, I don’t see how any black man is ever safe.
10
While Stephon Clark's black color aka race is noted, the color of one of the cops who shot him and the color of the Sacramento Police Department Chief is ignored. Both are black like Clark was.
And this shooting occurred in Jerry Brown's California instead of Jeff Sessions Alabama.
Perhaps the color that matters most in these shootings is that of a blue police uniform.
'Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Nobody knows but Jesus'
'I look back in wonder at how I got over.'
4
What's your point? The gravity of Clark's killing is diminished because a Black cop was involved and the Police Chief is Black? Blacks are about 15% of the population and concentrated in two main geographic areas. Whites are just under 50% of the urban population. It's a white city with growing diversity. The police department is predominantly white.
There's no gotcha here except to confuse those who can't deal with the reality Blacks face because of white racism.
1
Clark was executed for carrying a cellphone while black
10
When you have an irresponsible, racist president encourage police officers to "rough them up a bit," you can throw the Constitution and judicial decisions out the window. That has become the subliminal standard, and the injured victims become collateral damage.
9
Worse; these shootings happen because up to half of White America thinks that they are necessary.
7
More than that. A significant minority of white Americans, not an overwhelming number but enough to notice, wish they could be there. Some of them get on police forces and others among them enjoy their surrogacy. No different from the lynchings of the 20th century, public events conducted or abetted by the sheriff and celebrated by the crowd. The rare subsequent prosecutions were never successful.
Most southerners were not murderers and most cops aren’t bad. Not the ones in my family. But some are.
3
I never heard if they found evidence that Stephon was actually the one breaking windows or not? He was a young black man in a hoody. Must be an armed thug right? Twenty rounds first then maybe we will try to talk to him. Sounds like a plan.
Protect and Serve?
10
According to the FBI, blacks make-up 13% of the population but commit 52% of the crime. So until that statistic radically changes, then yes, blacks are going to be considered more of a threat more quickly.
4
they are convicted or arrested for a large percent of crimes for which white kids, white adults would never be hassled. get some real data.
10
These stats don't take a national level of acceptance of racism under consideration. African American Male are woefully under assertive defense counsel. Starting at the streets, more black men will be arrested for the same crime that a white male the age can walk just away. Posting bail money or assets are far beyond the economic feasibility of the large majority of the African American Communities. So even certain traffic stops can land a person in jail and the black suspect or violator must remain in custody until trial. An assertive defense could take two years while waiting for any kind of ROR(released on own recognizanse). White communities have greater affluency better access to bail money or assets and can wait for as long as it takes to get less time or probation many times.
2
Racism aside, the biggest culprit to this tragedy is the digitalized mind. The white dude cops think they are playing a video game. Helicopters hovering, exclamations cognizant of the body camera (how does my voice sound?), but they are not on their sofa playing a video game, they are on the job as cops and they are not "locked in". And, they would be "game over" if this was a video game. But it is not, it is a human life. And, of course, see the foto of most of these perps, and you can see he's not a bad kid. Not a thug. But he too had the sand in his shoes of his device. He might have been reaching for his phone. Again, the digitalized mind. The boy is trying to find freedom in this world but digitality is holding him back, and costing him his life. Look at the foto, everyone got their phones out. Everyone's heads are comprimised. We are not components, we are not digital devices. we are humans. Put your phones down, put your guns down and talk to people. okay, recalculating to the frontal lobe. RIP stephon clark and all those killed by avoidable gun violence. If your emotions get the best of you, you will not be heard on addressing race issues.
3
We have an entire militarized police force of entitled, authoritarian, low-intellect (white) guys, raised on shoot-'em-up cop shows with a thing for guns.
This white American is not only grieving, but terrified; white America needs to get it--f they can shoot a black person on sight for no reason, they can shoot anyone; we have a militarized police force that is not held accountable for extrajudicial murder.
4
One word: impunity.
The police have impunity for their extrajudicial killings.
Eradicating police impunity takes the same tactics as eliminating weeds in the garden: it has to be attacked at its roots.
Police impunity is rooted in police culture and is maintained by police unions and their contracts with municipalities. Police union contracts are what give police officers special privileges when they have killed someone. Those privileges include a period of seclusion when officers are not subject to interrogation. You know and I know that this is when the police get their stories straight. That's when the fabricate the lies that exonerate them.
A police officer who kills another human being should be treated like any other criminal suspect.
What is the consequence of police impunity? It means that failure to obey orders (even when they're unintelligible because the officer giving them is in a hysterical fury) is a capital offense, and the police officer is the judge, the jury and the executioner, all in a split second.
6
Mr Blow is right on two counts.
1. The police who shot Stephon Clark are an example of what is wrong with our system of law enforcement.
2. The police actions are both legal and morally repugnant.
The cops who killed Stephon Clark have failed all Americans, just like the cop who shot Walter Scott in North Carolina. Just like other cops who interpret their badge as a license to kill. There is no excuse for their actions, no matter their rationales of "they thought..." They must be held accountable, and guess what, if a couple of innocent cops are caught up in the push for accountability, so be it. Sometimes collateral damage occurs and fixing this problem is more important to American society than worrying about the exactitude of each and every individual circumstance.
At the same time, we must not equate every police shooting of a black man as an example of a racist system whose objective is to oppress black Americans. It's not. It's an imperfect system populated by imperfect people. Just like the black urban neighborhoods where these shootings most often occur and populated by imperfect people.
The reality of black urban neighborhoods is that violent men live there and prey on their neighbors. The neighbors depend on the police to stop the crime and violence. Sometimes they shield the violent men.
Things will only change when Americans hold the police accountable for their behavior and when black urban neighbors hold each other accountable for theirs.
1
Charles Blow's arguments notwithstanding, I have long wondered what is the effect on our police from the steady diet of dramatic crime shows and movies featuring intense pursuit of suspects, gunfire and SWAT teams. Have our television shows influenced the norms of police behavior? The various Law and Order shows are the first that come to mind.
This abuse does not occur only to African Americans. We saw , just recently an innocent white man was senselessly murdered by police in Arizona. See Washington Post video link below)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/12/08/graphic-vi...
But there is no racial hook to hang these senseless unconscionable police murders on.
2
Yep. Being a poor white guy is no protection either - unless you can join a local police force. But then, neither does being a black cop protect you from some of your colleagues.
My cop relatives are rolling in their graves.
2
Law Enforcement Officers who are emotionally stable and properly trained do not shoot someone in the back for an accusation (completely unfounded) of breaking car windows with a tire iron maybe.
You do not shoot people without announcing yourself as police (which these idiots did not do) they just started shooting. Worse than incompetent criminal.
I guarantee you that if the police started shooting white people for no reason, without announcing themselves, etc. it would be shut doen fast.
Just like opioid addiction. As long as it was mostly an issue for non white Republicans in particular were indifferent. Now that it is white folks - especially white working class - they are interested.
PS. I am a white, college educated, woman in her 70's.
4
Joan Baez has recorded a song written in 2015. It is a song about watching and hearing then President Obama sing Amazing Grace at the end of his eulogy for the nine good people who were murdered by a self-declared white supremacist Dylann Roof during a Wednesday evening bible study led by senior pastor, state senator Clementa C. Pinckney at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston.
Roof was the first person to be convicted of a federal hate crime and sentenced to the death penalty.
AND despite having slaughtered human beings this white domestic terrorist Roof was treated with respect by the police. Roof was on his way to ANOTHER church to kill more blacks at a Wednesday bible study but was stopped by police after a woman saw his picture, followed him in her car and called the police.
He wasn’t thrown to the ground by the police, in fact after being seen on body camera, he was handcuffed standing up and carefully helped into the back seat of a patrol car AND THEN was allowed to go to a Burger King drive through to get food as he was hungry!
Stephon Clark, 22, unarmed, black, just in his family’s back yard-murdered. Michael Brown murdered in Ferguson--unarmed. Trayvon Martin carrying a coke and and skittles. Erin Greene..on and on.
Joan Baez sings this lovely ballad pictured with water colors:
https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/556574/joan-baez-amazing-grace/
My tears flowed freely watching/listening to this song.
“Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved...”
7
Better balanced reporting of police shootings would reduce anger in the African American community. Each year, there are many police shootings but only a tiny percent—the ones that make headlines—are controversial. The Washington Post’s police shooting database shows that only 6.8 percent of those shot and killed by police in 2017 were unarmed. And in nearly all these incidents the unarmed victims had committed crimes and were resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrests when shot.
Police shoot black people for the same reason they shoot white people. The Washington Post was able to determine the race of 903 of the 987 persons shot and killed by police during 2017. Of those whose race was determine, 457 were white, 223 were black, 179 were Hispanic and 44 were “other.”
African Americans make up a disproportional percent of police shooting victims because, as the FBI Uniform Crimes Report documents, they commit a disproportionate percent of violent crimes. In 2017, police shot and killed 940 males and 45 females. This wasn’t because police are prejudiced against males; it is because males commit more violent crimes than females.
6
They are convicted far more often than white people. That is all that data proves. Get back to us when you're not cherry picking your numbers.
4
They are convicted more often of violent crimes because they commit more violent crimes. The majority of murder victims as well as the majority of murderers are black because most murders are interracial.
Given what Charles is writing about, the ads accompanying this piece were particularly hard to stomach.
3
In the'60s, the City of Oakland, once a GOP bastion of white wealth and privilege, saw an influx of Blacks pushed out of San Francisco by urban renewal. Fearing a growing Black presence, a nervous white Oakland city council expanded the police force.
Oakland's police force, like many others in Northern cities, recruited a disproportionate number of new police officers from the Deep South. Southern recruits worked for peanuts, were anti-union and aggressive with Blacks who they expected to be guilty, docile and deferential.
These Southern cops were less peace officers than a Law and Order occupation force. Like Vietnam, the strategy was pacification: harass, provoke and brutalize Blacks until they resisted and then respond with overwhelming, lethal force, picking off leaders.
If it could, Oakland, would have hired Bull Connor as Police Chief and supplied him with packs of snarling police dogs to replicate his reign of terror in Birmingham.
Instead, 5 decades on, Bull Connor is President and the nation's police officers are told to "rough up" suspects and summarily execute drug dealers, per Duterte. And Oakland is now the USA, politically constipated with rich folks living up in the hills and poor (read Black) folks struggling down in the flats.
Law and order was never law and order: it was Republican code for "Blacks are angry and dangerous; we won't do anything about angry but we can police-up and shoot dangerous dead."
Rinse, repeat, resist.
6
Stephon Clark was shot in the back.
2
These isn't anything new... Black people have always lived in a white police state. There has been a wink and a nod that white people could kill Black people for what ever reasons. I found it very interesting that TV local and national edited the responses of the protesters in Sacramento California. 'You shoot us... Well shoot you.'
All that hands in the air, prayer, protesting isn't going to solve a darn thing. Black men are going to have fight back or police sate will continue to kill us at will.
2
The overall lack of a national response to police officers killing African American males and the extensive research on the plight of black males reported recently in the New York Times seem to suggest a “they bring this on themselves” attitude. If black boys and men are NOT responsible, then our criminal justice system—and country at large—are at fault.
This is a painful self-assessment and a kind of national denial. Sadly it reeks of Europe in the 1930s and 1940s and the terrible consequences thereunto pertaining.
4
These two cops will probably get a medal!
Police Officers tend to come from White working-class environments. White working-class environments tend to be racist. After all... they are the folks who elected Donald Trump. I believe this is why Black male suspects are murdered by our Police 22 times more often than White male suspects.
4
Cops have a license to kill based on subjective fear.
My objective fear is that I could be the next innocent victim.
2
"show me your hands, show me your hands" The cops yell at a man on the ground who may be in shock, unconscious or dead. Is the victim supposed to think rationally while he's being pumped full of bullets? Why are these cops so vicious?
3
All I can say is --- watch the video. It’s on line. Watch it, Mr. Blow. And then tell us what you would have done.
Just what was a loving father of 2 doing breaking into cars and houses? The liberal press refers to him as “an unarmend black man”. We know that now – but the cops on the beat only knew they were chasing a guy breaking into houses and cars. It was impossible to tell his race. It was pitch dark. When the police approached, he didn’t have his hands raised in surrender. Watch the video – and tell us what you would have done.
4
So breaking windows is a capital crime that does not require due process before execution? Good to know.
2
In 2017, 20 unarmed black people were killed by the police. 30 unarmed white people were also killed by the police. For the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other leading media, only the black lives matter. As long as this remains true, Trump -- or someone worse -- will be in the White House.
4
457 White people were killed by police 2018, 289 of them were armed with guns.
223 Blacks were killed. 132 carried guns. If I were a police officer I would be afraid of White males.
3
Sigh. As long as most Americans are too stupid to understand concepts as simple as percentages and proportions, Trump will be in the White House.
What always baffles me in all of the shooting of black men I never hear the word he was wounded and brought to the hospital. Another mystery of the universe is how body cams suddenly break down, in a deadly shooting. How in God's name to these men sleep at night. They must know that they have taken a life unjustly deep down inside.
3
there is no plan to kill all african american males but if we don't want police officers (black and white) to use deadly force we would take away their guns and let them rely on their tasers.
1
Mr. Blow, the rhythm of the tragedy of Stephon Clark has its roots in the murder of Emmett Till in 1955. The Chicago youngster was visiting relatives that summer in Mississippi when he was accused of being familiar with a white woman. All it took was an accusation of wrongdoing by this woman to sentence the black child to his death. Fifty years later, she admitted that she lied and that young Emmett did nothing to deserve his lynching but the damage was done.
Mack Charles Parker was accused of raping a white woman in Mississippi in 1959 and, while in the sheriff’s custody, was dragged from his jail cell, beaten and then lynched. The accusation of rape justified the white mob’s savage retribution.
Today, accusations may not be enough to murder black boys and men but racial profiling is just as deadly. Stephon Clark was murdered because he was black. He wasn’t lynched the way Emmett Till and Mack Charles Parker were but the effect had the same result. Their race and skin color automatically equated them with crime, like breathing while being black.
The slogan and movement, “Black Lives Matter” is offensive to many Americans, Republicans and their supporters, but those words have a very deep and real meaning for black Americans. The lives of Emmett Till, Mack Charles Parker and Stephon Clark didn’t matter to white mobs or policemen but they did matter because they were human beings, something that lynch mobs and law enforcement officials are loath to accept.
3
I don't know anyone who does not own a cell phone.
Cops seem to often claim that they mistook a cell phone for a gun: at least when the deceased is black.
Maybe police academies need to teach cops the difference between a cellphone and a gun.
I don't recall any instances in the news of cops shooting a white person after mistaking a cell phone for a gun
I suspect that the 'up-is-down' Republican Congress might someday conclude that cell phones should be outlawed to address the problem.
Or perhaps they will go full stupid and bar only people of color from owning cellphones: 'for their own safety'.
3
All true, and it's sickening. Whites just don't care about non-whites. And cops - white and black and brown - in particular are trained to live in fear of black males. In every case I've read about where a cop shoots a black male, the justification is always that the cop was in fear for his life. The first thing that comes to mind in these racist-programmed cops is "that black guy's got a gun! Shoot to kill!"
And yes, even black cops are indoctrinated, and they too are ever-ready to shoot black males, the presumption always being that "it's him or me."
Since when are our allegedly brave police trained to be shivering in fear of black males so that the attitude becomes shoot first, ask questions later? Every time I read that a cop shot a black male because he was afraid the black male was going to shoot him first, I think, well, why in god's name did you become a cop in the first place?
What these guys did to Stephon Clark was just pure cowardice - they were scared! And it's happened so often that we can't keep count, and many times these killings aren't recorded as such. And in fact, the white media don't even report it unless the people start making a lot of noise about it, demanding investigation and justice.
And still, the cops are almost always vindicated - again, because they feared for their own lives. Well, we have cops to PROTECT the people, not to kill them. We don't hire cops to protect themselves, but when it comes to black males, that's what they do.
5
The first thing I said on November 9,2016,,was that it was going to be open season on Blacks. While middle age black women come out to vote, the kids do not. You have power in your franchise. The consent decrees were the first steps. Vote them Out!
1
The true tragedy is the US Supreme Court. The racism and xenophobia in many, not all, of the court's judges, makes the court foul. And, don't think that the court's black judge is really black anymore. He turned white when he became a judge. Don't think for second that he would ever return to his black identity now that he is a judge. Just watch how his decisions on the court and you will know what I mean. We, the American people, must be the ones who turn the court back into what it was meant to be. Or, accept the garbage it hands down.
Where is the crowbar and who's window was broken?
4
Tragically, the election of a overt racists to the White House, has not helped the matter.
3
The United States of North America. Born to make the illegal, legal. It took a hundred years but now corporations are persons, facts are fake and science is superstition. And Canada is snookering the great Oz.
You people!
3
Often wonder why American cops are so trigger-happy. If it is a black man, they keep shooting him in the back till he is certainly dead. The Finnish cops have to resort to firearms a few times a year, but they always aim at the legs, not to kill but to immobilize.
1
Charles you can write and write it will not change anything. Racism and Greed are Americans. Blacks have a little more then another black person they do the same things ignore the poor. Religon is the major contributer to racism and greed.
These killings by cops are legal
... except when the cop is black and the victim is white — the Minneapolis cop originally from Somalia was charged a few weeks ago with murder when the victim was a white Australian woman. If the races were reversed, this would not even be a story.
2
Sometimes the sanest reaction to an insane situation....is Insanity.
"I Have Abandoned My Search For Truth and Am Looking For A Good
Fantasy"...(Ashleigh Brilliant)
1
"These shootings keep happening because, on some level, America finds them acceptable, finds them unfortunate but unavoidable."
Interestingly, I heard a similar point asked by radio personalities on the west coast, "When did it become acceptable for Kids to shoot Kids at school? How did this become the thing to do?" Contemporaneous with Mr. Blow's opinion piece was the shooting of the half brother of NBA star Damian Lillard. Statistics indicate that while 80% of white persons gun deaths are suicide, 80% of African American gun deaths are homicides (not committed by Law Enforcement). The picture of guns deaths is far more complex than Mr. Blow would like to admit or write about.
2
Cops in America are like quasi agent 007s- they have a license to kill black folk.
It’s given to them mostly by prosecutors but also by juries when prosecutors, faced with overwhelming evidence of their criminality, have no choice but to charge and try them.
Nothing will change until criminal cops are convicted of the crimes they so obviously have committed and are sent to prison.
Good luck with that happening any time in the foreseeable future.
1
Next week, prior to writing his column, Mr. Blow needs to visit Chicago, where many, many more young black men are killed - by other young black men.
That too is tragic. Maybe Mr. Blow can bring some of his white-hot rage to bear on that situation.
Since it's more frequent.
It would make sense to be angrier about a big problem than a smaller problem.
BOTH situations are tragic of course - but it's not appropriate, nor balanced, to focus on only the one (numerically smaller) problem.
5
Blow's Opinions condemn the Amrican criminal justice system without ever offering constructive remedies.
He is committed to depicting black Americans, as a group, as separate and different than other Americans when the goal should be the opposite.
Instead of demanding that individuals develop the best educational and work skills possible, obey the law, not have children until they can support them, and avoid drug and alcohol abuse, he focuses on victimization which accomplishes nothing.
6
My wonder is how our body of citizens generate a whole enlistee military happy to run off to kill for very poor reasons. How we allowed the CIA to run useless torture prisons, operate an extrajudicial offshore concentration camp, and endlessly spend billions to retune a nuclear capability able to wreck the whole world, that we know we can't use without ruining our nation. Tell me that and you'll be too emotionally drained to concern yourself with edgy cops in a backyard.
When you prefer ex soldiers in hiring cops, then chase down suspected bicycle thieves or people urinating in backyards with teams of overexcited heavil-armed men in blue led by an agitated helicopter pilot, statistics say innocent people will die. This should come as no surprise.
Beware human nature, it has a dark side that rest just below the surface.
3
How many years now have we heard NO JUSTICE NO PEACE? Nothing has changed.
Nothing.
That is the tragedy.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
1
Objective reasonableness sounds like Orwellian double speak to justify police brutality and racial stereotyping.
It is truly pathetic and provides a broad justification to sanction the most heinous police action.
1
Interestingly, Mr. Blow isn’t exempt from his assertion that Americans find shootings acceptable. Nary a word from him regarding the ongoing horrors of black on black gun violence obliterating lives in Chicago and other cities. For some strange reason that reality isn’t part of his discussion.
4
I too try to look at each case separately and on it's own merits, but when an unarmed Australian women is shot and killed by a police officer, charges are filed against the officer. What kind of message does this send to the African American community?
2
America has a police problem! Too many cops, way too many obviously think it is okay to shoot first think later. Or in too many cases they simply murder blacks who if they were not black would not have been in danger of loosing their lives.
The murder of Alton Stirling and many others we can watch on video tell the story. Police kill with impunity. Stirling's killer was fired from his job after he murdered Stirling when we all know it was murder. Shot five times while being held down by two cops.
Quite clearly a large segment of our police forces feel they are licensed to kill, and indeed they are.
1
The only thing I disagree with in Blow's article is his assessment that the police officer's use of force is "legal" because of the "objectively reasonable" standard. Blow himself notes that "the courts have given police officers broad discretion, but they simply aren’t applying that discretion equitably."
Let us begin by acknowledging that it is not objectively reasonable for officers to shot someone in the back. Although I have never attended any police training, I very much doubt they spend much time being taught about the life-threatening dangers posed by an outnumbered subject fleeing from them on foot. I also imagine that any live-fire exercises involve targets depicted as actually facing officers and presenting an imminent threat.
Secondly, a pattern of inequitable exercises of lethal discretion is just another term for abuse of power. Just to be clear, "inequitable" is not the same as "unequal." The former is a matter of fundamental fairness, while the latter implies a mere numerical disparity. To be blunt, no white parent or community would accept that their unarmed child was shot in the back while fleeing over a matter of vandalism. The entire neighborhood/state/country would be shocked and then incensed. If the officers weren't charged, it would be considered murderous tyranny. By contrast, black communities would experience similar anger, but none of the shock. And if the officers remained free, it would be considered a Tuesday.
2
US police killed one of my countrymen (a young woman in pyjamas no less) apparently in part because of how she banged the trunk of a squad car to get the occupants' attention. She, the one who called them to the scene in the first place out of concern for a 3rd party, was shot dead point blank.
Incidents like this are repeatedly excused in the US because your country is overwhelmed with fear stoked by largely unfettered and legal access to deadly force. The fact that any idiot might be armed leads directly to the 'shoot first' excuse so readily relied upon in defense of otherwise inept and wreckless policing (at best).
I pity the decent US policeman confonting this daily reality but jurisdictions around the US are culpable in their lax handling of investigations of badged perpetrators. Surely police who kill should always be subject to open court proceedings just as would be the case if the bullets had flown in the opposite direction.
An armed society may or may not be a polite society but it is certainly a deeply flawed and dysfunctional one. The US is an outstanding example for the rest of us not to follow.
248
As Mr. Blow points out, these killings are legal so no court case is brought in most cases. Police have the legal right to use force, including up to deadly force. The standard for that force is if the policemen feels his life, or that of others, may be in jeopardy. What a wide standard! Everyone now seems to have a cell phone in their hands wherever they go. It was dark. I wish they had not shot but they did.We see cases where it's obvious there is no danger to anyone yet cops shoot. They are seldom prosecuted. I don't have the answers. If I was a cop I'd probably be terrified all the time (it's a good thing I am not a cop). I'd be interested to know what the law is in Australia regarding use of force by police. Thanks for the comment, John.
4
The laws in Australia are far more humane and protective than in the U.S. because Australia practices GUN CONTROL. What a concept!
I would love to move there--better healthcare, friendly citizens, safety, and intelligent government.
Insane, incompetent, greedy Republicans would not be allowed to govern in a country like Australia. The NRA would be a powerless amateur rifle club instead of the inexcusable monster it has become in the U.S.A.
We are also fearful of very hot coffee to the point it needs a warning label. Now California is fearful of any coffee. The problem runs deeper than guns, which should be clear from how many people without a gun in their hand or even suspected of having a gun in their hand are killed by police. If this guy had a knife or a "cell phone knife" or "moved towards the officers aggressively" he might still have been shot at twenty times. Every society is full of people and objects (knives, tools, cars, big dogs) that can be perceived as deadly threats.
Risk is not avoidable. The worst thing that can happen on a given day is someone loses their life, because almost any other error can be corrected. These are two of the most basic principles from which who becomes a police officer, how officers are trained, and how officers do their job should follow.
3
If you willingly take on a job known to be risky, and are given the right because of that job to carry and use weapons, then you should be held to a higher standard than, "If I feel fear, shoot first and figure it out later." And that is a matter for police policy, training, and culture, all of which are in need of fixing. The problem becomes acute when, as is the case in the United States, that subjective fear is differentially triggered by a person's race.
2
Reading the responses to your piece today, Mr. Blow, I’m more convinced than ever that racism, even for the “open minded” readers at The NY Times, is alive and well. The presumption that a black man shot 6 times in the back brought this on himself, is appalling. I don’t know what to do. Over and over again we have seen video of unarmed black people being killed by the police. This must stop. But it also must stop that victims are blamed.
Readers, open your eyes! We have a huge problem in this country.
4
This will end when police officers who kill unarmed citizens go to jail for murder. We the People ought to elect officials who will do this.
137
We, the reasonable people, realize that the police are the only protection law abiding citizens have against predators and would be predators. And we realize that it's not easy to tell if someone is armed or not, when one is in the middle of a crisis situation. We think the cops have a right to defend themselves and we give them the benefit of the doubt.
7
I understand that's how it works in Baltimore. Don't expect to see any cops jailed, though. They keep leaving.
. .
Now, with fewer cops, you may have to make the split second, life or death decision.
. .
I think people need to decide which side they're on.
5
@Mike: I agree.
Racism is deeply seared into our subconscious, and these police killing unarmed African-Americans is the result. Like the gun issue there are no easy answers. It has been 150 years since the Civil War, yet we are still fighting it.
1
It's more "cop culture" than anything else. As Frank Drebin said when he thought he was fired from the police squad:
"now when I shoot someone I'll get arrested"
2
I participated in my first March on Washington to protest the police treatment of Rodney King. At that time, the images of his struggling black body enduring relentless beating by white officers seemed unbearable. Now, 26 years later, we regularly behold the spectacle of black bodies dropping by white gunfire, and it is beyond unbearable. When, oh when, will it stop?
4
I agree with Mr. Blow. He is absolutely right.
And beyond this horrible shooting, I ask why 20 bullets? How are these people trained? And what about the ones that missed the target? Might they have just flown off into the night in and around the backyards of the homes around them? What kind of officers just let loose a barrage of shots into the night?
2
“African-Americans are far more likely than whites and other groups to be the victims of use of force by the police, even when racial disparities in crime are taken into account.”
This may be an unpopular opinion but it is also true that Afro-Americans are far more likely to use force. I am reminded of Jesse Jackson's admission that even he would be nervous if confronting a young black man in a dark alley. Fear is the most primal sensation and sadly the violent crime statistics in places like Chicago and Detroit indicate it is not irrational. As a society we have a long way to go before all prejudice is eliminated but a cop confronting a black man in the dark who is apparently committing crimes, running from the scene and with an object in his hand is being "objectively reasonable" in hollering "gun, show me your hands" and then firing in self-defense.
4
Blow once again makes a mockery of journalism by only presenting the side of the story that supports his own agenda. The officers were responding at night to reports of someone breaking into cars by smashing windows. Stephon Clark was spotted trespassing in a neighboring yard holding a tool bar. Officers yelled for him to stop. Instead of complying, he ran to what turned out to be his own yard. The officers saw that he had an object in his hand and fearing that it was a gun, opened fire. The question as to whether the officers should have opened fire remains open and hopefully will be resolved. But what does no need resolving -
1. Don't go around smashing in car windows at night.
2. If when fleeing from the police, if they ask you to stop, then stop.
3. If it is night and you have anything in our hand that could like like a gun, drop it.
7
Your "argument" is missing a few pieces.
First, please support your unstated assumption, upon which your argument rests, that officers are permitted to "open fire" because they believe someone is holding a gun, without more. Honestly- do you think that cops have a license to shoot anyone holding a gun? Seems like that might be at odds with the second amendment....
Second, please support your unstated assumption, upon which your argument rests in part, that trespassing and smashing car windows justifies summary execution.
Thanks in advance!
1
charles, most white people in this country, liberal or conservative, think of slavery as something that happened long ago. most people do not think about the fact that there were still people born into slavery alive when the civil rights movement was happening. this means that at this same time there were people alive whose parents were slaves and now there are probably still people alive whose grand parents were slaves. we won't even consider 100 years of separate but unequal and the racism built into our society.
why anyone would think that this incredibly destructive stain would go away just because 50 some years ago we passed a law confounds me.
3
The gun control debate and the debate about police killings are united by America's increasing acceptance of the right of individuals—whether acting privately or in an official position—to decide to use deadly force when they believe they are under threat. This acceptance of deadly force—and the ability to use it without due process when one feels threatened—is turning America into a very violent society. Whatever the Founders intended, they did not intend to create a nation where individuals were free to exert deadly force at their discretion, without due process, and simply because a threat, real or not, was perceived to exist.
107
So you don't want law abiding citizens to have a right to defend themselves. You would prefer they just be murdered in home invasions, carjackings, muggings, etc.
3
They can defend themselves, but if they kill someone else doing so, they better be able to show that the threat was real and serious and they had no other reasonable option but to kill. That holds for private citizens and police officers. Just feeling threatened should never be enough to take someone else's life.
I agree with your sentiment, however the Founders actually did intend for the second amendment to be used to enforce race based slavery, where white individuals were free to exert deadly force at their sole discretion, without due process, and simply because a threat, real or not, was perceived to exist from black people (free or slave).
Not much has changed, except the white individual simply needs to get a badge, or neighborhood watch credentials before they murder black people.
1
Here's the press-release I offered to NYPD 20 years ago after they killed Amadou Diallou: "An internal police investigation has determined that the police officers followed all the rules and did everything by the book. No charges. Nothing to see here." I've provided this release to every police department in America.
1
Charles Blow cites a New York Times article (“Study Supports Suspicion That Police Are More Likely to Use Force on Blacks”) published July 7, 2016 that said “researchers said they did not gather enough data specifically related to police shootings to draw conclusions on whether there were racial disparities when it came to the fatal confrontations between officers and civilians so in the news.” However, this article was contradicted by a subsequent New York Times article (“Surprising New Evidence Shows Bias in Police Use of Force but Not in Shootings”) published July 11, 2016 that said “They [African Americans) are more likely to be touched, handcuffed, pushed to the ground or pepper-sprayed by a police officer, even after accounting for how, where and when they encounter the police.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/upshot/surprising-new-evidence-shows-...
1
It's reported that the guy the police were searching for was breaking things in people's back yards. It was a vandalism complaint. So how did this turn into a killing? The police could have just walked away or talked to the guy a bit before commencing a confrontation.
2
Young Stephon Clark shot 8 times in the back,
The shooters say, “NO”, it is not that he’s black
The policemen were threatened, that’s the story they tell,
They were merely confused, saw a gun, not a cell.
But at dawn or at noon or far deep in the night,
The police see a phone, not a gun, if you’re white.
6
The courts have given police officers broad discretion, but they simply aren’t applying that discretion equitably. Certain people, in certain communities, are viewed as more of a threat more quickly.
And I have to wonder, why are African Americans seen as more of a threat by white cops.
I used to have respect for the police force.
That is gone.
When I think of all the weapons at hand that a police person can use to subdue a person, but they still use the most deadly force, it boggles the mind.
I have come to the ask the question 'is because of how blacks came to be in this country in the first place, that many whites fear some sort of deep mental retaliation by blacks everywhere they look by the descendants of the slaves when that is clearly not the case.
Or is that our society still harbor the feeling that blacks aren't worthy of their lives by some.
Are cops unconsciously traveling back to a time when black slaves ran away to freedom and were ordered shot with no consequences?
I don't know what it is, but I keep hearing that verse in my mind: the sins of the father shall be visited on the sons.
3
The problem is too many guns making police officers fearful for their lives and too often they react with deadly fource. I blame both poor police training and our gun culture.
1
All that you say is true, Mr. Blow. Policing is tough work. But I would rather be a policeman or anything else in this country but a black person, especially a black male.
We are approaching the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s murder, a day the afternoon of which I spent mourning, crying and raging with my black college roommate, the vice-President of our university’s Black Students Union (I’m a white male of Southern ancestry). I will speak with him about that and many things on that anniversary. But the reality is part of the title of a book by a one-time professor at my law school, the late Derrick Bell: “And We Are Not Saved”.
When it comes to the treatment of African-Americans in this country, I believe we never will be. Because too many whites are unwilling to, or incapable of, handling the truth. And in this context, that truth is that this country’s power and economy were built on the whipped and otherwise abused backs of black slaves. Refusing to confront that reality and the necessary accompanying guilt, those in authority prefer, and will continue, to profile, discriminate against and murder people like you for the sin of having been born black.
2
In order to generate outrage over cops with a straight face, you have to ignore our recent past history.
In my lifetime, Americans have flipped the script on Vietnam, overlooked/forgotten US intelligence crime from South America to Nicaragua, ho-hummed Guantanamo, tolerated invading the wrong country, on the national credit card no less. To say nothing of the inevitable death row execution found to be of an innocent man.
That's a lot more state crime & killing than some cops shooting too fast in the dark. Americans are exceptional all right, at eating and digesting some really bad stuff without getting heartburn.
The authorities, from cops to politicians, look at the American people and are not the least bit afraid we will take back the reigns of control from the merchants of death, the cops, or Wall St. They see a bunch of milquetoast, self-absorbed suckers then can run down and over, and they are right. It's in our national DNA, perhaps we are too free to actually give a damn.
3
I had the good fortunate of covering Stephon Clark's funeral and subsequent demonstration for another major newspaper. (I'm a part-time photojournalist.)
I was particularly moved by the grace and generosity of Stevante Clark, Stephon's brother. His anger was palpable, but constructive; his message clear, but hopeful. At one point during the demonstration at the court house a group of protesters headed into the streets to block traffic. Mr. Clark called them back, telling them, "you do not represent my family when you do this."
How a person could lose a brother and still retain respect and kindness for the people around him is beyond me. I think I would be raging and destroying everything I could.
I was very moved by the people of Sacramento who turned out for the funeral and demonstrations.
3
Perhaps someone should write a book (or a long magazine article) about the life story of Mr. Clark and the life stories of the police who shot him.
Why did a 22 year old man have two children’s who he couldn’t support? Is it racist for people to believe that Mr. Clark had some responsibility for his own life?
Who raised Mr. Clark? What about his friends and relatives? What about his teachers and role models?
Seriously, some smart unbiased person should write a book.
I know that the NYT reviewers will not publish this comment because it doesn’t conform to their view of the world. How about just publishing the facts plus both sides of the story - their are both racist cops and irresponsible young black men.
3
To my mind, this tragedy of Stephon Clark mirrors the tragic deaths of Michael Brown and Philando Castile: it's not at all clear to me if the police did anything racist, although it's possible. Did the suspect do anything racist? Probably, but that's even less knowable, since the suspect is dead.
Police do the best job that they can, and society requires the same thing that they require of themselves: that they NOT get killed on the job.
I'm European-American (don't call me "white;" that's racist) and if I did what any of these young men did, I would probably be dead too.
I wish the African-American community would stop telling themselves how hostile, murderous, and racist the police are, because a) it's not generally true and b) it's not smart - if you teach people that police are hostile and might try to kill you for racist reasons, your encounter with the police will probably go very badly. That's what happened tragically to the three men I list above.
If you encounter police, do this:
a) don't panic or run away
b) do cooperate
c) listen to the officer
Don't do this:
a) attack the officer (like Michael Brown did)
b) reach for your gun, against officer's instructions (like Philando Castile did)
c) run and aim a device at the officers (like Stephon Clark did)
Mostly I think racism is at the root of this problem, in this case, racist victimhood.
4
Was Stephon Clark running after breaking car windows, and ended up in grandparents' backyard, where he lived? Or not? Too many police and show of force for this incident resulted in a shooting that seems an over-reaction to what indeed may have been vandalism. Tragedy upon tragedy. Stephon was a father at his young age, but not living with his child or the mother of their child. The divisions are stark and, as always, reveal outcomes that are the same tired replies. Bringing out that tremendous show of force would not end in a peaceful manner. And that a young black man was shot further reason that the episode would not end peacefully, or with a simple arrest. No easy answers, at all, but shooting like this are simply overkill.
3
If the police weren't worried that the citizens were armed to the teeth with weapons, do you think they would be so jumpy and quick to fire?
If the US had sensible gun laws do you think the police would be less worried that they were out-gunned?
And how many police officers are ex-military, and how does battlefield experience become triggered in civilian encounters? Are police treating the citizens like enemy combatants?
4
It is a 'local problem', first off because some police departments have the problem and some do not. If it were a national problem, all police departments would be equally guilty, and the national police, the FBI, would be at the forefront of the problem instead of being involved in few of the incidents.
Secondly, the facts surrounding the incidents vary greatly from incident to incident, making each one a local incident. In some (most) cases, the victim does not obey the police while in others he does. In some cases the victim is armed, in others he is not. In some cases the victim is charging the police, in some he is running from them, in some he is staying still. In some cases he is black, in others he is white.
2
The brutal reality is that American society views African American teenage boys and men as dangerous by virtue of their blackness. There very existence affirmatively allows law enforcement and white America to shoot to kill with a wink and a nod that it was by definition self defense - if the victim is a black male. To me - nothing drove this point home more than the Trayvon Martin case where a boy can't even go for a slurpee without being murdered by a psychopath. A majority of white America agreed that George Zimmerman acted in self defense - because well - you know - Trayvon must have posed a threat. Why cops were in "hot pursuit" of a vandal - I'll never understand. Why they didn't knock on the door and do some basic police work - I will never understand. But - what I do understand is that we live in a society that views all black men as potential threats - and until we can honestly have that discussion and work openly to eliminate this bias - the murders will continue. And white America will continue to find every excuse imaginable to justify the police violence.
9
Whatever happened to tasers? Tasers seem like the correct side arm to be carrying in a neighborhood vandalism call. Secondly, why do police officers ever need anything except rubber bullets in their magazines? Bullets are meant to kill and should be in war zones only. I must sound crazy.
6
Another police shooting of an innocent black American man - Stephon Clark. Another "boil" to be lanced - as you put it, Charles Blow, in the legacy of slavery in our sad country.
Is a cellphone a weapon? Yes, all of social media's widgets (which have invested in the worst, most ignorant and unfit and bigoted president in our history) are weapons today.
The White House - Trump's useless Press Sec Mrs. Huckabee-Sanders - defended the shooting of Stephon Clark in Sacramento as "a local matter". All killings by gun are national matters, national disgraces. America today is a tragic dystopia.
And yes, Charles, the beat goes on - this is not Baldwin's "fire next time", it is just another lancing of the American boil.
No accountability for the death-by-police murders of individual black men from sea to shining sea these days. The murder of Stephon Clark just one more tragedy santioned by our legally sanctioned. objectively reasonable" police shootings. Just another tragic instance of systemic racism in our country.
In this case, since Mr Blow believes racists policies are partly to blame, it might behoove him to mention that one of the two officers is black. There is a much bigger issue at hand and it involves police practices. It is an extremely difficult topic to discuss: basic civil rights must be balanced with an officer's desire to return home to his or her family at the end of their shift.
5
American "culture" is currently dominated by these guiding values: Greed, Shirking Responsibility, Dishonorable Behavior under cover of "Loyalty", Impatience, Intolerance, Hot Tempered Thoughtlessness masquerading as "Strength". The Witless, Thoughtless, Numb and Cruel are taking this country to the bottom of barrel in national respect, accomplishments, intelligence and decency.
Writing as a white male, when is this nonsense, of apparently, racially motivated murder going to stop? In 2015, the police shot and killed 36 unarmed black men. Black males account for 22% killed, but are only 6% of the population. Years ago we should have ended this racial divide and at this rate we are not creating a more just society, or a level playing field of equal justice and fair treatment of our citizenry!
3
I agree with you entirely. But one thing I don't recall seeing discussed is the role of experience. I have read enough about implicit bias to understand that even a police officer who nobody considers racist may nonetheless be quicker to take action or escalate against a black person.
But what bothers me is that in these encounters, it often seems the officers are too quick to become fearful or to escalate; they lose their heads when, as the professional on the scene, they are the ones who should be expected to keep theirs. I haven't seen statistics, but I'm betting that shootings or other violent encounters are more common among less-experienced officers; that veteran officers have seen enough to remain calm and measured. I'd be interested to see if there are any data on that, and what lessons could be drawn from that.
2
When a person of color is killed by police officers under circumstances that clearly provide no justification for the killing we are dealing with racial discrimination in its most insidious form - in the human heart.
Generations of tribal fears and hatreds are passed on to the next generation. Around the edges there has been progress toward color blind equality but it is slow.
One way to move faster is to enforce universal service for all young people either in military or civilian programs. When the "kids" are given the chance to get to know each other as comrades and companions many of them will discover that skin color makes no difference and that the "content of their character" is the important measurement of acceptance.
Such programs will speed a color blind society for the future. Unfortunately, the present discrimination is fixed for older generations. But the actuarial tables work inexorably - we will pass from the scene.
Police 0fficers of tomorrow, given the chance as young people to get to know each other, may come at their job in a different more just and humane way.
Let us hope!
2
Once a few, unarmed whites that are killed by state violence become the center of protests, then, we may see change, especially if they are killed by black officers.
The police killings will continue to escalate, across the board. Trump is ramping up his police state.
3
White supremacy is "objectively reasonable" to many Americans. Not only the frankly racist among us, but also an apparently vast segment of voters think it objectively reasonable to elect a white supremacist to the presidency. Racial animus is the motherlode mined by Trump and the GOP as the means to power. What they really believe is irrelevant.
4
White Americans are delusional if they cannot see that the United States is a racist society. Clearly not all white Americans are infected with this disease of the soul, but nonetheless it is a pervasive reality.
I would suggest that there is a correlation between limited education, ignorance of the nation’s race relations history, and racism. Further, I would suggest that for the most part members of the lower echelons of the police are, generally speaking, not the most highly educated people, by and large having only a highly specialized community college or high school degrees. Moreover, their views are unfortunately reinforced by having to deal with higher crime in black neighbourhoods, which is a by-product of systemic racism and poverty.
This is the direct result of slavery, one of America’s two original sins. Unlike the genocide committed against native Americans that effectively silenced the voice of indigenous people, the problems of racism will never go away until there is some form of truth, reconciliation and reparations.
4
The police have become incompetent.
Raised in a culture of fear and overcompensation, they act like immature gangbangers.
My wife called the cops once because an altercation seemed imminent in our harbor.
The cops that showed up wouldn’t look us in the eye and seemed clueless but arrogant.
Keystone cops.
What can explain so many shots being taken?
Who is training these officers of law to shoot like that. One shot might have still killed him but maybe it wouldn’t have.
These cops deserve jail time where they can spend their lives with the gang bangers they behave like.
1
These police shootings of unarmed citizens--mostly African -American-- were hard for me to fathom during the Obama years. Now that Trump is in office, I find that I have no tolerance for them at all. This administration not so quietly condones these killings. Trump has called for the police to be more physical with folks they arrest. I imagine that this killing of Stephon Clark is just what he talked about a few months ago. Sessions and Trump's DOJ are working on re-criminalizing all kinds of drug issues that will put more people of color in jail than ever before. Trump has called for the death penalty for drug dealers. However, he didn't say if the judicial system would be the executioners or the local police. Time will tell. But I know this--there will be the police killing of an unarmed man or woman--most likely African-American in the very near future. The police shooters will be exonerated by the courts and then fired by their departments--the scenario of choice these days for killer cops. We all know when these killings are murder--even the police chiefs and sheriffs. Prosecutors and juries refuse to hold the killers legally accountable, but the departments know that they don't want these trigger-happy officers back on duty in their communities. What hypocrisy!
2
I wonder what would happen if the opposite happened; I hear a noise in my back yard and see a figure moving.
I grab my gun, yell "halt or I will shoot" but in the one second after I finish yelling and pull the trigger, because the person did not respond in any way to my order on my property, I shoot a cop looking for a burglar who jumped my fence.
One second. About the time these cops gave their order to the guy in Sacramento before they shot him.
I wonder what would happen to me if the shoe were on the other foot.
7
The White House says it’s a local matter huh, but they constantly insert themselves in matters to support their agenda to appease some of their hateful base. As a matter of fact, our president of the United States of America said, “And when you see these towns and when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon you just see them thrown in, rough , Please don’t be too nice,’” Our President since his campaign has encouraged police brutality by his misguided words. The police forces that he has pictures with with their MAGA hats on half shown us they will listen to Mr. Trump instead of following standard operating procedures. Yes, it is a National disgrace, but it is a disgrace that some of those who said they would serve and protect think it is ok to kill a 12 year old who has a toy gun, Tamir Rice, shoot a man running away and plant a taser on him, Walter Scott and now Mr. Clark on his grandmother’s property. Not to mention all the other senseless unarmed killings and our leader wants to throw it back locally when this administration amplified hateful rhetoric? Naw...make a better statement White House. Mr. Sessions, Betsy Devos, stop rolling back protections! African-American Male discrimination is a National issue in public education and our criminal justice system. Own it and fix it. America is more than a 40 percent base! Disgusting!
2
Disgusted by those here who are trying to argue that the police are justified in murdering innocent people. You can't shoot someone in the back in self defense. If this poor man had been committing some minor crime (which he wasn't), that would not justify being murdered. It these cops are so afraid that they cannot do their jobs, they don't deserve to wear the badge. They should be paid a lot more than they are and the selection and training process needs to be a lot better.
1
Charles, if America doesn't impeach Trump after the midterm when Democrats are supposed to sweep the congress,indictments or not,then we as citizens of a free nation can predict another civil war.
Trump from a legal definition is already convicted by the majority of Americans with 13 points of contentions against him with one particular case of 'obstruction of justice' when he lied to the reporters in the Air Force One last year saying something like this "I wrote the letter,not my son Don Jr. inviting the Russians in the Trump Tower for a meting to discuss adoption of Russian babies."
We all know that it was a blatant lie just to shield his son from possible jail terms for colluding with the Russian govt. officials to influence the election in his father's favor.
So it becomes incumbent for us to remove Trump from power legally so that he doesn't fool the American people again.
Mainly our Black and minority folks, some of whom voted for him after he urged the Black voters to vote for him saying,"You're dying by the dozens in the Black communities anyway. So what you got lose by voting for me ?"
Those voters should say to him now, "Well ,the Black people are dying anyway at the hands of your White police officers for just holding a cell phone like Mr. Stephon Clark died in Sacramento. So what are going to do now to save our lives?
Give us more guns like you suggested with the urging of N.R.A. to arm all the teachers in schools ?
Come on,we're waiting for your answer."
2
I am frankly stunned by Mr. Blow's suggestion that America finds these murders "acceptable". I find it nearly impossible to believe that the vast majority of our citizens would condone what happened to Mr. Clark as collateral damage in the war on terrorism or the police mission to keep us safe. If, on the other hand, Mr. Blow's analysis is correct, we are doomed as a democratic society. It would be time to tear up the Constitution, start sewing swastikas on our clothing and accept membership in the Russian Federation because we'd no longer be worthy of our membership in the world of nations.
No, we do not. This is a calumny on the American spirit. We do not approve of cowardly, ill-trained, trigger-happy cops shooting any unarmed person in the back, unloading their magazines without experiencing any return fire. On the other hands, DAs aren't always willing to indict and prosecute cops because they have to work with them; hence, death by cop should be in the hands of officials reporting directly to governors or elected State AGs, as here in NY State. This is something Governor Brown could accomplish in his last year in office. Same goes for Baton Rouge. I am quite tired of Mr. Blow and his hyperbole. Even the unliberal Mark Furman on TV conceded that after reviewing the videos and seeing the tactical situation, these cops, one of whom is black, violated many accepted principles of police work and as a former US Army MP captain, briefly, I concur. Plenty can be done about it: better training, better screening for stress reactions. One more thing: no body cam that can be turned off is worth the money to buy it.
Please start including some links in your opinion pieces. Include a picture of the families autopsy chart. Include a link to the unedited videos. The family's autopsy charts clearly show that the first shot hit Mr. Clark from the front. Interestingly, that shot is labeled #7 in the family autopsy charts.
http://www.kcra.com/article/private-autopsy-of-stephon-clark-shows-he-wa...
And that's what the helicopter video shows. Shot facing forward, starts to go down, officers continue to fire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WYzv7kPYNo
The officers seemed calm when they were looking for him. They started sounding scared when Mr. Clark ran and hid in the backyard. And it seems like they kept firing until they ran out of bullets.
Mr. Clark apparently has no job history and no parents. His documented money making activities seem limited to pimping and robbery, both of which he pled guilty to. (and those were the reduced charges). And yes, it's relevant because it goes to his behavior. Behavior matters. If Mr. Clark had stopped when ordered to do so, with a Sheriff's helicopter overhead, he would have been fine.
Most people, including most Black people, do not behave like Mr. Clark. Most African-American people just get a ticket, or not, when pulled over by the cops.
There are bad cops, Sacramento cops are about as good as you're going to get. When Mr. Blow's son was stopped by a (Black) cop, nothing bad happened. Behavior matters.
5
Let's review basic facts on police shootings:
1. Blacks shot by police has declined 75% since the 1970s (from 1,200 per year to 300).
2. The black population has doubled since then so on a per capita basis the decline is closer to 90%.
3. Twice as many whites are killed by police every year as blacks (600 vs. 300).
4. Yes adjusted for population, black are shot more. But adjusted for participation in violent crime, blacks are actually much less likely to be shot.
5. This was confirmed by a black economist at Harvard who studied Houston and Florida and found that police are less likely to shoot blacks in similar situations.
This whole "recent crisis" thing is just a complete myth.
6
It's time to take away guns from cops. Cops in UK don't carry guns on the beat. Neither should American cops. They don't deserve to as they have not shown sufficient responsibility to weild it.
3
This was a terrific opinion piece by Blow. A must read for all the people who never think the police are at fault.
So many of our police force have not been trained in any other way. Everything begins with training. And, the TRUTH.
2
Mr. Blow, it is so quiet here that you would be bored witless, and it is the memory of a young boy who comes to mind. At times I see a glimpse of him in the garden. He was born to rich parents; his father, a powerful businessman, the maker of military industry, a serious man he is who likes everything to be in order.
His son is near invisible to his eye and spends his time outdoors, where all that he touches turns into flowers, and soon his father's work is halted. His son pays a price for this.
What does this have to do with the death of Stephon Clark, you might rightly ask and why a fable of other times when the world was just surfacing from WWII.
Let us bin the noise in the midst of chaos and confusion, with this President boxed into a corner, while the Nation moves forward.
Integrate our School System until College. For those of us, regardless of color and creed, unable to bear the cost of learning, there are enough Americans to give a helping hand if they care.
Divide The Police Force. Let Black officers take the reins where crime is rampant among those born on the wrong side of the track; the downtrodden among us. When White goes wrong, have White keepers of the Peace step in and take charge.
Above all, let us go in search of 'Pappy', last seen in plain view in Mudbound. The root of all Evil to be discarded along Trump's Wall, while we ask our Young, tell us what you want and remember it comes with a price.
Stephon Clark is praying for us.
Blow makes this case to be about the supreme court decision in which it ruled that “objective reasonableness” is the standard of reasonableness that we use to assess whether an action meets the standard of being reasonable in regard to the 4th and 5th amendment.
However these were not at all the facts in the case of the Clark shooting. According to NBC there is video that shows that "From around the corner, shielded by the side of the house, they again shout at the man to show his hands. Three seconds pass before one of the officers yells "Gun! Gun! Gun!" and both officers open fire. The 20 gunshots are all fired within about two seconds, according to the videos".
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sacramento-police-release-video-fat...
Therefore the standard of "objective reasonableness" had nothing to do with why the police decided to shoot.
In addition the reason that Mr. Clark is dead today is because he inexplicably decided to disregard the police order to show them his hands, which was an extremely reckless, stupid and dangerous thing to do, and for which the only possible explanation is that he did not understand the ramifications of doing so.
So perhaps a proper area of inquiry should be whether blacks are more likely to disregard crucial orders by the police, than others. And this may be due to a lack of cultural awareness of the life and death consequences of disregarding police orders.
5
The Black Lives Matter movement is based on the false premise that blacks are disproportionately victims of fatal police shootings. The movement advances this false mythology by pointing out that blacks make up a larger percent of officer-involved shooting victims than they do of the general population, but this is not the relevant demographic. The relevant statistic is the proportionality of police shootings to the number of arrests.
The Washington Post database shows that blacks, who made up 13.3 percent of the population in 2016, made up 24.2 percent of those shot and killed by police in 2016. However, the 2016 FBI Uniform Crime Report showed that blacks made up 24.2 percent of those arrested in 2016. Moreover, it showed blacks made up 37.5 percent of those arrested for violent crimes, including 52.6 percent of those arrested for murder and 54.5 percent of those arrested for robbery—the type of crimes most likely to result in police shootings.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2016/
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/topic-p...
5
Blow makes this case to be about the supreme court decision in which it ruled that “objective reasonableness” is the standard of reasonableness that we use to assess whether an action met the standard of being reasonable in regard to the 4th and 5th amendment.
However these were not at all the facts in the case of the Clark shooting. According to NBC there is video that shows that "From around the corner, shielded by the side of the house, they again shout at the man to show his hands. Three seconds pass before one of the officers yells "Gun! Gun! Gun!" and both officers open fire. The 20 gunshots are all fired within about two seconds, according to the videos".
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sacramento-police-release-video-fat...
Therefore the standard of "objective reasonableness" had nothing to do with why the police decided to shoot.
In addition the reason that Mr. Clark is dead today is because he inexplicably decided to disregard the police order to show them his hands, which was an extremely reckless, stupid and dangerous thing to do, and for which the only possible explanation is that he did not understand the ramifications of doing so. So perhaps a proper area of inquiry should be whether blacks are more likely to disregard crucial orders by the police that suspects demonstrate they do not pose a deadly threat, than whites or other groups.
The Black Lives Matter movement is based on the false premise that blacks are disproportionately victims of fatal police shootings. The movement advances this false mythology by pointing out that blacks make up a larger percent of officer-involved shooting victims than they do of the general population, but this is not the relevant demographic. The relevant statistic is the proportionality of police shootings to the number of arrests.
The Washington Post database shows that blacks, who made up 13.3 percent of the population in 2016, made up 24.2 percent of those shot and killed by police in 2016. However, the 2016 FBI Uniform Crime Report showed that blacks made up 24.2 percent of those arrested in 2016. Moreover, it showed blacks made up 37.5 percent of those arrested for violent crimes, including 52.6 percent of those arrested for murder and 54.5 percent of those arrested for robbery—the type of crimes most likely to result in police shootings.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2016/
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/topic-p...
2
I am neither white or black, I am in between from India. I also consider myself a liberal. My fiest question is why did the police looked into the backyard of this home? Did they announce before shooting and ask the man to show his hands up? Did they have any way to know if the man was black or brown or white?
I have two issues: Police came to the neighborhood where they knew that the house was "black" based upon some reason including prejudice. I believe that the police would not have shot if they thought the man was white or Asian.
I also think that the prevailing police culture is "shoot to kill" and not "shoot to capture". If they are well trained at shooting, they would try to "injure" by shooting at the hip, legs, etc. But NOOOOOOO. They shoot to kill because "the dead men don't talk" and what police say becomes the truth. Otherwise, why would anyone shoot in the back but to kill? As I recall, in the good(?) old Western shows like Gunsmoke and Bonanza, they keep saying that shooting in the back was crime or wrong for the marshal. And why were so many police? Again I repeat, one thing stands out " dead men/women don't talk, police tell is the fact", a la Trump
2
Cultures can change. The body cams, BlackLives Matter, are a beginning. I have had discussions with family members on two police issues, as one is a retired cop.
1) ‘Get on the ground’- I’ve argued that this deliberate practice to emphasize submissiveness actually creates more desire to resist, more anger, hostility, rage. White, black, man, woman- you try to dehumanize, denigrate, most of us would/should stand tall. Yeah, I know...and get beat to the ground. Or shot. This makes my point.
2) Look at the hiring process, and how many departments are short handed, desperate to find ‘good’ candidates. Good= perfect. Good means superior, squeaky clean, probably ex-military. I had to laugh at one example- in a state with legal pot, or a candidate from a legalized state- smoking pot was a no-no. Oddly, no state legislator in any legalizing state was ever thrown to the ground (with knee in the back), handcuffed, and dragged off to jail for conspiracy to violate federal law.
Want to catch burglars, hire ex-burglars ( kind of like tech companies hire...hackers). Catch car thieves? Hello- hire car thieves. Drug dealers....ditto. Won’t happen. We have super perfect cops- and then wonder why they feel entitled to....treat others as, less.
1
A tragedy. But a tragedy that plays by the rules of our national drama, in which the lives of black men, especially young black men, are routinely sacrificed to the god of white supremacism. It's certainly possible to say that this particular instance was a 'mistake' but the reasons for that 'mistake' began hundreds of years ago. They didn't happen in that moment.
It is ironic--if that's the right word--that the people in this country who can justifiably evoke the Second Amendment, that a people must be armed to protect themselves from tyranny, aren't members of the NRA: they're young black men, in the streets and in their own backyards.
1
Charles M. Blow; Your writing is so good, your presentation is so clean, your messages are so clearly developed. Your point that the Fourth Amendment ‘s interpretation has led to the phenomenon where police are afforded the ability to act more aggressively, not necessarily because they want to, but because the Law say they can, opens up a new perspective on police shootings of minorities, especially African-Americans. Inherent, insidious, racism and bigotry has been a foundational unwritten principle of the American ethos from the first step that White-Christian-Europeans (the appropriate analog to the term: African-Americans) took as they stepped off Plymouth Rock. Nixon’s and Reagan’s “Law and Order” regimes deliberately allowed that inherent racism and bigotry to manifest itself much more openly and dangerously. Your shining your light into this corner of our national psyche may just have illuminated our path towards changing America into what we need to be. The arc of Justice is long. Patriots such as you are leading it to fruition. May God bless you, Charles M. Blow.
1
Charles -
The police did not just stumble upon Clark in his grandmother's backyard. He was running from them after vandalizing the neighborhood. And you surely know that. Yet you omit that fact and create a false narrative that is more consistent with the article you wanted to write.
Also, you write as though there is an epidemic of black men being shot by police. How many whites have been shot this year by police? As of last week, the count was 80-some whites to 40-some blacks. How many pieces have you written about those white "victims"? Where is your outrage?
And, yes, the percentages of white and black victims do not match the proportions of the population. But how do they compare to overall police interactions? To crimes committed? To arrests? I do not have the statistics, but I would hazard a guess that they are not much different. Indeed, there was a study recently showing that whites are disproportionately the subjects of deadly force by police, even though blacks are disproportionately the subjects of police force. You also omit this from your article.
9
I’m sure these omissions were innocent oversights.
Charles is no different than a spokesman from the American Tobacco Institute or Big Pharma. Engaging and interesting but so biased that he has no credibility as a journalist.
If I wanted information about any issue involving race both Charles Blow and Rush Limbaugh are equally irrelevant.
6
The beginning of the rise of the modern firearms cult coincides with the ludicrous Congressionally-legislated presumption that the US is "under God". The country doesn't believe death is for real and forever, and it views the power to kill others as a God-given right.
Why oh why this happened ?
Stephon Clark a father of two was not in the street, nor in his car , or in a store with his cell phone which could look like a gun ?
Was visiting his grandmother, was in the privacy of her back yard !
Now one young life is gone , two children are fatherless and we mourn a good life lost forever and never to come back.
I weep for where this Country has gone , when Obama became the President we thought the Country in on it`s way to be one.
That was a wishful thinking.
1
Unremitting protests are vital.
A persistent light needs to be shone on racism in general. The mortal brutality we are now seeing over and over via body cams and cell phones is a useful flashpoint.
Subconscious racism is just as deadly and it is harder to eradicate or indict than the overt, conscious sort. It seems to me the only avenue of attack is by raising consciousness throughout the country.
The image of the black drug dealer, the black gangster, the black mugger is a part of our national psyche. Police aren't immune to this. Statistically blacks are stopped, are questioned, are searched, are arrested at far higher rates than whites, rates vastly disparate from the crimes committed by the respective groups, especially in the area of drug law enforcement.
The perception of the black criminal is part of our culture, and the police have their own culture overlaid, which is validated by the vast disparity in the ratio of black to white incarceration.
The police, and all of us, must become aware on a conscious level of the biases that inform our actions - especially when lives are at stake.
Protest! Prosecute! Racism and our cultural biases must be seen for what they are before abatement can have any chance.
There is no way for a police officer to know exactly how he or she will respond to a threatening situation such as a person - black or white - pointing a gun (for sure) in your direction. Maybe you shoot in self-defense because there is no alternative. But even if this person had broken car windows is that a reason to KILL HIM?
Police officers seem to know nothing but killing. I don't know how black people walk out of their houses in the morning. I really don't. I don't know how black mothers and grandmothers stand it.
What is WRONG with us? We are so sick. Is it all from our evil legacy of slavery? Is that so many of us are racists and some of us don't hesitate a second to take a black man's life. Eight shots in the back. Maybe he's guilty of breaking windows. He shouldn't have been given a death sentence.
2
Sometimes, it's tempting to chalk up tragic killings by police to mentalities of certain areas that never accepted the Civil Rights movement - but this was in the capitol of CA, just as Eric Garner died at the hands of the NYPD.
The bitter truth is that nationwide, black lives are treated more cheaply than car windows or cigarettes.
1
Until it is a given that law enforcement personnel will be given stiff sentences for unjustified murders this will continue.
Until then raise your children to be meek as lambs in the presence of those that might murder them with impunity because they are having a bad day.
Racist based fear makes the racist policeman see a gun? Does he see a gun because of his racism? Or does he say he sees a gun to cover for his racist murder? The is no gun to see.
No matter the answer to these questions, the policeman has murdered an innocent man without provocation. He must be tried and convicted of murder. There can be no justification for his act. Then these murders may end. Without holding the murderer responsible, they will continue.
The Atlantic is publishing an entire issue dedicated to the 50th anniversary of MLK Jr.’s assassination.
Two months before his murder he spoke of “The Drum Major Instinct.” He gave a simple homily at the Atlanta Ebenezer Baptist Church where he co-pastored with his father. That sermon begins to reckon with his imminent mortality, his voice heightened with the kind of emotion rarely heard in his other recorded speeches.
It was vintage late King: He fiercely articulates the imperatives of faith and citizenship with the voice of a preacher who had mastered his art.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/04/revisiting-mar...
We can hear a key feature of the black church: the call and response between preacher and congregation, with the latter’s cries of “Amen,” “Yes,” “Preach it,” and “Make it plain” adding resonance to King’s words.
America’s “tragic race prejudice,” King adds, is another example of the “perverted use of the drum-major instinct,” leading white people to falsely believe in their own supremacy, and blinding the white poor from seeing that their fate is directly linked to that of black Americans.
Ridden with severe depression in those last months. Wept as he saw a 10 y/o black boy have his legs broken by adult white men using iron rods..for the sin of attending a white school.
King felt we would NEVER see racial equality and that white supremacy would only grow.
He’s right! Has only worsened.
1
Amen, Mr. Blow. What can we do to change all this?
Charles Blow cites a New York Times article (“Study Supports Suspicion That Police Are More Likely to Use Force on Blacks”) published July 7, 2016 that said “researchers said they did not gather enough data specifically related to police shootings to draw conclusions on whether there were racial disparities when it came to the fatal confrontations between officers and civilians so in the news.” However, this article was contradicted by a subsequent New York Times article (“Surprising New Evidence Shows Bias in Police Use of Force but Not in Shootings”) published July 11, 2016 that said “They [African Americans) are more likely to be touched, handcuffed, pushed to the ground or pepper-sprayed by a police officer, even after accounting for how, where and when they encounter the police.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/upshot/surprising-new-evidence-shows-...
1
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.....with liberty and justice for ALL. Unfortunately there is no justice for all!
What can you expect when you put a gun in a human beings hand and send him out into the risky night to investigate and stop trouble? Tragedy would certainly be near the top of the list. It's almost as predictable as gasoline and a lit match. Throw in some racism and the likelihood for tragedy grows even more.
I'm too cowardly and selfish to have ever been a policeman. In fact, many of us, I think, have a visceral fear and rage against the badge: Who is he telling me what to do? Yet I call him when my house has been robbed; yeah, I'm reliably shallow, unreliable, and disgustingly hypocritical -- even to myself. Especially to myself. But here we sit: the spirit is willing to change the world into utopia (translation: nowhere), but the flesh isn't. We're emotional animals, we'll go to amazing lengths to preserve our lives, under duress we will shoot first and ask questions later, thus, policemen protect their own and are humanly inclined to mute their GoPros in a dicey situation. In all candor, I would probably do likewise, because I don't want to go to prison for doing my dangerous job.
Life's not all about me, but some of it is. My fear overcame me, I didn't take this job in order to shoot people, but the emotional heat of the situation overcame me. The other guys were shooting; maybe some of those shots were from the perpetrator.
Walk a mile in my service shoes; it's like being in battle: Bad things happen out there, but if you've got a realistic solution, I'm all ears.
1
Facts really don’t matter anymore, do they? Watch the video. He clearly has something in his hand and extends it towards the police even as they are yelling at him to drop it. As to him not knowing they were cops, get serious.
Bottom line: Do what the police tell you to do or you may get killed. That applies to everyone, not just black men.
3
Maybe he was trying to show them that all he had in his hand was a phone. Do you think that it’s easy to think straight when two excited cops have their guns pointed at you and they’re screaming at you?
3
Police unions are powerful and make it hard to discipline their members. And about half of all murders are committed by young black men, who are 3% of the population, making police officers very fearful of young black men. To reduce the murder rate, you need police unions to be weaker and young black men to behave more peacefully. Good luck with either of those things in Sacramento, California, the center of a state run by unions and now devoted to identity politics.
Every time I read one of these I think of the 1981 song by the Clash, Know Your Rights. "Murder is a crime, unless it's done by a policeman". How long it goes on is anyones guess. As soon as another young gent is murdered, buried and the protests end another one pops up. Throw that together with a school shooting and one might as well become a full time protester. Which brings us back to "you have the right, to free speech, but you aren't dumb enough to actually try it? These are your rights, know your rights.?"
We who knew Philando Castile shudder here in the Twin Cities over the police murder of Stephon Clark. We who went to high school with Phil or walked our kids through Mr. Phil’s breakfast line at school, we are crying all over again. Our children all know that gentle, responsible brown-skinned men are cannon fodder in police wars. It haunts them. It haunts us.
Mr. Blow, I personally, refuse to accept defeat. Under our current national political system, we may have to work one police department at a time. Even that is progress. We may have to protest and write editorials and fight and persuade for decades, for our lifetimes. As my husband said tonight, Philando Castile, in his short, good, valuable life, was stopped over 50 times by police—fifty times for tail lights and no turn signals and excuses excuses excuses. Who among white peoples is ever stopped 50 times for minor traffic violations before the age of 33? What Philando must have thought in those seconds before he was shot down, it haunts us. We will not allow either his death or his good life to be for nothing. No matter what it takes or how long it takes. We grieve grieve grieve for Stephon Clark and his family and community. We know there will be another and another and another before this changes. We will not stop until this changes.
159
Thank you for your strength and persistence. I am white and am sick and tired of white people making excuses for racial murder in the USA.
U.S. white people cling to firearms as their social status declines and allow continuing unnecessary, immoral and tragic casualties of innocent adults and children as "collateral damage" to their bruised egos.
And the same white people hollar and bellyache about "life" when a woman makes a decision a decision concerning her life and her body.
Unbelievable.
7
Charles, I am appalled by the number of shootings involving black men, but I don't find them in any way acceptable.
Neither do the majority of white Americans.
But we have a President who sloughs off his responsibility to end this senseless killing by insisting it's not his problem.
This is a Justice Department issue that Trump, if he had any conscience would insist they investigate.
It's deplorable how one President can erase the progress of ten before him regarding racial issues.
Just another reason why Trump needs to go, and quickly.
3
The black students of Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida, wondered aloud at a recent news conference whether the March 24 protestors would lend their outrage to Stephon Clark. No, I suspect. These same students, overlooked by the media and by their now-famous white classmates, are also concerned about overpolicing in their schools. The heavy law enforcement presence in the school potentially endangers them. White students can run to class, jostle one another, walk in one loud, organic clump. Black students will probably be stopped and searched while walking to class. White America, I maintain, is fine with the collateral damage of overpolicing as long as they feel safe.
4
Great article! it conjures up so many conflicting thought like why am I reading about another tragic police shooting, like there is no right move a black man can make before he is shot, like why was video cam turned off (should be auto suspension w/o pay), like why are we hunting each other. The only answer I can see is for people to keep reporting police wrong doing and for police departments to do a better job of hiring
1
Thank you Charles Blow. As I live just an hour from Sacto and am in the neighborhood of Fruitvale Station, Oakland, this is bitter truth indeed. Until Black people are treated by our police and sherrifs as 'innocent until proven guilty' as much as whites are, this travesty will continue. Until white people truly see Black people as folks who could be our fathers, our mothers, our daughters and sons, sisters and brothers, this travesty will continue.
3
the most important lesson which should be drummed into all young men's heads,especially, young black men,is simply to STOP RUNNING AND RESISTING
when the police order you to halt.if one
wants to bring a lawsuit later on ,at least
one will be alive to do it.of course,racism
is part of the equation, but the odds of getting killed will be greatly diminished
if one co-operates, whether one thinks
the officers are justified or not. better to
be arrested by two officers than borne to
one's grave by six pallbearers.
7
America does NOT find this acceptable at some level.
Cops murder unarmed people because they can, not because they must. Cops know they will never be held responsible for judgement, logic or restraint.
Children in grade school are held to a higher standard than cops. Frequently, grade schools assert zero tolerance for fighting, police departments have no such guidelines.
4
While the criminality of officers who shoot unarmed black men and boys goes unpunished, it does certainly undermine society's faith in all police officers. The lives of black men and boys so unjustly taken are not collateral damage--not even for the most cynical among us because when no one has any faith in the police, no one will be safe, not even white people. Black lives matter or no lives matter.
1
It sounds like Stephon Clark was a dead man regardless of what he did. He ran and was shot in the back because the police believed he had a gun. If he had stopped and faced the police while holding his cell phone - which the police thought was a gun - they would have shot him even with less hesitation - since he would be facing them. And, yes, the police will be given the benefit because they have a right to protect themselves from harm and they allegedly believed they faced an armed man. Mr. Clark with his cell phone in his hand did not stand a chance with these particular officers.
A young man is dead because he was a suspect for vandalizing cars. People - especially blacks - get shot for vandalism. Good grief! It is wrong. No justice
2
From the video posted elsewhere, the cops were summoned to someone smashing car windows. The police dispatched air and ground support. The helicopter FLIR picked up someone jumping fences. They vectored the police to the suspect. When confronted, the suspect RAN and did not obey orders. In the dark. He had an object in his hand, and was shot.
This was a justified shoot. Not a great shoot, but justified. The only hinky part was the cop telling the others to go on mute, which implies (but does prove) intent to cover up something.
For the millionth time, I counsel ANYONE: Whites, blacks, Hispanics, ANYONE. If some guy with a gun confronts you, it's YES SIR, NO SIR, COMPLY, and you will walk away to see another sunrise, 99.999% of the time. If you have an issue, take it up with the department on the back end. If you have an outstanding warrant, man up and take your medicine.
It's really not rocket science.
42
Last I heard, running away from a police officer with something in your hand wasn't a crime subject to summary execution without trial. But maybe America isn't the country it once was.
48
Perhaps we're talking about a different case, but what I viewed was a police officer yelling, "Stop. Show me your hands. Gun!", followed by shots fired in about one second. Unless he was the comic book character The Flash he had no time to react, thus making their claim that he turned toward them in a 'combat stance' ludicrous. What was he threatening to do, call them on his cell phone? Sort of tough to do while being shot in the back. And yes, I do agree that they likely went on mute in order to agree on a defense strategy to avoid prosecution. But they need not worry. Police officers are rarely prosecuted and convicted for their fearful overreactions.
47
No! It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees. Someone, ANYONE, with a gun has a grave responsibility. They must have an equally strict liability.
13
I am a white mother of a biracial son. His father is not from the United States. When my son was about 12, I realized that I had to speak with him about dealing with the police. He is an adult now but every time I see an incident like this, I realize how much work we have to do as a society.
5
Nothing will change in the police culture, because with exception of the criminal class, most Americans are authority worshipers (i.e. police=God). Most police have an authoritarian mindset (i.e. would prefer this country to be a [right wing] dictatorship). Add in all the racism and clearly there is no solution to this problem.
Charles keep the focus on the main problem at hand. Demonizing the police is a losing strategy.
It’s one the current administation would gladly take on. This is how they won the White House.
With 800,000 police and their families your looking at a potential voting block of ten million voters. And demonizing them is not only wrong but gives Republicans the votes they need to win.
And of the thousands of murders that happen every year in America what percentage are you fighting for? These things happen in our society because they’re too many guns, and they happen to all races. And you know that whites are killed more by police than blacks. And you do notice that we never hear the story of a white person being killed by police in unwarranted fashion? It does happen. But it’s never a national story. What about the woman that shot at over 150 times and killed by police in a car chase because she bought Drugs. She was white, had no gun, no record, no protest. In other words she had no excuse other then Police folly for her situation.
What I’m saying is first things first. Let’s get rid of this administration and not give them the fodder they need to stay in power. Republicans and Russians both infiltrated the Bernie camp and BLM and they know how to fight this war.
1
Excellent analysis. This is precisely how fascism destroys a Democracy. Slowly but surely and behind the veil of legality. Due process is eroding every day. Whether in the street or in a "kangaroo" Court that government establishes to undermine or circumvent the Constitution, such as the USCFC acting on vaccine injury to protect corporations. Be it states or local prosecutions that convict people with sham representation, or the rules by executive order rather than Congressional legislation, our rights are being eroded. Just like fascist Germany did it. Slowly but surely, until it was too late.
A distant second to the issue of racism here, is the issue of proportionality of response. Should anyone ever be shot dead as the result of breaking a window or driving with a broken tail light or running from the police for some unknown reason? How has pulling his/her gun in the face of such “crimes” become the acceptable police response?
1
The way Charles and many of the commentariat look at this is -- the victim was quietly walking down the street carrying a bible and wearing his eagle scout badge helping several little old ladies across the street when the cops came out of nowhere and for no reason shot him. Oh, they'd been sitting around the police station eating doughnuts when someone said, "hey, I'm bored, let's go kill someone."
Is that the way it really happened? Don't think so. Does anyone who is busily beating up on cops think that the victim might have some culpability here? No one wants anyone to be killed by cops, but the best way to avoid that kind of tragedy is to avoid criminal behavior and when confronted by a cop to obey their commands. Maybe this was an avoidable tragedy -- one the cops could have avoided. They could have avoided it by refusing to protect and serve those who live in neighborhoods afflicted by crime. Or they could have said -- hey, this is to much work, let's call it a night -- and let the victim continue doing what he was doing. Or maybe they could have avoided it by taking the chance that he didn't really have a gun and see if he shot at them first.
Or maybe it could have been avoided if the victim hadn't been out vandalizing the neighborhood, hadn't run when the cops confronted him, and had obeyed their orders.
1
Mr. Blow, you are a brilliant guy and a terrific writer and your voice is an important one. But when comes to these horrible shootings, you sometimes appear to lose your mind. You write: "Each protest is undoubtedly about the case at hand, but ... It is not a 'local matter' ... . No. You're wrong. It is most emphatically a "local matter" insofar as "local" in this context means rooted in the FACTS. Only when the facts have been credibly established through careful investigation, and these facts establish an unjustified shooting, does it become a national matter for all the reasons you state, touching upon historic and still virulent racism. If, on the other hand, the facts establish a justified shooting -- then, if you believe in due process and the rule of law, it remains a local matter. Not about racism but about cops not wanting to get killed. In this case, tragic as it is to lose a young man over some stupidity like vandalism, it was reasonable of the cops to think they had cornered a guy who was out committing crimes and, because he had run, was committed to not getting caught. It was dark (enough of this "grandmother's back yard" business -- the relevant fact is that was dark), and sadly Clark had an object that in the dark might have been a gun. It wasn't. The cops made a mistake. But the ONLY question at this point is whether the mistake was made in good faith. We'll see. Until we know, the decent thing is to withhold judgment, not pile on.
4
What we forget is that cops are cops, not cops, prosecutors, judges and juries. When they kill a man whom they believe may have committed a crime they are assuming all those roles. That may be reasonable when lives are at stake, for example when they kill a school shooter. But vandalism is not such a crime. In the heat of the chase, the police seem to lose all sense of proportion, particularly when the person whom they see as a criminal is black. When you realize how frequently they assume that the person whom they are chasing is armed and how often they are flat out wrong, you have to wonder what is terribly wrong with how we train our police.
1
I just don’t understand why no one talks about the fact that gun culture has lead to these deaths . White man with a gun who has shot and killed 9 people in a church is taken into custody. White student who has killed 17 students and teachers with an assault weapon is arrested. Black man with a cell phone is shot in the back. Why is the NRA not speaking up for this man’s rights? In the 60s the Black Panthers were murdered in their beds by the FBI because they dared to carry guns. Who is defending their second amendment rights?
107
Two of the situations you mention happened in broad daylight, and neither suspect resisted arrest (also in daylight). In this case, it was pitch black, the suspect ran, and did not comply with lawful orders.
The narrative is that blacks are being gunned down, but according to the WP's police shooting database, 54% of police shootings involve white suspects, and only 26% black suspects. The latter is proportionally much higher than the black population in this country (17%), but then again, as a population, blacks commit 62% of violent crime (BJS, National Crime Victimization Survey, 2012-2013), in an epidemic of violence affecting the "inner city" and the projects.
But we don't like to talk about any of that.
This was tragic, but completely avoidable.
2
MPC: di u not read the "Hans Gruber" (that name is very funny & from the 2 movies ="Our Man Flint" and "Die Hard") above? As a sage said to me, "testing limits with people who have guns is a very bad idea."
1
I think you have shown why few people blame "gun culture", unless you are using "gun culture" as a misleading euphemism for "racism". Plenty of people with guns can get arrested peacefully, whether they did something horrible or not. If someone wants to comply without a confrontation, we all win. It is not the officer's job to judge or punish anyone.
If police develop a "shoot first" reputation for any situation, these two murderers (and plenty of future suspects) might choose to shoot some cops or random civilians instead of surrendering. One might even conclude that any officer contributing to a reputation for rapid escalation to deadly force endangers every other officer. Some suspects might at some point decide that they too would rather be "judged by 12 than carried by 6".
No one is defending the rights of someone from the 1960s because it was fifty years ago. The NRA at that time was very different, and today it does not speak for "gun culture" or the majority of gun owners. Someone with a house full of guns did not shoot this victim, officers selected and trained by the people and issued one pistol did.
We need to demand better of ourselves and our society (in this case, the police) than we did then. This means making police interactions less deadly, period. The worst outcome possible in this situation was not someone getting away with breaking car windows, it was someone losing their life. Starting the conversation anywhere else borders on immoral.
5
My husband told me about running into police in his backyard. It was at night and the entrance to his apartment was in the back of the building. As he came around the building there were two cops with their guns aimed at him. Apparently they were looking for someone. My husband is white. If he had been black he would be dead.
3
Yes this country is awash in gun violence. However, the footage from the helicopter appears to show Clark acting in a very strange manner. Again, the facts will need to be seen before judging.
2
The death penalty is alive and well in this country.
The “justice system “ is not.
Are black males the only victims of scared, trigger-happy, over-reacting police? I ask, not to minimize the disproportionate suffering of black victims and their families, but to suggest that addressing this as a policing problem instead of a "black people's problem" might get us closer to solutions and save lives. I know that white people and other races also get killed by police in situations that could have been handled differently with no loss of life. Rarely do these cases get much notice. But if their families and friends joined with the black families and friends, and the rest of us joined them, there is a better chance that all of us would come out alive when we encounter police.
4
Nothing will change if the police are not prosecuted and serve jail time. The lust for blood by the people of this country is astounding whether for real or in our popular culture. I'm shocked we don't have public executions yet. The attendance and viewership ratings would be immense. We are not a peaceful nation, we are war mongering.
The reality is most Americans, especially white Americans, do in fact feel little remorse when police officers kill black Americans. The assumption is the killing of African Americans is simply an unfortunate reality, and as long as cops are not killing young white Americans, these trajedies will simply remain unfortunate, rather than tragedies.
It's almost as if for most white Americans, the rationale is, while the killing of "this" unarmed black person might be unfortunate, "we" shouldn't blame the cops because "we" all know that there are plenty of "them" that are in fact criminals, and are "deserving" of this tragedy. The shooting was really "the fault of the victim because" because some of "them" really do commit crimes so "we" can't blame the officers for reacting with a higher level of force. So "let's" give the officer the benefit of the doubt and stop blaming these heros for killing African Americans. These innocent victims need to tell their communities to get their act together, otherwise what else can they expect? The power is in their hands.
2
As a LEO when you work Graveyard it is dark. Watch the body cam video. Can you tell what was in Mr Clark's hands? The call from 911 dispatcher was a subject was smashing vehicle windows. The LEOs were informed a weapon of some type was involved in the call for service. This information is critical.
If the dispatcher fails to inform us that a weapon was used by a suspect, we go to the call minus a key piece of information. The reporting party provides the dispatcher the details.
Sacramento PD arrives at the call and begins trying to locate Mr Clark. Look at the video. The backyard is dark. The flashlight provides the only light. Mr Clark is lawfully ordered to show his hands and get on the ground. He did not comply. One officer says loudly Mr Clark has a gun. Keep in mind the dispatcher information was the subject was smashing car windows.
Graham v. Connor was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
If you doubt the difficulty those of us in LE face in calls of this nature on Graveyard, I ask you to watch Chris Hayes on YouTube, when he tried the LE simulator. Then imagine yourself in that situation when it is dark.
Then watch the video of OIS in which Stephon Clark was killed. How would you have reacted? LEOs must make a decision in these rapidly evolving situations in a very short time span.
3
Just as we answer the death of an unarmed black man with a collective shrug of again, we do so just like we answer the school shooting of innocent children with a collective shrug of again.
Americans clearly have a system of evaluating what lives are worthy of serious protection that is unspoken yet determines how we behave towards each other.
Wether the laws and actions of our government and its agents are based in racism, bigotry or sexism, they are motivated to marginalize and keep at bay all who are not white, christian and male.
Laws are designed to make sure that blacks, immigrants, women and children are as uncomfortable as possible within our umbrella of equality.
We live in a daily, toxic, WE-THEY culture, and world. Which violates created, selected, "the other." Which all of us enable. In various ways. In which semantic, and numerical, surrealism are used as descriptions. Which can never adequately explain words and deeds which never should BE! Expressed or not. Consider: "objectively reasonable"- The latter term presumes a range; the former term presumes an either/or state.Both are human or instrument judgments. Both are inherently flawed! "collateral damage" -presumes types, levels and qualities of uncertain, random and uncontrolled outcomes, which are the dimensions of reality!One can add "numerical- personification," expressed as body-count- bags. Of former live-named-people.Each with various human and societal characteristics.Now nameless- drowned/dessert-dehydrated entities.Some escaping oppression. Or enlisted/drafted soldiers' bodies, and not BEINGS, returned to a discriminating-less-than accepting HOMEland. Or other dehumanized (ethnicity, religious practices/
beliefs, gender,gender-identity, etc.) As "objectively reasonable" as socially watched and approved lynchings.Concentration camps!Camps for illegals today. In so many places. The semantic cop-out of "split second judgments," when one takes the time to compare with tradition-anchored, timeless, institutionalized, legally-underpinned hatreds.Exclusions.Marginalizations. Dehumanizations.The "8 bullets" targeted menschlichkeit, not just this one young no-more- BEING
1
Not to diminish the importance of racist policing or the disproportionate death toll among African American men, but a big part of the problem is surely the tactics police are taught or allowed to employ. A mentally ill white man was gunned down by police three blocks from my home when he failed to obey orders to drop his “weapon”—a pitchfork he had taken from a neighbor’s garage. The only person he was plausibly threatening was the officer who chose to confront him, and who translated his failure to drop the pitchfork into a mortal threat justifying several gunshots. “Resisting arrest” should not be a capital offense.
What is tragic is that two young sons are fatherless, their grandmothersonless. Shot eight times in the back for what? Stephon Clark was cornered in his
grandmother’sbackyard as a suspect in breaking of car windows, but with helicopters overhead and guns drawn
this scene looked more like the military hunting down the Viet Cong. What’s worse is that the police so feared for their lives that after shooting their volleys into Stephon Clark’s fleeing body, they waited eight crucial minutes before calling in for medical assistance. His so called weapon a cellphone led to the police shutting off their sound recordings as they figured out how to justify their joint execution. Who ordered the helicopter anyway and why such high priority? “Until the philosophy that holds one man’s race superior, and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere there is war” as Bob Marley wrote.
1
Viewed from afar, this sort of thing looks a lot like a way of reminding blacks of who's boss in America. Collateral damage? It's more a callous disregard for life and black lives in particular, in which such killings are met with a mere shrug of the shoulders, or even a muttered remark to the effect that is was "no great loss".
I am sorry on behalf of all white people. These monstrous acts continue, and the disease of racism goes deeper. It is painful, yet we white people must deal with our legacy and responsibility in this if anything is to change. No more justifications or convenient analyses. Note to white readers (and self)--do not tolerate any form of racism in any circumstance--ever. It's the very least we can do.
My question is "Why do these police departments keep hiring all these officers who are afraid of their own shadows?" Every single shooting is because they "feared for their lives." Let's call it what it really is -- being afraid of black men. I think police depts. need to take a better look at their hiring/training practices and weed out those who show biases, as well as authoritarian tendencies. Today, it's the black man; tomorrow it will be the peaceful protestor, and so it will continue.
1
Let's put police reform aside. The real question is who controls there police and who determines how we expect the police to perform.
Race is clearly a factor. But half the officers who killed Freddie Grey were Black. Cities like Detroit and Atlanta have for years had majority black police departments that behave the same as when the were majority white.
Here are a few things we should require of OUR police:
No more marajuana arrests.
Increase social services the for homeless with police only in a backup role.
A special unit for any call about a person with mental disorders. Again the first responder should be a mental health professional, with police in a backup role.
No use of deadly force when the reported crime is a misdemeanor or the suspect is clearly fleeing and not posing a threat to an officer. (I'd rather have a guilty man get away than an innocent man killed)
Review of all use of delay force policies and consider non-lethal methods as well as shoot to wound rather than shoot to kill.
1
Anyone is is target for an illegal police shooting in the USA. The problem, in my view, is not individual police officers, but the institution itself. The police attract many good young officers but ultimately, individuals have to conform.
Police are often quick to shoot and ask questions later knowing that they will likely face no consequences. Lawyers and judges are part of this money-driven tragedy. And so are we, the populace, who are reluctant to indict or convict.
Personally, I have never had a problem with an officer, but video has exposed the lying and criminal actions of our system. Say the wrong thing to an officer and you could be next.
This has been going on forever but the police covered things up from the general public. Now it in on us, the public, to change the culture of what is a self-serving system.
It is up to us, the citizens, to change the culture.
1
As long as officers carry guns these incidents will continue to happen. While racial bias is a huge problem, we have seen that being white and female won't protect you against being wrongfully killed by the police.
The proper use of a gun in these situations requires the officers to see the future. Needless to say this is not possible. If we all give up our collective fantasies of guns being a reasonable defensive weapon, perhaps we can do more to invest in alternative technology that can be used to prevent violence rather than perpetrate it.
1
Here's a roundabout way of tackling this problem: Congress should pass a law stipulating that if a police department fires an officer "for cause" (as, I believe, it did with the Baton Rouge officer responsible for the death of Alton Sterling) he or she may *not* be rehired by any other police department in any capacity. As I recall the officer who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland had already been discharged by another police department when he was hired by the Cleveland police department.
We are dealing here with only symptoms.
As a young white kid I broke windows and did other malicious things. They were bad acts. I received appropriate punishment. These actions were considered acts of young people, while not condoned, didn't rise to the level of life threatening transgressions.
The larger picture here is that the police responses to situations with black males in particular, the frequency of these events, and the lack of any systemic change in the system, indicates that we have never dealt with the long standing history of race in this culture.
In South Africa after apartheid, there was a "truth and reconciliation " commission in which the history and impact of the system were brought forward so that authentic healing could begin. Individual stories underscored the tremendous human toll apartheid exacted on people on both sides of that issue.
As long as we continue to ignore the root causes of our prejudices and racism, and the dehumanizing impact of the current system, these issues and tragedies will continue to plague us.
And the police only represent and act on the values we hold as a society.
We can't train or legislate ourselves out of this dilemma.
5
Whenever a suspect is being confronted by the police, the use of deadly force should be the very last resort, regardless of the race of the suspect. Life is too precious to be wasted, an idea that seems to have lost some of its power over the past few decades.
The police should be trained to avoid force whenever possible. If that means that they back off and call for reinforcements, then that's what they do. To support that idea, the use of deadly force should be reviewed by an independent board that includes members of the police, the judiciary and the community. Life is worth the effort.
Also, it would help the police if our nation were not drowning in a sea of guns. I don't blame the police for being nervous when facing a suspect, knowing that the suspect may be carrying a weapon. Isn't it time that we accepted the idea that a civilized nation in the 21st century doesn't need to arm its citizens? Isn't it time to repeal the 2nd Amendment?
3
Dear Joseph Thomas,
I agree with you, but repealing the 2nd is dangerous. If nobody can own guns, then only the government and criminals will have guns. That would make both much more powerful. We already have many police and sheriffs abusing their authority, getting rid of the 2nd would only make that worse.
However, we can do a lot about gun control without repealing the 2nd, and limiting ownership, offering buy-backs, increasing regulation, and so on, would reduce the numbers of guns out there.
I totally agree with your comments - but the Police response is not just about fear of guns. Most often it’s white people who carry guns - often openly - and more often use it as a threat against authority. However, the cops are well trained by now not to shoot armed white civilians - because they know the consequences will be severe. The same restraint is not seen for armed or unarmed blacks because they know that the consequences for shooting the minority are minor if any. THAT’S what needs to change. The consequences for ANY shooting should be the same - black or white. That’s what the 4th and 5th Amendment meant - although not enforced in present day USA.
1
In 2012, 2,228 teenagers died in motor vehicle accidents, 6 a day. The numbers have risen every year, and even though we know the dangers of distracted driving, we let drivers be subjected to more and more distractions. Right now, there are there are over 1300 Superfund sites, another 53 proposed, and countless places like Flint where people are being poisoned by their water, air, or soil. One of four young people is going hungry. Over 2 million are homeless, about 1 in 30. Many die from exposure and violence, and countless others die from lack of medical services. We run some of the biggest, worst pipelines to prison in the world, abetted by gross neglect and injustice of every kind, causing countless deaths never reported to the public. Police officers kill nearly a thousand people a year, including unarmed and innocent people, and we don’t know how many because we have no effective national reporting system.
Right now, millions of young people are moving toward death or already dying; but they get little or no attention, no massive demonstrations, because they’re the wrong race, or they’re poor, or they live in the wrong place, or their parents or communities have the wrong politics, or, maybe simply, they aren’t dying the right way to get national attention.
6
If the police in question are either that racist or that afraid of ensuing violence, they should not be policemen. In either case, they should lose their jobs. Shutting off the camera/microphone in my view is a clear indication of guilt or coverup.
12
Policemen know that all they have to do is yell "gun gun gun" and then say later "I feared for my life" to literally get away with murder. I am a 65-year-old white woman and I say "enough is enough".
216
JaneM: And this 75 year old white woman agrees with you. Enough is enough. I've had a few speeding tickets in my life, but it never occurred to me that I might get the shot because the officer thought my cell phone was a gun. If the police are so afraid of young black men, maybe they need to get another job.
17
And this 78 y o person, says do not run from or argue with people who have guns in their hands (if you want to stay alive."
I have a 55 year old brother who is handicapped. He has Asperger's which means he's a high functioning autistic individual. I'm his older sister. I worry that if someone complains about him to the police for some reason he'll be shot and killed because he doesn't act like a normal person.
These killings make a mockery of the idea that the police are here to protect and serve us.
4
I agree "objective reasonableness" is not a reasonable standard for determining the appropriateness of action when applied to police use of force. Our policy is flawed and therefore our outcomes are flawed as well.
However, I'm wondering what policy correction would produce a legal standard with better outcomes. We aren't debating whether police force is sometimes requisite. We're trying to figure out how to apply that force by means that are both equitable and accountable. Imagine a utopia where "objective reasonableness" no longer exists. What measure would you use to judge the appropriateness of a police officer's actions instead?
I think most Americans would happily vote for policymakers to end the pattern of police violence against innocent citizens. I have yet to hear many good suggestions about how accomplish this goal. Cameras are one thing but, as noted, cameras don't necessarily change the culture of oppression. How should we do that?
I'm perfectly willing to listen to suggestions.
3
Make sure that the process for determining use of Police force is impartial, unbiased and does not favor the cops over the victims. Do not differentiate because of victims race.
And make sure that the consequences for transgressions are REALLY strong. No “rap on the knuckle”.
1
Mr. Blow, I was a cop for 29 years, but I've been retired for 12 and so probably can't fairly comment on present conditions.
But what was a help during my career, was that the people of San Francisco--beginning in the 1970s pulled out all the stops to have the PD be more responsive to the Community than it had been.
Our Department got the message from the Chief on down, that change was expected.
While there was a lot of push back from people of my background (white, blue-collar guys), we really began to hear that advancement and all of the other aspects of our careers was going to be greatly dependent upon how we acted with ALL members of the community.
I think it really helped. I saw guys who had seemed to be die-hard rednecks, buy into the "new" tenets of Community Policing--because good assignments and promotions would come from that.
It wasn't a perfect Department, but racial minorities, women, and gays were to be treated with respect; we were reminded constantly.
And as those folks began coming aboard as officers, most all of us became better cops because our eyes (and hearts) opened a bit wider.
Yes, there were some bad actors and some bad times, but from this cop's perspective, I think we pretty much came around.
And in turn, the people of San Francisco gave us raises, better pensions, and all the other thank you's that made most of us think hard when we got angry, frustrated, or scared. The people had our backs.
May it happen everywhere.
235
@Jocko Rogers
San Francisco's working class white kids went to junior college, took criminology or fire sciences, got into the SF Fire Dept if they had family contacts, put in 20 years working 3 days a week, retired with a generous pension, and started a second career, usually property development. If you didn't get in the Fire Department, you became a cop for a few years and then moved to the Fire Dept. Going from police to fireman was a rite of passage, with generous lifelong income and health benefits by the time you're in your 40's and poised for a 2nd career. Cop meant Irish or Italian.
SFPD is notorious for zero solved or cleared homicides, annual vice raids on porn theaters, harassing gay men, collecting overtime for film shoots, and never responding to 911 calls that didn't come from Pacific Heights. Harassing minority and women cops with lynch ropes and bloody menstrual pads left in lockers was a favored pastime.
Even though the SFPD rarely bothered with actual police work, they did manage to shoot and kill their share of Blacks, one or two a year as recently as 2016. The last police chief was fired two years ago because of his inability to stem police killings of Blacks.
San Francisco now pays police officers over $100k to start. The department is more diverse but balkanized by race, sexual orientation, gender, old school and progressive.
Don't romanticize SFPD.
They still fire 20 warning shots through the left lung if you're Black.
Watching this video, I'm pretty sure that not even a computer algorithm attached to a robot arm holding a cell phone could have responded quickly enough to the officers' demands before they started shooting.
9
Several phrases and sentences in Mr. Blow's column particularly stand out.
"We the public ... elect those policymakers" who tolerate and abet this endless repetition of racially targeted assassination.
As a result of this and other national social blights, we can only assume that the frequent shooting of unarmed young black males is "a casualty of American moral paucity."
There is no other rational conclusion but that "these shootings keep happening because, on some level, America finds them acceptable."
Indeed, this is "a national disgrace" in a graceless era. It won't stop until we face up to it in a manner that releases us to do something about it.
Thank God for the moral leadership that we find today at the top of our national political pyramid.
2
WHY is our system protecting these murderers? Is it because they have lost control. Is it that they can't find acceptable candidates, and must take the ones with psychological problems, including fear, hatred, self doubt, and anger? This is supposed to be a country that is governed by the Rule of Law. But, cops are not being restrained by the rule of law. OR the Rule of Law is just plain wrong? Every cop who shoots an unarmed person should suffer the same penalties that any of us would suffer. Indict and convict.
5
There are too many police shootings period. Too many cops kill in too many circumstances that should have been avoided and with a threshold for killing that was far too low. About 95% of shootings are killings of males, often young males. That's the group most at risk. And about twice as many whites are killed each year as African Americans. That's a lot of young white men and a lot of suffering all around, for a long time. This is a national problem, a problem for all of us.
African Americans have taken the lead for us because race is a great exacerbator of police violence. African Americans are about three times more likely than whites to be victims of police violence. Police violence against Blacks also plays out in the context of historical violence against Black people. It's a continuation of a cursed part of our history.
The closer you are to these killings, the more they matter. That's the truth of BLM. After my student and friend Wayne Holden, a young white man, was shot six times and killed by San Diego Police about 30 years ago now, not long after he had failed a notorious attitude check, nothing was the same for me.
The work to stop these killings belongs to us all. We can save the lives of our sons, sons of every race, and we can fight back the cursed part of our history that continues to threaten us. We can do it together.
4
The really lethal combination is an abundance of guns and the racism embedded in a country that can't stop thinking black males are more dangerous than other males. Eliminate just one factor, and there would be a reduction in unnecessary shootings. Racism will die eventually, but it will be a long, slow death. Maybe we should consider a more timely remedy, and put far more severe restrictions on guns.
5
Eric -- Blacks commit homicides at a rate that is 7x that of whites.
2
Race is a significant factor no doubt, but that would not explain why a higher percentage of people with mental disabilities are shot by police as well. We have devolved back to the wild west where shoot to kill knowing there will be no serious consequences later is the operating law enforcement directive. Police should be held to a much higher standard than they are today and there need to be consequences for bad actions. This type of government-facilitated killing only happens in the U.S. and totalitarian states. Western democracies have no similar problem. Why?
5
Stephon Clark (2018).
Philando Castile (2016).
Alton Sterling (2016).
Walter Scott (2015).
Samuel DuBose (2015).
Laquan McDonald (2014).
Tamir Rice (2014).
What do these five men--and a teenager and a boy--all have in common? All are black. All were shot to death by policemen "in the line of duty."
The human sacrifices, Mr. Blow, happens because America believes in them. It is as though as the Greek chorus of America, its ragged cries rising to the heavens--hovers over the official "proceedings" of review and demands a death--only not theirs.
Words and phrases and sentences and paragraphs are written into police bylaws and municipal and county operating procedures, and stamped with the indelible imprimatur of law, all designed to exonerate a police officer for a homicide, a homicide that has questionable circumstances written all over it.
Police unions and "review boards" are so quick to defend an accused policeman--and sometimes policemen. The citizens who pay the salaries to empower mayors and board presidents who decide policing policy, like Pontius Pilate, wash their hands of the matter, leaving the gore and blame to others.
These murders do not happen in the suburbs. They do not happen to white men and teenagers and boys. They happen in places where the edges are not smooth and where police draw their weapons before they get out of their squad cars. Some with murder in their hearts and minds, not to mention in their eyes and their hands.
America demands this.
1
What happened is a terrible shame. We really do not know what would have happened if these police officers encountered a white man in the same situation. My question is, does anyone really believe that these two officers woke up that morning with the idea of "let me kill someone today", whether he/she be white or black? I do not think so. I am not advocating that what they did was proper. My question is "what would you/I have done in similar circumstances?
How many of us would want the responsibility of being a police person? Mr. Blow may write all he wants about the disparity of killing blacks or whites or minorities by police persons. However, before he does, I would suggest he spend, perhaps, a month riding with police officers, at night, and really view the job through their eyes and actions.
It is easy to condemn those who have committed a horrible deadly act, whether it be justified or not.
What happened is a tragedy. God forbid it should happen again. However, before we pass judgement, stop and think. What would we do "in their shoes"? It's dark. The suspect has something that resemble a gun in his hand. A split second decision has to be made.
Now, they will have to live with that. Again a terrible shame, that, perhaps could have been avoided.
I, for one, would not want to be the police officers in that, or any encounter.
2
A blue uniform is a choice, my skin is not.
When I was fourteen I was mugged at knife-point.
When I was sixty-five I was mugged with a gun to my head.
When one of my students was gunned-down by a black-man -- for looking at him the wrong way -- in the 1970s -- I learned America continues to abandon efforts to create a fair and just society.
The underclass has been abandoned by the rich and powerful.
We are still working on it, but "law-and-order" politicians, do not care that it's "getting worse" for the last 47 years -- because --- they are -- doing "just fine."
The root causes do not concern them -- because --- they are -- doing "just fine."
2
Each killing of an unarmed black man is a local issue. But each much rarer case of a police officer murdered gets national attention and response.
And Stand Your Ground laws attempt to make the same "objective reasonableness" standard (read: He was black, of course I was scared, even if I initiated the hostile confrontation) applicable to every ordinary citizen with a gun, not just police.
1
What is not acceptable is that when most African Americans are facing arrest , they resist or flee. In this case there was no reason for the suspect to flee and require a helicopter and two policemen to chase him in a quiet neighborhood.
Yes the police used too much force and yes fleeing and disobeying the authorities can have dire consequences
3
Before being shot he was allegedly breaking car windows and when spotted by a police helicopter the cops witnessed him breaking the sliding glass doors to a house. Police on the ground were directed to Clark’s location, and chased him on foot to the back yard of his grandmother’s house where he failed to drop something in his hand (it turned out to be a cellphone) and was shot to death. While it is true that a person should not receive a death penalty for breaking car windows, breaking a glass door to a house, and running from police, the fact is that if Clark was not breaking the law in these ways and had stopped when the police first told him to, he would not have been shot. Being a career criminal and committing crimes other than murder or attempted murder is not a good reason to die, but Clark had a huge role in the outcome of this sad and undeniably tragic incident.
A criminal since his teen years, the 22 year old had a juvenile record of grand theft, robbery and receiving stolen property. As an adult, Clark pled guilty to felony armed robbery, assault, and child endangering in one case, and “pimping” a prostitute in another case for which he pled no contest. In a third adult case, Clark was arrested for domestic violence for punching a woman in the face, and in yet another case from this year, Clark was again arrested for domestic violence. Why do people make a hero out of someone who has assaulted women?
7
Well put. This person was a career criminal who played with fire.
It is unfortunate that the “although he did XYZ he didn’t deserve to die” disclaimer has to be added every time someone makes an observation like this one.
People who drive while intoxicated don’t deserve to die but they have entered that realm where the possibility has greatly increased.
2
Wow so that justifies his death?
Beats electing them President, though.
My best friend is a cop. Through him & my work I have met other officers. Here's their viewpoint. Most cops spend their entire career without ever firing a shot. That's their goal. No responsible officer starts their day hoping they will have a fatal confrontation. What's not reported is the millions of times cops have shown heroic restraint... now more than ever. Most officers will tell you there're many instances during their career when they could have justifiably shot someone, but didn't. We are not cursed with a racist vicious police force. That's a lie & anyone who says that is a liar. Police have a crucial, sometimes impossible job. They are too often asked to fix social problems we've ignored & let fester. They take an oath to uphold & enforce the law. They take on a responsibility that we do not. Often they deal with situations that "the rest of us" can't even imagine. Second, "minor" offenses have a way of escalating to life threatening situations that aren't predictable by highly trained police, without peering through the lens of 20/20 hindsight. That illegal over-tinted window can sometimes lower to reveal the barrel of a shotgun during a "routine" traffic stop. If we restrict the use of deadly force too much then the end result is more cops will be killed. That's unavoidable. The police need more training in de-escalation & threat assessment. That will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. So far our cities won't fund this. Until they do nothing will change.
9
We don't pay the police enough. The departments are struggling to find people to fill positions and then we expect the best and the brightest to risk their lives when we don't care enough to compensate them fairly. So, we end up with control freaks and others who would not be able to look themselves in the mirror and say they are not afraid of non-white Americans. We encourage fear in this country and then we expect our police to be fearless. Let's find a better human for these jobs and pay them a better wage for our collective safety.
The area of Sacramento in which this shooting occurred is generally poor and black with a lot of crime. So it sort of stands to reason that the cops deployed to the "scene" were in fear for their lives. The problem, though, is that the cops put themselves in that frightening situation. What's the big hurry in chasing down a suspect in the dark with guns drawn? You've already got the eye in the sky--he's not going to escape. Wait for the canine unit. Something. Anything but what they actually did and do.
4
That the police officers turned off their body cams is reason to fire them. When I see these videos (too numerous to bear), I am ashamed. This is not policing; it is assassinations.
5
and this all happens where guns force split second decisions - often bad - which have unremediable consequences.
2
What happened to tasers? And conversation?
Is an armed posse in a neighborhood at night really safe for anyone?
5
I thought this today. Somehow, it's become normalized that young black men are being shot and killed by the police. We hear about new shootings all the time. It never stops. We never see any clear reasoning behind these killings - they seem bizarre and vicious. And yet the police are never held accountable.
On and on and on.
Was this always happening in this country and we are only aware of now because so many people have cell phones and can film the circumstances around these shootings?
This is madness. There will be a reckoning for this someday.
6
Despite the protests and activism, Americans believe that a certain amount of killing of unarmed people by the police is normal.
Also, a certain amount of killing of students in school is normal. Upsetting, and requires thoughtsandprayers, but normal.
Same thing applies to shootings at home: tragic, but dead spouses and kids are an unavoidable result of the Second Amendment.
The NRA has convinced our government of this, and we all are required to go along, since no amount of killing seems to move our representatives to do anything about it except recommend that more people (the normal ones) have guns.
And, of course, thoughtsandprayers.
6
Protests don't change laws. Laws are made in state legislatures. Law enforcement on every level - police chiefs' associations, line-officer associations, state sheriffs' associations, deputies' associations, individual chiefs and sheriffs, district attorneys' associations, and individual district attorneys - has a huge presence in state houses. While the public demonstrates outside capitols, law enforcement gets what it wants inside. Vote if you want change! Vote!
2
There will be an official autopsy. However, the audio portion of the video alone will exonerate the police officers if they are charged. It clearly indicates the officers thought Clark had a gun. According to the Sacramento Bee, “A helicopter from the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department was also dispatched to the scene, and officers inside told police on the ground that a person could be seen in a backyard of a nearby home, using a crowbar to break a window. The suspect reportedly took off on foot, according to police reports, stopping to look into vehicle windows before hopping a fence into the backyard of another home.” If brought to trial, the police would produce the video taken from helicopter as evidence Clark was a dangerous person. In addition, the Los Angeles Times reports that “Clark had a criminal history, four cases in four years that included charges of robbery, pimping, and domestic abuse.” He was still on probation from the 2014 robbery when shot.
5
America is circling the drain. Stephon is the next in a seemingly never ending procession of murdered unarmed black men.
America suffers from two fatal "character" flaws; institutionalized racism (and other ethnic or race hatred) and institutionalized economic inequality, through tax, housing and education policy. Until we deal with these, we continue circling the drain.
4
Blow notes the Graham case, but he doesn't note the extent to which courts have justified and encouraged cops to shoot first and NOT ask questions.
Here, a public defender reveals a typical (but fortunately not deadly) example.
“Why did you draw your gun?” How the law encourages police brutality
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/31/why_did_you_draw_your_gun%E2%80%9D_how_t...
Great column Mr. Blow, and I agree nearly fully. It's a terrible fact of life in today's America, that men are incredibly more likely to be shot by police than women. Within that larger massive discrepancy, black men are more likely to be shot by police than any other ethnicity.
Unfortunately, the "objectively reasonable" standard is what law enforcement is holding to, to justify this slaughter of men and sparing of women. I don't suggest that more women should be gunned down, but law enforcement should definitely be retrained to use deadly force less often. It's hard to imagine why a report about vandalism would result in a chopper overhead and two cops going in, guns drawn, ready to empty their clips at a vandal who might have a crowbar.
However, part of the fix for this issue is that we should have less guns available in society, and men should be less violent. During Trump, I don't think either thing is possible, so expect the death toll to continue and increase a bit for the next few years.
4
'The police encountered him'? Mr. Blow, you do yourself a disservice when you alter the facts. They had chased him through the neighborhood, across back yards and over fences, in what was an apparent effort to flee apprehension, before 'encountering' him in the place he was fleeing for protection from the law.
4
Mr. Clark was shot from behind in his grandparents back yard. The police video cam records the police yelling while well guarded behind a concrete block wall, but they didn't wait for any answers. One of the officers yelled gun and the shooting starts.
There is no excuse for the seriously under trained police to be in this situation. The public deserve fully competent officers on the job at all times.
2
I recall a bizarre case in Florida about two years ago when the police came upon a young, white male literally tearing apart the face of a man. The young, white male was high on drugs.
What stayed with me then and now about that scene is to think what would have happened if the police had come upon the same scene but the young man attacking the helpless victim had been black instead of white?
I'm pretty certain the outcome would have been much different.
The young, white male was stopped with a taser even though he was out of control. Which was the right thing to do. But I'm most certain that if this had been a young, black male committing this same, exact crime - he would have been shot dead in a barrage of gunfire. And the courts, and I daresay, the public would have been fine by that response given the circumstances.
Mr. Blow is absolutely correct to say that American society expects the worse from blacks, especially in these "split second" decisions. Whites are given the benefit of the doubt in most of these cases - that they won't have a weapon, or are wanted criminals...
But any black, man in America, no matter his status, his education, his ANYTHING, is already a suspect simply by the color of his skin.
5
We are learning that police body cameras suddenly go dark and muted, depending on the circumstances. Perhaps the individual controls of on/off, volume/mute, and angles need to be fixed so as not to be able to adjust or turn off. Night time settings or darkened lighting can automatically be set to come on. Give every cop night vision scopes with magnifying images from a distance. We will not change the mind-set law enforcement has of African American criminality. This applies also to the white population at much greater percentages than other groups of people.
1
20 shots? For a vandalism call? They could have said, "It's too dark, can't see him clearly."
(With a quick assessment that it was obviously not worth the taking of anyone's life)
Even if a murder call had come in, good police work would not warrant 20 shots in the dark!
Someone's brother, sister, brother or mother could have been hit!
I once asked an experienced and highly intelligent police officer what it was like to work undercover. He said (after some stories) there are very rarely situations worth causing a loss of life.
I witnessed a strange situation walking to a convenience store. In the parking lot a very tall
African American male was writhing on his back on the asphalt of the parking lot, moaning and calling/yelling out. 30 or so feet back were two officers just watching him.
No talk, yelling or guns pulled. Soon an ambulance and back-up came. They formed a wide circle and were quiet. One officer began talking to him (I could not hear what he said) and soon a bed from the ambulance was brought near him. It took awhile but he eventually was helped up into to the bed, without incident.
I was very glad to have witnessed this.
The rigorous training of the officers on our force has taught them to know when it's absolutely necessary to shoot.
It had not always been so in the past.
4
Enough. What training are these officers given? Why do they have a gun drawn? Why are they shooting so many times? What about tasers? They are poorly trained. Remember Amadou Diallo? I do. There have been too many murders by police. You can call this what you want, but that is what this is.
2
The traditional "thin blue line' perception of police by white Americans has been blown into a mile wide, fenced border. Police now seem to get ten times the benefit of the doubt in these matters. Could we at least establish some policies and trainings to address the horrifying tendency for officers to empty multiple clips, far beyond what is needed to neutralize a perceived threat.
4
A lot of painful truths here that most Americans will automatically deny. To me, from Tamir Rice to Philando Castle to Eric Garner etc etc, the most telling thing is the identical blasé responses of the local police forces captured on video for all to see, immediately after the incidents.
Zero perceptible concern for the humans they just shot. No sense of urgency about anything that they could do to save any of those lifes. That, tells you the little regard they (and America) has, inherently or otherwise, for black lifes. Will most of rather not see it? I guess.
2
The topic addressed in Mr. Blow’s article certainly stands on its own - but as a French journalist pointed out last year, America has decided that children killed in school shootings and people in church, clubs and concerts killed in mass shootings are acceptable collateral damage in service to the American myth of gun ownership “rights”, to the status quo of power, in service to ???????? So when do these shootings become UNACCEPTABLE by “objective reasonableness!?” This is madness! We need a new word for the level of frustration this engenders.
1
The election of Trump and his continued support from one third of the voters indicates a cynicism generated by Fox News and the president himself.
Trumps occasional attempts to express sympathy sound hollow because they are and contain no heart felt meaning.
This nationwide cynicism which elected Trump represents a nadir in American history. If your looking for examples of true feelings from Trump look to his support for Phillipines president Duterte who murders drug addicts. Trumps only genuine feelings are this hide bound cynicism and, in that sense, he is a genuine and authentic representation of the American temperament. The active expression of this cynicism is violence throughout the country including police officers shooting black men who often are unarmed and innocent of any wrong doing.
None of this bodes well for the future of America. Any search for genuine optimistic leadership in the United States will come up empty.
The future for American youth is grim indeed!
2
Police work. Tough job. I worked Harlem in the 70s. Citizens do dumb things. They get nervous around cops.
But, the rule used to be:
You Can’t Shoot Someone Because They Are Reaching For SOMETHING, or Because they Have SOMETHING in their hand. You have to wait to see what that SOMETHING is.
That is The Job.
Police training videos explain this.
Questions?
193
Yes, yes, and yes.
2
Spent ten years on "the job" and couldn't agree more. Too many guys get the message that your only job is "to go home safe" at any cost. Had a great academy instructor who pointed out that if that were the case, you wouldn't ever leave the station. You take the job knowing that there is risk and that you're going to be in risky situations. It's your responsibility to be above fear and, yes, sometimes take risks for citizens. If that means holding fire for an additional half-second to recognize the threat or taking cover instead of shooting, so be it.
5
This Wednesday will be the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of MLK Jr. I'll never forget something the Reverend King said, in terms of race relations: He stated, "we've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go". What was true then still holds today.
With the death of Stephon Clark, what we have at the very least are credible allegations of police overreaction which caused the unwarranted death of an unarmed suspect, followed up by police reports which have been doctored to show the police were "in danger" of being attacked by someone running away from them.
Those facts should be unmistakable to all, Black, White, Red, Brown, that there is something rotten in Sacramento. Instead it has become yet another occasion for US to take up sides, to form instantaneous opinions, to buttress preconceived uninformed theories about what occurred. If that isn't proof positive we still live in a racially-divided nation, pray tell, what is?
DD
Manhattan
Do people remember the days when the US used to lecture other countries about human rights?
Given that the US has embraced both torture and the state sanctioned execution of unarmed minorities with barely a qualm then no wonder other countries resented getting those lectures.
1
The thought that putting the rights of some over the rights of others in the balance of a civil society is prevalent but not right. Once the rights of some are controlled by a militaristic force acting as both judge and enforcer we can`t say we are a nation of equal rights. We have allowed our Police to become the ones who define who has rights and who doesn`t instead of our Bill Of Rights.
1
I live in a young white neighborhood in Austin. Many nights, I am supposing kids go through the unlocked cars and sometimes break a window on a locked car to get whatever. I cannot imagine in four lifetimes any cops shooting dead one of the people responsible for this pilfering, not at all, ever. There is no sense at all in shooting dead these people, let alone if they are completely innocent. Why in the world shot someone at all, you can always find them later and arrest them. This is beyond saddening.
83
Like the 'stand your ground' laws that legalized the murder of Travon Martin, the latitude given police would not hold up in a reasonable Supreme Court.
If you need only claim to have had a 'reasonable fear' before blazing away with your sidearm, you have no incentive to wait, be cautious, de-escalate. Of course, if the victims of police killings were white and wealthy, that policy would change overnight.
The solution is political. Sadly, not every voter gets the connection between voting, changing the Supreme Court, and changing police policy, but there's an unbreakable chain of cause and effect.
13
I grew up in a racially divided town in south Ga. My high school had segregated proms (in the ‘90s), blacks and whites lived on opposite sides of the railroad track; poverty and ignorance abounded.
I played basketball on a state playoffs team. Not a single one of my black teammates had a father in the picture. At least one sold crack in his neighborhood for money to buy high tops. Like their fathers their sons got girls pregnant and were out of the picture. At my reunion years later, I would learn who was in prison for drugs.
If black lives matter the onus is on mothers and fathers to raise a family. Teach your children right and wrong, work hard to provide for them and be present in their lives. Live by good example.
The author describes Stephon Clark as an unarmed father of two without mentioning vandalism or ignoring police commands.
After reading to my kids and tucking them into bed at night you won’t need a helicopter to spot me running through backyards after a vandalism spree. What’s more the couple of times I’ve been pulled over for going 11 mph over the speed limit, I followed the officers’ orders to the letter — and they weren’t pointing guns at me.
Like Michael Brown and all past, present, and future “unarmed black males,” Mr. Clark would be alive had he followed police commands. Don’t put your life in others’ hands and don’t blame racism for the bad decisions that put you in these situations.
6
I just don't agree. A policeman yelled "gun gun gun" and shooting started almost immediately. Stephon didn't have a chance.
Balony, what commands? Were you there? Clark was shot in the back. I guess that called shot while trying to escape. The Nazis did that.
The US is a sad and despicable country.
Millions of whites sit in their comfortable enclaves and watch their fellow citizens being gunned down like stray dogs by the police. Actually if the police were shooting dogs in the streets there would be outraged, middle class protests demanding an accounting.
Yet this goes on and on without end and with no serious attempts to rectify the wrong, which tells you a lot about what kind of country the US really is. A country which elects a bigot like Trump to funnel even more wealth and power to the very rich, while showing no regard at all for large segments of its population.
Unless and until we can elect politicians who care more about their constituents than their own jobs, wealth and power things are never going to change. I for one am not particularly hopeful.
125
Do you realize how few unarmed, non-fleeing people are killed by police? Fewer than 100 each year (8 so far this year), the majority of which are white.
So Americans are 3X more likely to be struck by lightning than killed by a cop when not wielding a weapon or fleeing during the committing of a crime. Given this and insane number of gun homicides (~35/day), it's hard to see why we care so much -not so little - about these deaths. It's also troubling how selectively the media seems to be about them. Heard of Daniel Shaver or Tyler Miller? Ask yourself why.
6
Trump was not elected by direct vote but by the electoral college.
6
That makes it legal as has happened before. Have you ever looked at the map of which counties and states voted for Hillary or Trump?
Whenever I read one of these stories, I think back to this incident from 2016:
"WASHINGTON, D.C. (WPVI) -- The White House was locked down for around 45 minutes Friday afternoon after a man carrying a gun near the complex was shot by Secret Service agents, a senior administration official said.
Officials say an armed man approached a checkpoint outside the White House grounds just after 3 p.m., and ignored repeated orders to drop his gun.
A Secret Service officer fired one shot, critically wounding the suspect"
With proper training and discipline, law enforcement officers can and do confront highly dangerous decisions with coolness, bravery and self-control. Whatever the Secret Service policies and methods of training are that led to this outcome, they need desperately to be extended to local police forces all over the country.
3
One wonders about the elephant psychology in the room ---the overwhelming firepower of (single or...) multiple police officers and the herd mentality reinforcing aggressiveness and group biases against non-group, weaker targets.
Translated, running from aggressive dogs or grizzlies or elephants can provoke aggression. And attacks of predatory species are more likely when there is overwhelming strength and minimal danger of injury.
If this is what's at play then perhaps there should be a golden rule --don't fire until fired upon when authority monopolizes lethal power --the Clark case. Surely the risk to police officers given the notorious lack of accuracy of civilians wielding hand guns make this tenable.
But wait, this is already part of police training and protocols according to professional commentators --rules governing removing a sidearm from the holster, putting the finger on the trigger and firing --all of which were ignored in Clark and others' tragic cases.
So maybe we need to focus on a golden rule banning shooting until shot at... Not easy in a country where 'stand your ground', gun advocacy and deep racial animosity has transformed communities into killing fields. But the statistics on violence perpetrated by police on non-whites vs. whites surely tells us that a golden rule is needed to constrain officers whose response in such situations is far more complicated than fear of being fired upon(?). This is a question not an affirmation..
Don’t run from cops
1
If we remove race from this, for just a moment, we see that the US has a policing problem in general. That it affects African-Americans with cruel disproportionality is the most heart-breaking aspect of it: ill-conceived policing based on the threat of lethal violence meets entrenched racism.
As a white middle-class male I've been appalled -- since I emigrated here from Northern Europe -- by the authoritarian approach policing takes in the US. I have been yelled at by overweight State Troopers with shaved heads and addressed like a 5-year old by others. From what I've witnessed, the only "respect" some police officers garner is because they can shoot you if you disobey their wishes, even if they are unfounded or unreasonable. When he was a teenager I gave my son my white version of "the talk." Never try to reason with a police officer, I told him. Even if you know you are in the right, officers are not trained to have their authority challenged or to engage with you as an equal.
There are far better ways to enforce the law. On any given day most daily police beats around the nation would go just fine without the presence of a police revolver. I would love to know how many police officers retire without ever having to fire a round. I'm guessing a lot. I know that African-Americans have to suffer through the worst of this, but let's not lose sight of this as a broad societal issue that, one way or another, applies to us all in varying degrees. We need a new police culture.
12
Our law enforcement officers have not only that 1989 court decision in their DNA, but also 15 years of the "War on Terror" fought at home and abroad, in which ever deadlier (military grade) weaponry is used. They are also trained that, when they shoot, it must be to kill because they might otherwise become the victims of return fire. Thus situations arise, as in Seattle a few years ago, where a deaf Native American woodcarver was crossing the street with his small carving knife visible, and a cop ended up killing him because the man did not respond appropriately to orders to drop his knife. This intersection of racism and excessive force makes the world a very dangerous place for all of us, especially minority groups.
12
This is a tragedy. But Mr. Blow's piece does not place it in context. America is awash in weapons. Poor neighborhoods are often awash in violent crime. When the two Sacramento PD officers chased after Mr. Clark, they had every reason to believe he had just been involved in a crime, albeit a non-violent one, and good reason to fear that he might be armed. At night, under intense pressure, they made a terrible mistake. The police can do better, but so can the people in the communities that they police. It's not a one-sided issue.
22
No matter how you try to gild it, your argument is that the man who got shot 8 times (six in the back) in the pitch dark by unidentified strangers yelling at him while he was unarmed in a back yard where he had a right to be could have "done better" by not living in a poor neighborhood where police are scared to death because the poor black people might have guns.
18
Yo,
He wasn’t even guilty of a crime, only thought to have possibly committed a misdemeanor.
Dillon Roof murdered 9, Arrested no shots fired. Cops kill unarmed people because they can, not because they must.
130
As a black man I think it was in perfect context. It doesn't matter what you are doing, people of color are watched police can harass you for for doing nothing but being black standing waiting to cross the street as they do. From poor schools with Teach for America teachers who cant teach, to horrific drinking water put pay your water bill i.e. Flint Michigan , constant daily harassment from the second you leave your home in the morning till you hopefully successfully return at night. Yes, we are a racially disturbed country where white people and police officers who know they can get away with murder do just that. We are awash with gun owners who are the majority whites and with the greatest racist since JEdgar Hoover, Jeff Sessions stacking the courts and going after everyone who is not white we have only to look forward to daily killings. 50 years since the assignation of Dr. King, and for ever step we have moved forward, this nation has gone back in one year 400 steps and we continue to shot to kill. Walk in a minorities shoes then try to state that Mr. Blow is missing the point. Till then we don't want to pretend that police officers under intense pressure have a difficult time, if they cant handle the pressure they should be in another career. Just like a doctor if he of she cant hand the pressure of surgery and death maybe they shouldn't be in that field.
11
Being frightened seems to be all the justification a policemen needs to pull the trigger and they seem to be more apt to be frightened when they encounter a person of color.
Either the guidelines for the use of lethal force must change or law enforcement must get rid of police who are not up to the job of protecting the public.
13
I agree with Mr. Blow: fresh perspectives are hard to find for these circumstances.
I have lost track of the number of times I have heard--frequently from some Fox News equivalent--that these gun related shootings by police--are part of the "price of freedom." What nonsense. Every other modern developed nation knows better. The vast majority of our citizens know better.
15
I asked the US Marshall in my family why the police don't try to wound suspects instead of shooting to kill. She said that anyone who wasn't on her team was a potential enemy and that killing them was the best way to stay safe. Us or them. Whether or not the person she shot at could be innocent was simply not part of the calculus. I think it might be, if more reckless officers of the law were personally sued for damages and tried for murder. Most of us are "them", and in our racist society, the black targets are shot a lot more quickly, even when the officer is black. That's the saddest example of "us or them".
16
It's obvious from the audio tape that the police were anxious, excited, and scared. I think Mr. blow would accept this fact, and also the fact that the officer had reason to be scared. They were in a bad neighborhood where gun violence is very common. If you listen to the 911 calls that led to this encounter, it's clear that the neighbors were terrified by what this man was doing. They had reason to be. The police officers were the ones who had to do something about it. It was a tense, wild, dangerous situation in the middle of the night in a dangerous neighborhood. You, my good Mr. Blow, would be scared to death if you had to go into a situation like that. So would anybody. That's why these shootings keep on happening, and why they are accepted by the public. You've got wild men in wild neighborhoods, and cops who are scared and have good reasons to be scared.
6
Wow. Your words, Generalissimo...""bad neighborhood where gun violence is very common",
"clear that the neighbors were terrified by what THIS MAN was doing", "a tense, wild situation in a dangerous neighborhood", "wild men in wild neighborhoods". This boy who was shot in his grandmother's backyard, in fact, did nothing.
"These shootings keep happening because, on some level, America finds them acceptable, finds them unfortunate but unavoidable. " You are skirting around the most obvious reason why these shootings keep happening. On some level, many Americans think the victim deserves it. if not for any actions of their own but because they come from an inherently violent community (read: race) and this is their own fault.
6
That the majority decision was written by Justice Rehnquist makes me suspicious since he had racist views. However, it was joined by Justice Stevens,who is not a racist and who recently called for the repeal of the Second Amendment. I wonder if he would write a retrospective comment for the Times on this decision.
Putting that aside, the notion of "objective reasonableness" is laughable. What is the difference between that and "subjective" reasonableness? It has been said that words are weapons in the war of ideas. In this case, they are weapons in the destruction of young black lives.
The police are in a situation of structural uncertainty. They think of themselves as middle-class professionals, but they are not paid as such. They are also not well educated, often have high levels of testosterone, and see what they want to see. The result is an American tragedy.
6
My uneducated take on this is that the police panicked and tragically took this young man's life. It didn't have to go down the way that it did.
But to ascribe these types of shootings exclusively to race does a disservice to the truth and, in the end, fosters enmity between police and the black community that, ironically, leads to more heightened confrontations and, tragically, an additional loss of life.
I think Mr. Blow consistently adds fuel to the fire by focusing superficially on race while ignoring the actual state of affairs for police officers on the ground in high crime communities and the resistance police often face in such communities. I've lived in low crime neighborhoods and high communities with high rates of violent street crime. The policing is different. The reaction to the police is different. But why on earth would we expect this not to be so? The tragic loss of life is the product of the powder keg environment extant in far too many communities in this country. Instead of tossing rhetorical handgrenades that heighten tensions and lead to further confrontations, Mr. Blow should employ is substantial skills to dig more deeply into this issue. He should start off by providing objective statistics that counter the narrative of the BLM crowd. Police shooting of unarmed civilians is NOT exclusive to the black community. It will take some courage on Mr. Blow's part to lay it all bare on the table. To date he has shown zero proclivity to do so.
5
I agree. One can add to this tragic case that had Stephon Clark not been moving from backyard to backyard in the dark of night and instead approached his grandmother's home via the street and eventually the front door, he would be alive today.
5
None of the things the victim did is a crime. Cops began shooting because they can, not because they had to.
There is no doubt that being a police officer is a difficult and dangerous job. So too is living in a "powder keg community"--though the latter is sometimes unavoidable, for a variety of reasons. Do people who live in these areas therefore have to accept that in addition to being at risk of criminal violence, they are also at risk of police violence, even if they are unarmed?
I don't know what statistics countering the Black Lives Matter narrative are being referred to. Neither Mr. Blow nor anyone else in that movement claim that this is "exclusive" to the black community. The question is whether this is more likely to happen to African Americans than it is to people who are white..
The best solution is of course to end racism (overt and otherwise) in our society. Since that isn't likely to happen any time soon (and it surely won't end if we ignore or deny that it exists), the more immediate question is whether there are more effective methods of neighborhood policing and better ways to train police officers to respond in situations like the one that led to Mr. Clark's death. I assume--or at least I hope--that we all agree that the killing of unarmed humans by police officers--terrified or otherwise--is not a desirable outcome.
1
There simply could not be a worse voice from the White House in these trying times. It is a voice devoid of leadership, ethics, or morality. It seeks to serve only itself.
When that hollow Presidential voice says there were good people on both sides in Charlottesville, his true colors were shown. When he fails to lead in a genuine crisis, his true colors show.
We need leadership from our President but he is incapable of doing so, utterly disinclined to do so, and the same can be said of his Attorney General.
Never in my lifetime, before this moment, would I have believed that the forces allied in one political party and their leader in the White House could be so destructive as to literally threaten the future of our country as we know it.
Checks and balances are failing, leaving us hoping for the health and welfare of a special prosecutor.
We are there, in the thick of the unbelievable, and it is frightening.
5
Excellent point that the standard "objective reasoning."
I'm appalled but I hear little in the way of reason. Let's base our feeling at least in part on reason. If "objective reasonableness" is the standard, where are the answers to these questions?--indeed, why are the questions not being asked, even by Charles Blow?
1) Is it true that a vandal was breaking windows? If so, then the police presence was warranted.
2) Is there evidence that Stephon Clark was the vandal who was breaking windows?
3) Why was he running? The video shows his movements to be highly suspicious.
4) Did the autopsy show drugs in his system?--His brother's behavior was not consistent with normal grieving. He appeared wild, indeed insane, in the video that I saw. Did Stephon Clark share this kind of out-of-control behavior when he was shot?
The shouts of gungungun were not justified, the hail of gunfire was not justified, but to be fair, it was almost pitch black & the suspect was behaving suspiciously. It is certainly not a local matter, but the victim, it appears to me, shares some of the responsibility. That is the tragedy here. Screaming & wailing could make it otherwise if the police are unjustly accused of a crime. The police & the public deserve some answers to the above questions. The press should try to deliver answers instead of framing the tragedy & milking it.
7
Our small city police department has received a tank from the military. A small town, one traffic light, about 35 miles south of us has also received a tank. What's going on?
12
Shot six times in the back..what was Stephon Clark - target practice? And just how much of a threat is someone walking or running away from you? Lethal force is justified in some circumstances but this action reeks of criminal negligence and will hopefully be treated as such. Incompetence is not an acceptable response. Police must know they are accountable for their actions and behavior.
2
After Eric Garner was choked to death by police after selling loose cigarettes on the streets of Staten Island, gasping "I can't breathe", DA Dan Donovan took on the trial of the police involved. The police were acquitted, thanks to Donovan's chummy prosecution.
Now a U.S. Congressman, Dan Donovan's district encompasses parts of Staten Island and Bay Ridge Brooklyn. By most counts, he will be voted our in favor of a Democrat this November.
1
There is a culture of excessive violence in America: it rots the police forces who pretend to protect and serve us all. There were few black people in the Ireland where and when I grew up, but the bias of local police towards the more powerful and more wealthy was palpable. We knew that police forces had been set up in our part of the world to protect and serve the powerful. What continues to shock me after decades in America is the violence of many police in pursuit of whatever. High speed car chases are often wildly dangerous and unjustified. Shootings are often bizarre statements of lingering Jim Crow. No matter what the rule book says, on the beat the locker room culture is obvious. Cops of all ethnicities are susceptible to that culture, which is one of casually assumed superiority of the white system.
7
Excellent narrative !!!
1
Mr. Clark was carrying his phone - which looks nothing like a gun.
What is the correct process, logistically speaking, for a man who carries his phone in his hand when the police shout "put your hands up"? You now have in your hand something shiny and black and risk getting shot for it. Do you put your hands up and just let the phone fall to the ground? Would the shiny black phone falling to the ground scare an officer into potentially firing? The police are not listening to the suspect at this point - the police are screaming Hands up! Hands up! Hands up! At what point can the suspect say, I have a phone in my hand - what do you want me to do with it?
I do understand police fear, with 300 million guns in civilian hands, many with far more firepower than their own guns.
But Mr. Clark just had his phone in his hand, like millions of other men - and he was in his grandmother's backyard. Now a family is destroyed and a nation is scared to trust police AGAIN.
5
Charles Blow's column on Stephon Clark brings up the inherent tension in a democratic society that both values individual liberty as well as public safety. Do we really want to take away discretion from police to keep us safe in a manner that requires split section judgments? Most of do not want to change places with the cop on the beat, and yet we also don't want them to indiscriminately gun down young men of color. How do we strike the balance between police discretion and civil rights? How do we give police the power they need and give society the ability to constrain those powers? While Blow cites the issue of body cameras as an imperfect solution (they can be switched off), there are undoubtedly other ways to strike the balance between discretion and oversight that fit within the Supreme Court's reasonableness standard. Perhaps we should train police to be less willing to use deadly force? Perhaps we should be more insistent that all young men of color do not pose threats to them? One would hope that in 2018 we could continue to not stigmatize one group in society so that these shootings will become rare events, as they are in most of the rest of the world.
2
Perhaps we should insist on a society where police do not need to assume that every citizen is armed and capable of the split second use of deadly force against them. I think about this every time I see a traffic stop--and the likelihood that the officer wonders whether there is a gun in the glove compartment. I never, ever see this issue brought up in articles about police use of deadly force. It should be part of the discussion.
5
I don't think people in a community realize that THEY have it in their power to end this. Police are employed by the community. They have a contract and are given guidelines as to what is acceptable and what is unacceptable. As many contracts are written now, police are given wide discretion when they are allowed to use deadly force. These guideline must be changed and the consequences for not following them must be strictly enforced with either immediate termination or prosecution. The police union will howl and protest, but the community must stand strong and demand that this is the way they want be be policed, not the other way around. For police officers who don't feel they can accept this, then say goodby and move on into another profession. The citizens of a community want a police force, but not at the expense of being gunned down because a police officer feels threatened. Enough is enough. If the police unions can't accept this demand by the community, the police department should be disbanded in total, and individual cops hired back if they agree to the terms of the community. It's just disgusting the number, and manner, of shootings by police from Tamir Rice to Stephon Clark. It has got to end and only the citizens of a community can end this by demanding a police force that polices according to the standards set by the community, not the police.
7
A civil law suite should be filed in every instance of an unarmed person being shot
Thank you for making clear that as bystanders we are complicit, and for our individual morality we must work for what is "just and causes no harm".
6
My first awareness of police brutality towards the black community was the Rodney King beating and the subsequent trial. I find it very sad that the shooting of Mr Castile and Mr Clark show that not much has changed. Black men are deemed a threat by virtue of their skin color and we seem to be unwilling to change this perception so it continues to be a reality.
Like gun violence, the script for a police shooting involving a black male is consistent. The media covers the tragedy, someone trots out the victims criminal record, there are local protests, the story fades from national view, the police are told their actions are justified, and nothing changes. The family is left to pick up the pieces while living with the knowledge that nothing will change and their loved ones death is meaningless to most Americans.
Our country was founded on the idea that black people were second class citizens. Slavery, lynchings, Jim Crow, the war on drugs, police killings; when does it end. We've always viewed black people as either disposable or a threat.
I'm reminded of the book "a time to kill," where a black father is on trial for killing his daughters rapist after they were acquitted and his defense attorney ended his closing argument with "now imagine she was white." Perhaps we need to start asking ourselves if we would tolerate the same police use of deadly force on white people. The uproar over the shooting of the Australian woman answers the question: no we won't.
18
"Like gun violence, the script for a police shooting ..."
Police shootings ARE gun violence, perpetrated by the state against the people, with no one held accountable, except in very rare circumstances. Police kill far more people than school shooters or other bogeymen for gun control; why do we continue to allow them to be armed?
4
We do accept such shootings of whites by police. At least 119 whites have been shot by police in 2018. But we generally do not hear about them. And people like Blow do not express any outrage about them.
2
the 'crime' of vandalism is not punishable by death. neither is the crime of driving with a broken tail light. neither is the crime of selling loose cigarettes.
while I respect that police work is difficult and stressful, I would suggest that police officers who kill citizens for misdemeanor-level offenses are themselves guilty of felony-level crimes.
I would further suggest that if/when police officers become burdened by chronic fear they ought to get out of that occupation.
32
I am not quick to criticize police...they have a difficult job and do lay their lives on the line. I would not want their job. But time and again over the last few years we have seen videos of situations that are so far over the line. There is simply no justification for the violence we see, nearly always agains black males. We are seeing these things not because they are new, but because of new technology...so we know they have been going on for years (forever). Excellent column, Charles. I hope change will come.
13
All of these articles seem to start with the premise that he was just standing alone in the dark in his grandmother's backyard and the police just showed up and shot him for no reason. In actuality he was suspected of vandalizing cars in the neighborhood and the police tracked him running through backyards before confronting him in a dark back yard. Police had no idea who "he" was, who's house he was at, or exactly why he was fleeing - all they knew was that he seemed desperate to evade them. Desperate enough to shoot a cop? Hard to tell in the dark after a chase. Best to let the facts play out, but its always a rush to judgment by the media.
40
“Suspected” is the key word. To this day we don’t know if he was the vandal or not. No crowbar was found. I live in Sacramento, in a much whiter neighborhood, and although we have car break-ins frequently, there is rarely even a police response to service calls, much less a helicopter at the ready to find someone breaking windows. The police were sporting for a confrontation and then created one.
92
I suppose none of the police had a flashlight and could have shed some light on the subject. If I were a black man, or teen for that matter I would run whenever the police were around. Innocence is no protection against a bullet's near instant power.
62
You forgot that the crime he committed was vandalizing cars. That is not much of a crime. He was endangering nobody. Hot pursuit seems excessive for a crime like that.
16
[[Efforts at policy reform — better training, utilization of body cameras (which the officers in Clark’s case suspiciously muted after shooting him), changes in rules of pursuit — can have an effect, but they can’t fully remedy this problem.]]
Deliberately muting your camera during a police action should result in a three month suspension without pay. A supervisor instructing officers to mute their cameras should get the same punishment plus a loss of rank and pay.
18
Any equipment that can be adjusted by the wearer is not trustworthy. Police know when they have crossed the line.
6
That was my point.
The U.S. military often requires its soldiers to be fired upon before they are allowed to fire back -- to prevent casualties of innocent civilians in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. Allowing U.S. police officers to only have to perceive a threat rather than confirm one is recipe for disaster that has cooked us all.
15
Well said.
This country has travelled the right wing path for decades, a path that has diminished fourth amendment protections to virtual absence, led to mass incarceration, stand your ground laws, militarization of police, dyed-in-the-wool racist and abusive police operating procedures, and more.
The killing of unarmed black men isn't a "local" issue as the White House would have us believe; it is a national travesty. A travesty lying directly at the feet of the right wingers who have been so successful in remaking our legal system in their own image and according to their own priorities.
Until this country sickens of the ever-increasing cruelty and injustice that their policies imbue into our system of law enforcement, adjudication, and incarceration, until we start approaching issues of criminal justice like human beings with a functioning sense of compassion and fairness, until we throw off right wing crimimnal justice theories and procedures based on vengeance and bigotry, until we stand up for the rights of the suspect, the accused, and the incarcerated, our system will continue to degrade along the path that the right has laid out for it.
And unarmed black men will continue to be gunned down with all too little consequence to the perpetrators, because Americans continue to find it acceptable.
7
Travelled the right wing path for decades? LBJ, Carter, Clinton, and Obama were hardly right wing - or have you forgotten how many years they were president?
3
Those presidents with the possible exception of carter where in most ways what we would have called conservatives in the 1930s-1950s
The shooting of Stephon Clark is obviously a tragedy for him and his family, and should sadden us all.
But Mr. Blow's broad condemnation shares few facts, and many commenters generalize even more broadly on the racial component of police shootings--again without citing facts.
Here is data from the Washington Post (a credible, if left leaning source):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2017/
2017, for example, shows 987 cases where police shot and killed a person. Of those, 68 or about 7% were unarmed (with 26 unknown or unreported). Of those 68 unarmed police homicides, 30 were white and 20 black. Of the total 987 shootings, 457 were white and 223 black, and 179 Hispanic with the remainder other/unknown.
So African-Americans represented roughly 29% of the unarmed shootings and about 24% of total fatal police shootings.
The interpretation is not so straightforward: Black people are shot and killed by police disproportionately to their population share (13%) but not necessarily to their crime rates, particularly violent crime (eg African-Americans commit in excess of 50% of homicides where the race of killer is know, per FBI stats). Higher crime rates imply more police interactions, and probably more violent confrontations. Similarly Roland Fryer of Harvard found that African-Americans are less likely to be shot when stopped by police in an extended study of large cities (but more likely to be stopped).
10
And now onto the next question of why are the violent crime rates higher?
And then what is the race of the officers in the shootings of black “suspects”?
And then why aren’t police forces representative - on a local basis - of the populace?
And then why aren’t local governments and our national governments more proportionally representative?
And why have we elected a president who will stuff these questions back into a box in the attic of the 19th Century?
It’s all connected.
2
you've got the facts corrects JG and are spot on. Unfortunately, the left has its narrative on police shootings and won't deviate from it as facts seems to be irrelevant. Blow has never mentioned the higher violent crime rate of Blacks although that by itself explains any disproportional disparity of shootings of Blacks by cops. Almost all shootings by cops are justified, the small number that aren't are a result of bad judgment under extreme pressure. Cops don't get up in the morning itching to go shoot someone.
Moreover there are millions of police-citizen encounters, many of these encounters are where the citizen is a criminal or a suspect in possession of a weapon and/or committing a crime. Most end without a shot being fired. Only a fraction end in a shooting.
I guarantee, if the violent crime rate in black communities declined, so would the number of shootings of blacks by cops.
3
They go on because the U.S. is not a functioning democracy.
11
What struck me is the casual reflex of these officers to reach for their guns. They had been told there was a vandal in the area, not a violent offender. Vandalism certainly causes problems, but it is not a capital crime. Perhaps it would help if officers were issued only a limited amount of ammunition — say six bullets per month, with financial incentives not to use them. Officers requesting more would be charged. They might then be more inclined to keep their guns in the holsters when told someone was going around rapping on windows.
6
Police unions are so powerful that cops who should be thrown off the force are kept on, infecting new recruits with the so-called 'knowledge' they've gained, laced with the bitterness of a career dead-ender still in for the pension.
Every cop locker room has them. Bitter, older, not fit for duty, but protected in the job. They manifest violent intent and prejudice. The good cops make it past that, or look away, the others join in wholeheartedly.
But they don't say or do anything.
6
After 20 years in law enforcement, and 15 years as an attorney, I continue to be amazed at the apparently intentional ignorance demonstrated by these comments.
Here are facts:
- Police officers do not want to shoot anyone - it’s a horribly tragic event, followed by years of attacks, (legal and personal) against the officer.
This is not the path to happy career growth.
- With rare exceptions, the event could have easily been prevented simply by not threatening the officers, or simply following the officer’s directives.
- Anytime there is a shooting, a vast number of ignorant commentators will arise, ludicrously claiming that only heavily (and obviously) armed adult white males could possibly cause an officer to fear attack; and that officers possess psychic abilities to determine whether guns are real, or whether movements consistent with reaching for a weapon is actually reaching for a weapon.
Finally, after the shooting the 6-3, 240 lbs. juvenile with 23 prior arrests, who terrorized all who encountered him, is portrayed as a mischievous angel; and the officer is portrayed as evil incarnate.
I’ve learned that:
- Many people simply have personal motives to law enforcement, and facts and rational thought cannot be allowed to interfere with their goal; and
- the press loves conflict, and will spin any shooting to create it.
I had a sergeant once tell me: “A good cop cares about the safety of those he polices - even though many of those he polices hate him for caring.”
12
excellent comment Officer &, but don't expect many recommendations from this crowd.
4
Yet they shot him 20 times.
2
Unfortunately Mr. Blow is correct. I used to (perhaps naively) believe that if Americans knew what was happening that they wouldn't stand for it - I remember in 1991 most white and middle class Americans thought that the Rodney King beating was an anomaly - but now Americans do know what is happening and they just don't care.
Most Americans just don't care.
7
To me the most instructive part of the Clark shooting was the audio of the body cameras: "Show me your hands...gun, gun, gun" followed by a fusillade of bullets. The interval between "hands" and "gun" could not have been more than 1/3rd of a second, not enough time to make such a determination in the dark of night. Furthermore, with infrared images showing evident air support, the police had the means to know the location of Mr. Clark and his body position. They could easily have told him to lie on the ground with outstretched arms and only then rounded the safety of the building to apprehend him.
But they approached the problem with guns drawn and judgment clouded in fear believing all blacks are armed and ready to fire upon them.
Unless there is clear evidence of an imminent threat to loss of life (but not just property), police officers who have the tactical advantage accorded them with air surveillance need to take a time out of even a few seconds to review and plan an assault.
In current surgical practice, the operating team does just this before beginning a case. Doctors learned this after such tragedies as removing the wrong eye from an infant with cancer or transplanting incompatible organs (both have happened). Police need to do the same thing.
9
Charles, let me come at this from a slightly different but complementary angle.
These shootings keep happening because juries and judges buy the excuse that police were afraid for their lives.
It seems to me that there are two ways to fix this - one, require cops to wear bulletproof vests at all times, in order to minimize the potentially legitimate fear factor in random encounters.
Two, ban all armor piercing bullets, personalized weapons of mass destruction (assault weapons), and make ownership of hand guns rare but occasionally legal.
The problem we face is that so long as American society is as armed as it is, then cops will have a plausible excuse for shooting first and asking questions later - just as judges and juries have an excuse to not hold these officers responsible.
If there were fewer guns on the streets, and if police had fewer legitimate reasons to fear for their lives, then juries and judges would be that much more likely to throw the book and cops who execute suspects.
However, until we do what we must to reasonably address the real-world threats to law enforcement, namely the easy availability of guns, and bullets specifically designed to kill them, we have no prayer of stopping this epidemic of police-on-civilian violence.
11
If the 42% who didn't vote in 2016 do it again in 2018 and 2020 then positive change will be the victim and the powerless will remain powerless.
13
Time and again, we're told that it's "bad apple" police officers who shoot unarmed American citizens to death, including multiple times in the back. Which can't help but raise the questions of why there are so many of these bad apples and why they're worthy of wearing badges and law enforcement uniforms and firing their guns with impunity.
11
Nobody wants to admit it or say it out loud, but that doesn't alter the fact that it looks like open hunting season on unarmed Black people, and those really odds tend to go up if a Black male is involved.
While the factors for this are many, there's no doubt that it begins with the proliferation of firearms and the ease of obtaining them.
Still, nobody seems to mind too much if it's an offending police officer, and the vicitm is unarmed.
There's something not only wrong with this picture, but with the sad reality that it doesn't seem to change.
This has nothing to do with upholding the Second Amendment.
Americans should be very afraid.
9
Race has been America’s Achilles heel. From slavery to civil war to segregation to civil rights to de facto segregation to indifference over unjust killings by police described in Mr. Blow’s column, the aspirational claim of justice being colorblind eludes our country.
While some will point to progress made in recent decades advancing race relations in our society, the sad truth is that a sizable proportion of our population are either numb or indifferent to police violence against people of color.
6
I was at the protest in Cesar Chavez Plaza on Saturday and was struck by the diversity of the faces present around me. Police brutality isn't a "black problem", it's problem that we of all skin hues must all look at. There are no easy answers but I am hopeful after listening to the amazing, electrifying speeches on Saturday that we are on our way.
8
Let's get real part of the equation here is the gun culture, police fear everyone is armed and dangerous and history has taught them if they shoot first and ask questions later there will most likely be no consequences beyond a paid vacation. The other part of the equation is the obvious reality that in some of their minds a black life is worth less than others. So the shoot first is definitely on the table when interacting with them.
6
In my city the cops have little or no fear of trouble when they kill unarmed people but the city has payed out millions to the families who won civil cases against the city that employed the police who killed unarmed people as well as a young woman who was killed for holding a gun to her own head. It may yet be that civil law suits will be the thing that causes change. As an aside, In almost every case the civil suit demonstrated that the police lied or acted with wanton disregard even though those same officers were protected from criminal charges by saying they believed their lives were in danger.
1
If the rule becomes, police officers are culpable in every shooting regardless of their justifiable fears of being killed themselves, how will we be able to hire police officers? ANY police officers?
The real unasked question is, are the lives of policemen more valuable than the people they kill through fear of losing their own lives
Susan Foley, who is claiming every officer is culpable for every shooting. Charles Blow is not making that claim. Who are you saying is?
2
I refuse to believe that police violence is about race. I don’t believe the statistics Liberals bandy about anymore. Social science studies always find what the people conducting them want to find. There is more bias in the researchers then the researched.
Mr. Blow is right however about the Supreme Court. Whether it is use of force, money in politics, binding arbitration clauses, or guns the Court has done more harm to ordinary Americans than Donald Trump could ever do. What’s worse no one is paying attention to the worst court rulings, the public only cares about the sensational ones concerning things like Abortion and Gay Marriage. We need to start talking about limiting the court’s power. Term limits and the ability of Congress to override decisions without resorting to amendment are two places to start. Even if the next Democratic President passes universal Healthcare, he will have to pack the Court to keep the current one from finding it unconstitutional.
As for Police Violence, most African American liberals remain mum when it happens to white citizens and it does happen to them and their insistence on making it about tribe, as always, is counter-productive. It is downright rude of Blow to accuse people he doesn’t know of not caring.
Police violence is about police officers having to do their job in cities and towns awash with weapons. We need to change the rules of engagement and we need to get serious about gun-control. I don’t see how columns like this help.
2
In my city the families of white victims of police shootings receive more public support and far less public vilification. Their lives simply matter more than those of unarmed people of color. The white victims tend to win large judgments in the civil cases that have followed.
1
They did not "encounter Clark", he was being chased by the police. It seems there is evidence that he had been vandalizing parked cars, and hence was running away from the police. The police had no way of knowing he was in his grandmother's house when they shot him.
with no evidence of a violent crime, should the police have retreated if they thought he had a gun? Isn't it better to let a vandal get away than to engage in a firefight in a residential area?
8
Actually, there is currently zero confirmation that the police are telling the truth about any of this. In my city, civil suits following this sort of killing have proven that cops lie and also
fail to follow their own rules ( like failing to wait for backup) before killing unarmed people. In these cases the cops were found to have been justified in their killings but the city lost millions when the civil suit demonstrated that lies were told and procedures not followed.
2
lepepo -- how would the cops know that all he was planning was vandalism? How would they know whether or not his next move would be to break into a house, take a hostage? The basic fact of this case is he was running from the police, wouldn't stop. Would you want cops to just let an active criminal go in your neighborhood on the assumption he wasn't going to do anything else?
3
Are you saying that the police should back off and wait to see if a “vandal” commits a violent crime before trying to arrest him?
2
Perhaps a Cop that shoots first and Thinks Later has made a poor career choice. This will absolutely continue until the Individual officers and their supervisors are held accountable. And accountable does not mean a brief suspension, or the rare firing, and passing the problem along to another agency. And just why do you think Cops are so resistant to actually using their Bodycams ??? Much harder to LIE when it's on tape. The only way to stop this is by criminal prosecution. Let the Juries decide, and maybe some of them will actually seek and provide justice.
5
Any time that an unarmed person is shot and there is no finding of police culpability, those officers involved should be transitioned directly to
A desk job.
4
"These shootings keep happening because, on some level, America finds them acceptable, finds them unfortunate but unavoidable."
As I read that sentence I thought how painfully true it is. And how tragically true it is of the wider phenomenon of gun violence in the US. Some of us just cannot shake the grip of some atavistic urge that does not belong in a civilized society any more.
6
When the victim is brown skinned there will also be an attack on that persons character ( much of it false: see Travon Martin) by people with zero connection to the place or people involved in the shooting
2
It is the cameras recording everything (and MSM not being able to avoid reporting it) that has made the difference today. As the S Vietnamese officer blowing out the brains of a captured man on camera signaled the fall of the US desire for more support of the war in Vietnam, so did the pictures of so many black men on camera finally begin to register on the psyche of the good white majority.
I must also give credit to the Black Lives Matter movement that forced this to the front page. It is still too unpalatable for most to accept it for what it is; "the culling of a people."
For true American progress, there must be a requirement that all officers wear cameras and that they be fired if ever the camera is turned off, hampered with or not worn. The rewards of this is the quality of police service enjoyed only in the best EU countries, enjoyed by all citizens.
How will the next chapter end? It is still to close to call, only the young people can put an end to this mayhem and that will not be shown until November elections.
3
Re: "The police are merely articulating and enforcing American ideals."
Apart from whether institutional racism qualifies as an "ideal" as opposed to a shameful legacy of anti-idealism, the elephant in the room here, again, is that police behavior in America also articulates the twisted and fake ideal of no-limits on widespread civilian ownership of military style weaponry.
There is an important (and here, for the umpteenth time, disregarded) relationship between police shootings of African Americans, African Americans' shootings of police, police fears of being shot at, trigger-happy law enforcement officers, a longstanding and widespread ready availability of deadly weaponry in America, unparalleled among advanced democratic countries and supported by a fanatical, corrupt and thoroughly dishonest gun lobby and the derelict representatives in the federal government who continually kowtow to that lobby.
85
For all the outrage since Michael Brown's murder, there has been, as with gun massacres of school children, little progress in halting the unending wave of police murders of, innocent or unarmed or both, black men. It's criminal, but equal justice has yet to prevail with a President who openly encourages police to be rough; an Attorney general who is more concerned with deportation and drugs than with justice; and local prosecutors who are allies of the police and not the communities where they work. It's time to create civilian review boards to counteract the imbalance in the scales of justice that have minority members. It's time for local communities to regain control over their police and prosecutors.
12
At this point I’d just like to see these officers fired. If the police departments fired incompetent or “bad” officers there would be a lot more trusts. It would be the police policing their own. Don’t even let these cases go to court. Prosecutors consistently (and I believe deliberately) over charge or botch these cases so there is no conviction. And don’t even get me started on Jurors who will never see evidence against officers.
2
Civil law suites with huge judgments are what’s slowly turning the tide here in My city
1
"These shootings keep happening because, on some level, America finds them acceptable."
This applies to all gun violence. We accept it because our 'system' permits everyone to be armed, police and civilians - it's our 2nd Amendment right.
When the police assume that everyone they encounter may be armed, of course this kind of thing is more likely to happen. And yes, Mr. Blow, Americans do accept it, just as we accept that every now and then a mass shooting will occur. Outrage, thoughts and prayers ensue, but then everything goes back to 'normal'.
Americans just don't value human life that highly, when we give our police and citizenry the constitutional right to kill someone if they think it is necessary.
11
I think like many of these shootings it is an example of bad police work. On another level this is an example of the violence of culture in America which goes back to the roots of our civilization. It is a given that we have a right to kill to protect property, that killing is the first reaction to these types of situations especially when the poor and minorities are involved.
That being said I find the reporting on this particular incident to be lacking in terms of what actually happened. Was the victim involved in vandalism? Was he just hanging out in the back yard? Certainly he should not have been shot but there has been very little written about the exact circumstances which brought the police and Mr. Clark together?
6
Sadly, the police seem to be adept at using the media to quickly muddy the waters such that we may never know exactly what happened. They also appear to get a lot of help from the professional spokespeople for gun makers and gun culture ( the NRA, for instance). I think that the shooting in Furgeson, MS is a perfect example of that phenomenon
2
You can look at this by way of past Supreme Court decisions loaded with a great many long legal terms that are mostly open to interpretation. You can look at statistical likelihoods as they apply to race. You can dream of and mention a utopian world that can and will never exist. But you have to also answer the basic question this case presents.
Do you want the police to respond to 911 calls and pursue individuals who are suspected of breaking windows on automobiles and fleeing through backyards and over fences?
It’s unknown and would be unknown to both victims and responding officers whether the actions of the perpetrator represent vandalism or attempted burglary.
People are in their homes and there’s a person on their property busting out their car windows. Is vandalism or burglary a more common and likely occurrence in that neighborhood? Did this young man have a vandalism conviction on his record? Because I’m pretty sure he had a burglary conviction.
You’re also putting a lot of emphasis on the independent autopsy. It was paid for by the family, I believe, or now their political supporters. It’s out there in front of an official autopsy’s findings and now who in a community that is now so outraged is really is going to believe the official findings of a medical examiner?
The aerial video doesn’t show Mr Clark with his back to the firing officers. And he is moving towards them after fleeing from them. Do you not see all of that, Charles? Or do you just not care?
4
America finds this tragedy acceptable, as they do so many other tragedies played out on a daily basis in Roseanne-land.
Biggest tragedy is that if all people concerned went out and voted in their best interests, things might change for the better. But they don’t.
2
A man is dead and people emerge with their knowledge of social structures and history as applied to particular facts. The most salient facts are:
1) Cops are edgy. They can't, I repeat, can't know in advance whether somebody has a guy and will kill them. Commentators are right; our gun culture is real, impacts everyone, and bleeds into every policing situation -- particularly if it involves race but not exclusively -- add in socio-economics.
2) A crime was committed; it must be investigated. Someone was running; this person was identified as the guy. He is confronted by cops; for some reason, he seems nonchalant. He heard the copter, he knows whether he was running, he knows the deal with cops considering his criminal background. He likely knows what he needs to do in their presence. He does not respond to commands with an object in his hand in the dark. Cops can't know what it is. No reasonable person would say it can't be a gun or is likely not a gun. If it's a gun, they could be shot. It happens.
3) Cops follow their training based on a misperception that it was a gun. They kill him.
4) The gun culture is not going away. Policing isn't going away. Particular potentially high risk confrontations between police and citizens not going away.
5) Do what the police chief in Baton Rouge suggested -- Comply as best you can to avoid harm. Meanwhile make progress with police training, improved social conditions & gun control.
4
Yet they shoot compliant people as well. See Minneapolis and elsewhere. There is a great video of a policeman shooting a compliant black man in his care as he slowly reaches to get his license just as he has told the cop he will. Fortunately the man isn’t killed and there is s very Interesting exchange between the cop and the victim when the victim asks why he was shot: the cop
Simply says “ I don’t know”
2
Yes it's a terrible problem. Compliance is the safest path. The proliferation of guns makes the situation highly volatile and tense. Thrown in a higher perception of danger due to race and terrible things happen. Many times I've seen cops respond in ways that make no sense -- witness that white man shot in the hotel by the cop barking orders. And that man was crawling trying to comply. Horrible and unnecessary, but the cop got off due to the objective perception of a noncompliant move by the suspect. Compliance on the suspect side and restraint on the police side make these irretrievable situations less likely. It's hard to think though when both are full of adrenalin.
The "objective reasonableness" standard is being applied to the shooting, but not to all the actions that led to the shooting: A helicopter chase of a reported vandal with drawn guns through the backyards of private property? When did that become "objectively reasonable"?
All I have read about that is that someone complained about two windows broken in a truck. What was it about that call to 911 that required such a show of force? I have wondered if it were a swat call, if it even happened, if the method of breaking those windows was a gun. What made those precursors to shooting a man in his back yard "objectively reasonable"?
11
I could not love Stephon Clark more if he were my son. He was hardly more than a boy, with a boy's careless attitude toward other people's property and the lives of not one but two children he had no way to support. He learned tragic ways to relate to armed police, and now he is forever dead. Those who failed to teach him how to control his impulses, those who failed to help him learn a productive life, failed him as much as he failed them. I have spent most of my life teaching philosophy (of all things!) to young black men, and heard with joy their stories of how getting that big picture of life helped them find their way. If we could dare to risk giving all young black men the kind of big picture they need, we would save many lives. Oh, but then they would be able to compete with our children in the marketplace, and to vote thoughtfully. I don't think we want that to happen, so the break-ins and fatal shootings will go on and on, and more of my sons--our sons--will die.
78
I appreciate your perspective and agree, but another aspect of not wanting young black men to compete and vote and fully participate in society is that it fuels the attitude that society doesn't need to insist that police conform to standards consistent with making the taking of life the last resort, not the "unfortunate" but "necesary" operating procedure in policing today that gives racist and abusive police officers, armed to the hilt, the power to set their own policies and procedures - policies and procedures that result in the deaths of unarmed black men.
Yes, everyone should learn how to relate to armed police, but that's not the issue. Black men are told to act as if the police aren't out to kill them, when in, fact, they are justified in believing that they will do just that.
Any police officer worth his or her badge knows that people, guilty or innocent, react badly out of fear. And yet, we keep blaming young black men, justified in believing that police are a threat to their very lives, whether they have committed a crime or not, for reacting to police in fear.
Running away, mouthing off, and other nonviolent responses generated by fear of police should not be tantamount to a death sentence.
That all too often it has become so, is a testament to how degraded our society's moral compass is becoming, how quickly overt racism has made a comeback, and how badly these have affected our criminal justice system in general, and policing in particular.
11
You've spent most of your life teaching philosophy to young black men. Ghetto dwellers, as a rule?
Alexander the Great got perhaps the greatest philosophical education; conquered much of the known world by force.
'If we could ... risk giving all young black men the kind of big picture they need, we would save many lives'. That is highly doubtful, more doubtful is that it is not done because of a fear of increased competition in 'our' society, whatever that means.
Whatever may be dreamt of in your philosophy, armed police continue to be called into heavily armed areas. They don't necessarily wish to, but many less are called to arms because they do. It is another situation that calls forth accusations of callousness in the face of obvious easy solutions, of which there are none.
1
You “love him” but assume that he was breaking into the house? I suggest that you get your information and facts clear before you venture to make recommendations to members of a minority about whom the police suspect the worst before these people get a chance to breathe. Not excusing real crime but on the outher hand I don’t excuse the police from deciding that it’s a crime to get into your own home. I also recall Prof. Gates having the same problem and that was during the day!
12
Just as we lead the world in mass murder by firearms, we lead the world in killing of unarmed suspects by police while attempting interrogation.
Both are tied to the unlimited availability of firearms.
The police are victims of this unlimited supply of arms that threatens them, just as are children and ourselves are potential victims.
Neither can be resolved until we solve the handgun and attack rifle problem in our country. Neither can be justified by the 2nd amendment. It didn't become a problem until the SCOTUS wrongly changed its interpretation of the amendment by the political right, which used it for political purposes.
15
But the police kill citizens at a rate of more than ten for every policeman killed... and they are somehow the victims...instead of a victorious army.
2
Police shootings are a direct consequence of the ubiquity of guns in this country. A traffic pullover or a domestic problem are the two most difficult experiences for the police because they are unpredictable. The police must assume the driver is armed or the party to a domestic dispute is armed. A cell phone in a dark alley is easily confused with a gun. The news is replete with cops killed in a otherwise normal traffic stop. This is not to ignore race, but if there was not the concern of mortal danger far fewer Sacramentos would take place.
11
But you are ignoring race. Statistics show that about 2 1/2 times as many black are killed by police when you take race into account in spite of the fact that fewer blacks carry guns.
On top of it, the number of "inaccurate stories" told by police to justify those shootings doesn't shore up their credibility.
1
Thank you Mr. Blow for a beautifully written piece about our ongoing American tragedy.
21
The proliferation of guns is also a factor. Police are justified in thinking those they pursue might be armed. Unless we deal with that reality, we can't do much about police reacting with undue force.
It seems problematic that we have a political environment where people win votes by praising police who are "tough" and who administer extra-legal punishment. That's something that affects all races and classes of people.
19
In my opinion it makes perfect sense for the police to continue to use deadly force whenever and wherever they feel threatened even though they could be trained to use non-lethal deterrence in cases such as this. Why? This is simply the authoritarian nature of the future in which it will be easier to implement martial law.
6
Nature of the future? It is a direct result of a past that thrived economically on slavery.
1
I believe there is a problem culture within law enforcement that cannot be changed with training. It begins with the persons aspiring, then hired. The problem culture is brought to law enforcement by many of the persons drawn to the career.
I once encountered a rent-a-cop guard at a campground. We arrived late and he gruffly permitted us to enter the campgrounds and followed us in his car (we had a reservation and were meeting another family), but when I could not find the site in the dark he pulled up to our car, gun in hand and told me to get out of the car with my hands up. The role of "authority" had gone to his head.
A later police encounter sent the same message. I was treated harshly, told to shut my mouth when I asked what was the problem. When I stepped back I was ordered/threatened to stay where I stood.
It may be that police need to take charge in a situation that is not fully understood. But, when police act as wannabe Napoleons they go down a path of self-justification for whatever actions they take.
I am a white male professional. I am lucky. If I were black I may not have survived these encounters. Being white and perceived less threatening, I was treated with "restraint."
Law enforcement must do a better job screening applicants who come to the job with issues and a need to exercise authority.
I applaud the many healthy men and women police officers who risk their lives to serve communities with honor while retaining respect for the people they serve.
79
Watch the video. Listen to the panic in the voice of the officer who shouts, "Gun, Gun, Gun". Look at the situation. A helicopter and several officers had been dispatched in response to the report of a broken window. It was a dark night and Mr. Clark is not visible in the video. The officers probably were able to see more than the cameras were able to record.
I am struck by the panic in the voice, the darkness, the overwhelming response to an apparently minor crime and how quickly the officer cried out that he had seen a gun.
What was objectively reasonable about the overwhelming response? What is the station house culture in Sacramento? What was objectively reasonable?
These are not easy questions to answer.
45
Their fears are not entirely irrational, which is part of the problem and why their behavior appears to be "acceptable." Most people recognize that gun violence has reached the point where everyone is endangered, cops included.
Nevertheless, the response of police officers must change. Of that there is no question. At the same time we cannot expect them to endanger themselves to serve the demands of groups who have little appreciation for their safety.
This situation has to be dealt with carefully to protect everyone involved.
15
More cops die by suicide than by acts of criminals.
You can ask "objectively reasonable" local response questions ad infinitum, until you look at the objective totality of these cases and locales.
This was Sacramento. Tamir Rice was just a little kid on a playground (in Ohio if memory serves?), almost **instantly** gunned down on arrival by police. Philando Castile was stopped for a minor traffic violation in Minnesota. Trayvon Martin was walking home in Florida. Mr. Garner was peddling loose cigarettes in NYC. Amadou Diallo, also in NY, was standing in a doorway. The list of these incidents is endless - the common denominator is race.
Very few of those situations had any reason to project immediate threat - even in Tamir's case he was holding a "gun," a toy, but he was obviously a kid. But selling cigs? Stopped for a broken tail light? Answering a vandalism call?
Come on. It's tough being a cop, but there is something more than warranted "objectively reasonable" facts going on here.
4
There are a few aspects to this story that resulted in a tragedy. The first is that the officers assumed the "vandal" more than likely had a gun. So when the prejudice of the person they sought was he was carrying a gun was preset, the officers began the search with the mindset they would have a high probability of using their weapons. So if you were entering a situation thinking the same thing, the outcome would likely be the same. Now that said, the problems needing addressing are 1. getting the police officers to challenge their prejudice that all black people are armed and 2. addressing the ubiquity of guns. We are reaching the point where, with 300 million guns in American society, and the gun lobby's view that the way to address gun violence is by having everyone carry a gun, expect this trend to continue. This is the convergence of two long term and difficult societal problems: racism and ubiquitous guns. Racism is clearly deep rooted in the American mindset. The view that the only answer to "bad guys with guns" is "good guys with guns" only exacerbates the problem. Everyone in America has a cell phone. Theft of them is not a huge problem. Because they are useless in the thief's hands. The reason people steal guns is they continue to function after being stolen. Making guns useless in the wrong hands will help tremendously. Then we can work more effectively on the racism part.
52
I don't know that it's such a ridiculous idea that officers approach every encounter with the possibility of a potential suspect possessing a gun. It likely depends upon the community in which they work. A rural sheriff's deputy pulling over a vehicle for a traffic violation of some kind probably doesn't feel as threatened as a big city officer where they are frequently involved in traffic stops where the occupants of the vehicle actually do have guns. This has to be put in perspective. That said, perhaps one-size-fits-all training is a problem.
I also think that law enforcement agencies in communities with higher incidence of crimes, hence greater potential for officers to experience trauma, set officers up to stay on the job even though they should not be. Combine the trauma of some incidents, the lack of mental health resources and the adrenaline that courses through their bodies every time they respond to a potentially dangerous call, we end up with officers reporting for duty in a vulnerable state where mistakes are going to happen.
I'm not trying to excuse any of the racial bias that clearly is a large part of why this happens to African American men. I just think this is far more complex than any of us know. And to fix this, we have to know all the contributing factors. One thing is certain. We MUST fix this problem of African American men being disproportionately being killed by police.
3
Each case must stand on its own merits, but the other side to the fact that police officers killed 987 people by a firearm in 2017 is 66 police offers were killed by a firearm in the same year.
Both the citizenry and police need to do a better job in moving towards community policing recognizing the rights of one another to be free from unnecessary death by a firearm, but the Second Amendment cuts both ways.
15
I admire your restraint, Mr. Blow, in describing the obvious racial bias in our society and the policing thereof. I would add that an adjunct social ill that contributes to this sad state of affairs, one that makes it so deadly, is this country's gun culture. In how many cases is the victim of a police shooting thought to be reaching for a gun? Even a child waving a toy is "objectively and reasonably" assumed to have an actual gun. Without the perceived threat of imminent injury, the police would not "objectively and reasonably" feel compelled to respond with overwhelming fire power. Just as many gun proponents openly admit that a certain number of deaths, even mass shootings, is the price of "freedom", so our society's acceptance that a disproportionate number of black men are killed as the price for our "safety".
68
These incidents will continue to happen until people react as I was taught to some 70 years ago. Do not resist arrest, and that includes fleeing, let alone fighting. The latter is the prevalent practice.
24
Yes, in almost all cases the cops repeatedly gave commands that were ignored. It may be the greatest contributor to their fatal shootings.
That said, there needs to be a better way to deal with people who don't comply. As Mr. Blow points out they are frightened and disoriented too.
1
You didn't read about the people who had their hands up or were on the ground and still killed by the police? Giving in to police violence isn't the answer.
6
How will that help the man who informed the cops who stopped him that he had a legal gun in his car and was immediately murdered by the cop who pulled him over? He did everything that was asked of him, but the cop murdered him--and the cop was exonerated.
5
Blow is blind here to the motives of those who disagree with him. He's so invested in his own virtue that he is blind to all disagreement. Too many others are like him. This prevents us getting together to find a solution.
Blow himself has admitted this. He has written in this space that if he and his gun-loving brother sat down with power to fix this, they'd come up with something that would be better.
Blow's brother can't really "accept" these killings. Blow can't really think he does, not after writing that about him.
Much of the opposition disagrees because we don't think anything being suggested will work. "Do something" does not mean do anything however ineffective of simply foolish.
Start with mass killings. The most deadly have been with bombs, not guns. And there have been many of them.
Then consider the large numbers of individual killings. London has had more murders than NYC for months now. They were all stabbings. No guns, but not safety either.
Some tiny reduction in the increase in 300 million + firearms is not going to solve this.
Even a total ban won't, because there are so many that criminals will readily get them for the next century. Australia's total ban was just interrupted by a mass surrender of their non-existent firearms. They are everywhere, and those most motivated will be most likely to find them.
The killing is the problem. The guns are just one tool. There are many other tools, and guns can't be eliminated anyway.
11
To not admit that the prevalence of guns is part of the problem: a BIG part, is to be blind to the facts. While it is true about London's murder rate, the fact is that more people can be and are killed by semi-automatic weapons in this country. Surely, banning them would be a really good first step, here.
4
What op-ed did you read? This isn't about guns on the street, it's about violence by police officers. It's about how it's legal for the police to kill unarmed people.
4
They can and they will. Republicans are on there way out. They have made a mess of things every chance they’re given. They stole the last to elections they (won). And look at us now. We would be the laughing stock of the world if we weren’t so dangerous.
3
When the investigation is completed I suspect that Mr. Clark will be found culpable in his own death. What will likely be discovered is that the area, to anyone responsively observant, was involved in a police action with a police helicopter overhead with spotlight shinning and at least one police car with lights flashing. Mr. Clark will likely be found to have smashed a window under police observation and in jumping a fence and running towards a door with an object in his hand and did not acknowledge a police directive. The police may well be found to have overreacted but will likely be found to have followed the general guidelines in such a situation and be exonerated.
With the rules of engagement of police departments as they are generally written in cities and counties across the U.S., citizens should be taught survival skills in school from an early age. Black, white or yellow, survival instincts and appropriate actions must come into play in situations such as this. Children should be taught to take their hands out of their pockets with nothing held in them. Walk slowly. When confronted by the police and if directed, stop and follow directions implicitly. If in a car and signaled to pull over, do so in a safe way and stop, turn off your ignition, open your window and place your hands in the ten and two position on the steering wheel and follow orders. This is not a time to be indignant; this is a time to avoid negative responses by the police in a tense situation.
21
Joseph, A friend gave me similar advice long ago.
And of all the times over the decades I’ve been pulled over for going a wee bit above the speed limit, those wise words have probably saved me countless tickets, me receiving mosty verbal warnings.
The more important factor for my Irish luck is certainly due to that pasty white skin that comes with the heritage.
My luck wouldn’t have held out for so long had I looked a bit more like the late Mr. Clark.
4
And yet people have done all of these things and been shot anyway
4
Joe kaz....uh, why should we train children to be expecting irrational, adrenaline fueled, fear driven behaviors on the psrt of cops? Arent they the alleged professionals?
And when you say "children should be taught" - you mean children of color, or of a suspected group? You dont mean white, or Israeli, or the alleged superior group, right?
We dont pay cops to go on a hot-pursuit for a nuisance crime. No need to...patrol and protect.
4
“The way to change prevailing practice is to require that the permissible level of fear cannot be race-based.” This seems to be a sort of a PC prescription for leaving well enough alone. To permit killing someone as long as there is no hard evidence of no fear? This is not a solution but a slow aggravation and the allowance of an unacceptable trend. Should we think that it is more efficient to codify non-race based fear killing and marry that up with the Graham v. Connor ruling as opposed to simply abandoning it and defining better boundaries in these cases? I really don’t think we will lawyer our way out of this with a Band-Aid approach.
Prevailing practice has prevailed into an acceptable level of reactionary killing of mainly black Americans because they are the ones most feared. Feared for reasons that are deeply ingrained in our collective cultural DNA.
The over militarization in the arming and training of police departments in America has contributed in a big way to this problem. I would be surprised to find that most newly hired officers since the gulf wars did NOT come straight out of the military. Our militaries purpose is and should be protect our national interest and that unfortunately involves sectioned killing. Our police departments purpose is to serve the community a stable and safe place to live and it is rightly assumed that people in the communities are not enemies. These two objectives should be separated.
13
Beautifully written, as always, blisteringly argued. There is no doubt, if indeed there ever were, that when all the ills of US society and culture intersect with race, the outcome is all the more devastating for those who suffer the former and are named by the latter. This is what happens when an unbridled gun culture is placed at the service of historic, systemic racism. I cannot bear it.
59
I have been following this tragedy; a father shot in the back multiple times. On almost every level the facts, as they've been reported, don't make sense. What caused the police officers to shoot? Surely none of them would want the aftermath; to be seen as murderers trying to cover their tracks. How did they arrive at this place? Is it the culture of policing, power over others, hold nothing back? Being at risk every day? PTSD? What is the truth police share among themselves? I want to understand so that we can learn from this tragic loss and prevent other shootings.
31
The death of Stephen Clark should not have happened. What is most unreasonable is that twenty shots were fired, some of them when he was already down and on his stomach. It would have been unreasonable if a civilian carrying a legal handgun had fired an entire magazine at a suspected predator – for two trained police officers each to empty a magazine at a suspect, on suspicion that he had a weapon out (that turned out to be a cellphone) is … just unreasonable. That many shots fired strongly suggests the intent to kill.
It raises questions. A 911 call had been phoned in complaining of someone breaking windows in that general area. A helicopter and the officers were scrambled, and the police claim that the helicopter observed a man breaking a window then leaping into the adjacent backyard. So, they certainly had probable cause to investigate Clark, but what in heavens name justifies emptying two magazines at him?
With the information known, I see no objective reason for suggesting that the cops were reacting to Clark’s race. How many WHITE people are there in Compton? What this appears to be on its face is a failure of training, and perhaps panic by the police officers. And for these apparent police failures a man died.
Charles has a case. Cops must be able to protect themselves, but there needs to be better evidence of a gun and the intent to use it before two full magazines are emptied in response.
But Charles shouldn’t assume that America merely accepts this tragedy.
26
Overreacting with a gun in your hand and a license to shoot is deadly mix. Police officer "panic" may be a reality but it has no place in these situations. Training must address this.
11
You will never see an objective reason for police reacting to Clark's race. Your posts through the years make that point obvious. Your republican ideology is once again excessive,to use one of your favorite terms.
This sad story has two exceptional bookends. The Mayor of Sacramento, Darrell Steinberg, is a good and decent man who has focused much of a long political career at providing care for the mentally ill and homeless—regardless of their skin color or cultural background.
The Chief of Police is equally kind. I was his father’s friend
and can say that Daniel Hahn was kind even as a little boy.
Mr. Blow is right: this whole circumstance is so profoundly wrong. We missed our chance in 1877 with the peremptory end of Reconstruction to face down racism and the inter-generational unfairness it has worked for African Americans.
The loss of Stephon was tragic and maybe/probably preventable. As the column suggests it sits squarely in the center of layers of problems that have racism and financial exploitation at the center of them.
The Mayor is a highly ethical and experienced political
Leader. The Chief is the soul of compassion and decency.
I pray that they can find enough space in the public consciousness to build something that will be a continuing benefit to the whole community.
31
A recent Trump tweet is the 3rd time his Paul Revere warnings about terrorists, gangs, and now DACA immigrants marshaling on the Southern border, but this one is prevented by law: DACA requires an undocumented persons to be living in the US since their 16th birthday! Trump's continuing silence on the deaths of innocent youth killed by police in the grip of their imaginary fears is a greater warning: it is a public sanction of crimes—a stain on the flag. If kneeling is disrespect, his is a cold shoulder toward spilled blood. The dawn's early light shines on wailing, devastated families. Videos show indifference—Sacramento police deliberately turned off cans in contempt of the idea of truth finding, a visual record and reference of events.
Too often, too long, the new night riders wear law enforcement uniforms; the lynching rope has become a service weapon. Instead of declaring the right to incriminate myself, I have the right to defend myself, based on my imagination. The mantra for every shooting: he reached/turned/moved/appeared--except he didn't. Then silence.
Guns, in the hands of civilians and the state, train communities in a Pavlovian response triggered by gun shots, the unspoken permission that death is a part of the price of security and safety. The silence that follows fails to identify this safety as oppression, a violent tyranny. Silence says killing is more important than due process, or the simple option to stand down.
89
The objective reasonableness standard should be an affirmative defense to the charge of homicide by a police officer. Whether an officer's actions were reasonable should be decided by a jury after a trial, where expert witnesses can provide evidence, not by a prosecutor who shares the PD's interest in seeing an officer exonerated. I would favor a policy requiring every police officer be charged when they kill an unarmed person in the line of duty. Let a jury decide whether the officer had a reasonable fear for his life.
48
Wow! Posting from Cape Cod, no less. When did you, Susan, last put yourself in harm's way, in a possibly gang infested environment where you are considered the enemy, endangering yourself just to protect total strangers? When have you ever had that experience? Please walk in a cop's shoes before making assumptions.
2
I cannot believe they could be scot-free. They killed a person. If they did it by accident they are still guilty of negligence. Most likely they did it in spite of low level of confidence of facing danger. No punishment certainly does not help preventing such killings from recurring.
33
A comment which is expressed often is that this man was shot because of the crime he was suspected of having committed. Even if he was suspected of serial murders and the evidence seemed to prove it with certainty, police have no right to shoot him for it. Police may use deadly force with similar constraints as you and me, in self defense or for others where threatened by death or serious injury, never to punish.
Police may use the force needed to control and subdue not to punish nor for retribution. When they use deadly force it’s to prevent harm.
When police punish suspects, using force beyond what is needed intentionally, that is illegal and is police brutality. But when police shoot an unarmed suspect who they fear is reaching for a gun or is moving to attack them from their perspective it’s a matter of self defense where the rules are different, actions must be taken before the peril is confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt.
18
Sometimes there is no time for police to chat with the suspect in order to figure out if he/she plans to kill them or not. But you know that, you just want more cops killed.
I agree that these killings have become acceptable; not, of course, that they should be. We have also come to accept that an average of 100 people will die each day due to gun shot so that we can have a plethora of guns in our society. I believe that the long term death of such cooperative/collaborative agencies as unions and churches have fostered this because we no longer act collectively. We are loud, but we are disorganized and nothing gets accomplished. For me, the last great moral force in our nation was killed by James Earl Ray - Yes, Martin Luther King, Jr. - with the consequent decline fostered by the conservative party. MLK fostered hope. Obama got elected on that basis. Most other leaders, Bernie Sanders included haven't quite figured out a positive message, too much negative message. And as Trump has shown, sometimes that works. But it does not solve any of our problems.
7
There is a local police organization called "The Barbershop Forum" that tries to bridge the gap between the police force and the community they serve, i.e Oakland and the rest of East Bay in the San Francisco Area. Periodically they have a meet and greet with food donated by the community.
The invitation to attend came up in my local neighborhood blog, one day I had an hour to check it out. The ratio of police to city residents, in my estimate was 10 police officers and trainees to possibly three residents. The police chief was there as well but no local politicians. Most of the attendees were related to former offenders and some were people were themselves incarcerated for decades(!), there to do community service to keep young people away from criminal activity. They all knew each other well, and it was covered by a local TV channel. There were maybe four of us, "outsiders."
With the Trump effect I wanted to get involved locally in a couple of organizations, but my efforts here were fruitless because the police, nice people, were only talking to themselves (the cocktail party effect) but made no serious effort to bring residents outside of their "known" group. I asked the organizer to include me in their community organization effort but till now, nothing.
Admirable effort but how will they bridge the gap?
If local residents remain uninvolved, politicians will punt it, and on up to the State and Federal levels. The apathy is frightful on many counts,
19
One of the striking things about this case is that the police were investigating a report of VANDALISM. Not a shooting, not an armed robbery, but VANDALISM. There was no reason, other than prejudice, to believe the cell phone was a gun
244
Vandalism, or breaking windows can be the beginning of a robbery. And running though back yards in the middle of the night looks suspiciously robbery related to me, too. In fact, running through a yard you don't own is trespassing; in some states the home owner is within his/her rights to shoot a trespasser who refuses to leave.
One fact that seems to be missing is the likelihood that this man actually had a gun. I suspect it was very high.
3
The bears are coming out of hibernation and were discovered as young humans having a celebratory midnight picnic after leaving a squalor and mess for my neighbor and I to pick up on April Fools Day.
They have no place to hang out, these young, and while assessing that they enjoy cupcakes and bull power, it is going to take a young black firefighter, a landscaper, a renovator, the guardian of children of all color, an American to teach these young how to clean up.
Vandalism, trespassing, littering and loitering are shallow words on young ears and it is going to take more to make them understand We are approaching the borderline of Their Future.
For young poets, these words come to mind: 'Long hoped for calm, the autumnal serenity and the wisdom of age? Had they deceived us or deceived themselves, the quiet-voiced elders, bequeathing us merely a receipt for deceit?
Such poetical words by T.S. Eliot are going to fall flat, and the author knew this as he was writing.
Remember we gave you Life. You had no choice in the matter. If you are loved, you are among the true privileged.
Be careful how to use personal independence in times of violence, and for those of color with a cellphone in hand, paint it bright orange and hold it high for the Raging Law to see.
1
"Objective reasonableness" needs explication to be an actual standard rather than unanchored permission. Objective reasonableness about what? The impossibility of backing off, that's what.
14
Its a sad reminder that the police are engaged in a stressful job and are armed, and if they give you an order, you need to show them your hands and comply. This should be taught in school. It would save lives.
22
But it wouldn't have saved Stephon Clark or Tamir Rice or countless others because they were complying.
I don't buy the excuse that the police had no choice here. Some bad cops choose to escalate situations because they know they won't be held accountable. These officers muted their cameras for a reason.
111
And likewise, police should be taught not to threaten and point guns at citizens who’ve done absolutely nothing wrong. And if they do so, they should be held accountable, tried in a court of law, and if found guilty punished appropriately. Right?
51
Michael Brown and Ferguson rest in mind at dawn. 'It is not my responsibility' from a hard-working man who makes his daily living by selling newspapers, and is constantly checked by the Police. He was born in another country and has been supporting his family for years.
So what! The truth of the matter is that his cat, the mouser, would be far more missed than his carer who looks despondent.
Should you be approached by a police officer, treat this individual with white gloves and throw yourself on the ground. An American friend has been teaching his son early in life not to fool around with these lawful representatives. His son whose maternal parent is from Africa is sharp. He is now a graduate from public school on scholarship; a top scientist in his class of all national alumni, he is no fool when it comes to these harsh realities.
We can do better for our Young, and teach them about the two-way Street, where one palm helps the other.
1
While every shooting incident requires careful investigation to determine the facts, we now have enough examples to detect a pattern.
When dealing with black suspects, the police tend to shout commands then shoot before the suspect has time to respond. When they physically attack the person, they use more force than necessary to subdue him. In both cases, I think, there are two possible explanations for excessive reliance on force. Fear seems the most likely reason, especially given the fact that a number of police officers have been killed in the last year or so.
But changes in police tactics in recent decades also play an important role. The US military has equipped police departments with advanced weaponry and other forms of technology that seem more suited to a war zone than to urban America. Training in military tactics has accompanied the transfer of this equipment, converting an armed force whose stated mission focuses on protecting citizens into an occupying force, especially in the inner cities.
This background encourages officers to view inner city residents as suspects rather than people needing protection. The enemy in a war zone does not deserve the same consideration as one's fellow citizens. If we want the police to behave better in the inner cities, we need to change their perception of themselves as an army of occupation.
112
Two police officers against one person in a quiet backyard does not seem like a scenario where the officers could reasonably belive that their lives were being threatened, thus prompting them to use deadly force.
The officers' fears were not justified.
145
All it takes is one bullet to kill someone, so the fact there were many more officers is not a reason to think that at least one of those officers lives were being threatened.
1
Stone, on the basis of what evidence? And calls of guns in the area? Any actual evidence at all? Or just simply paranoia accompanied by a sense of justification in emptying your gun at anything that moves that you associate with a threat? These policemen react like they are in a video game, where you automatically fire, and your allies aren't effected. They KILLED someone, and they did it with zero justification for unloading their weapons, and afterwards, they didn't care if he died laying on the ground while they waited for "backup". They also muted their body cameras once they needed to discuss what they were doing. All unsupportable.
Here we have fear on the part of police who just want to get home meeting a suspect armed with a cellphone for a nuisance-level crime. Why, why, why were a chopper and pursuit by armed cops necessary in a situation like this? What's the purpose? Escalation much?
177
Our police force is militarized. They have firepower fit for war, and they appear unhesitant to use it to respond to any purported crime, no matter how trivial. Thankfully, our nation is saved from becoming a police state due to decentralization of local law enforcement, and an independent court system with citizen juries. Pray (and advocate) that we see those institutions preserved through our lifetimes.
21
Our schlemiel president said that police should rough up the suspects. I guess the police are taking his advice to an extreme.
We still live an institutionalized violence, racialized at least subconsciously, with ongoing housing discrimination and socio-economic inequities, where police brutality is the result of poor education to make us aware of the problem and amend our ways. Black lives seem too cheap to consider changing our habits of intolerance. Perhaps we ought to consider removing lethal guns from the police, use alternatives i.e. tasers, unless primed to resolve conflicts peacefully.
23
Mr. Blow, your opinion is the best analysis from a member of the media I have read. Indeed, Graham v. Connor is the reason these shootings continue to happen. I respectfully suggest that this opinion and the video of the shooting of Deputy Kyle Dinkheller strongly influence the choice of police officers to shoot.
For the past. 20 years, the Dinkheller video has been used by law enforcement training academies throughout the country to teach the consequences of hesitating to shoot.
I do not know what can be done to change Graham v. Connor since it is a SCOTUS ruling, and I do not know what can be done to change training.
Critics of law enforcement, however, must look at the politicians who order police to interact differently with various demographic groups in the same community. When a city manager or city council directs a police department to run off the "dregs" of society from downtown condominiums, upscale hotels, businesses, or tourist hot spots, the police will interact with people of color on a more frequent basis. The more frequently police interact, the more likely force will be used, especially when a stop is based upon less than probable cause per Terry v. Ohio, another SCOTUS ruling.
Look at the politicians too for they are equally as culpable.
45
My town recently hosted a "Coffee with a cop" event at which citizens were welcomed, at a local cafe, to bring any concerns, criticisms, compliments or other comments to a group of officers. It was, in addition to being a good exchange of ideas, an opportunity for those in uniform and civilians to get to understand each other as people. The local officers also have other constructive activities, like playing basketball with youths, which build mutual trust and respect.
If such positive interactions could be duplicated across the country, that would lead to better relations between civilians and officers.
The vast majority of police are good people who want to serve honorably. And every time the 'bad apples' make a tragedy, like killing an unarmed suspect, they make the goals of their good colleagues that much harder.
16
These police were not bad apples.
I believe they had a right to shoot this man if they thought he was a threat to their lives.
They did not know the instrument in his hand was a phone so they legitimately acted to defend themselves and were not dishonorable by doing so.
They did act unprofessionally when they did not see they guy he they shot were no longer a threat to their lives.
This made them unqualified to do the work police are paid to do.
It did not make them bad people.
10
You do realize that cops are not authorized to shoot someone a) just for having a gun or b) simply because they feel at all threatened?
They're cops. By definition, they are required to place themselves in situations where they are likely to be "threatened." Even when they feel that their lives are threatened. Honestly-do you really think that cops have the right to just shoot anyone who poses any type of threat? That's absurd.
The *real* standard is whether the officer's believe that the use of deadly force to preserve their lives was reasonable. That's different than simply "feeling threatened."
Stone,
Then why did a half dozen armed and armored police have no problem holding their fire as they slowly approached a white guy they were pretty sure had a bomb in Austin? If you can answer that I will accept your argument. Until then cops and their defenders are racist punks.
Isn’t it obviously negligent for police to run into a backyard and shoot someone? They’re not chasing someone through the woods, they’re going into a private space where people are allowed to sit around with a phone or can of beer or gun in their hand. The highest measure of care should be expected. I have sat in the back yard with my dad and my son and a half a dozen guns in our hands or laid out on a table in front of us. It’s incredible to think we could be shot dead for no more than enjoying our private property. And if I were in my yard at night with a police helicopter overhead and noises coming from around the corner, I would be ready to meet the perp. I wouldn’t for a minute think it was police coming after me.
78
You’re exactly right. If we can’t reasonably expect police not to trespass and attack us on private property while we’re engaged in peaceful activities, then how can we be expected to tell the difference between a SWAT team and a criminal home invasion against which we’ve the legal right to defend?
6
None of the articles or discussions put forward data necessary to understand what is happening. I would like to know how often police in various departments draw their weapons, shoot, and kill someone who is actually armed. I would like to know how many unarmed people have been shot while police are investigating minor and non-violent crime.
44
Some data is here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2017/
For 2017, 987 people were shot and killed by police. 68, or about 7% were unarmed (another 26 were "unknown"--presumably not reported). Of those 68 unarmed homicides, 30 were white and 20 black (leaving 18 others, mostly Hispanic). Of the 987 total, 457 were white and 223 black, 179 Hispanic and the remainder is other/unknown.
It doesn't give all the breakdowns you asked for, but is a start.
1
Clark’s behavior prior to the encounter with police was violent and what was motivating it was not obvious but he evaded police to avoid being held responsible. When police confronted him they would not have known if he might attack them. It was at night, outside of a house. Now maybe the police failed to take actions that they should have or maybe the man’s behavior appeared to from their perspective to be threatening. Nobody can tell for sure.
When people don’t have enough facts to inform them but they feel that the must, they imagine possible explanations. It’s a lack of patience which many people must learn to resist in situations where what is most important is knowing rather than acting.
The public reaction over this has nothing to do with understanding anything, it’s focused upon delivering a message which people are trying to keep in the public discussion, that African American people have more problems, proportionally, with the criminal justice system because every jurisdiction in the country make it their jobs to make it look like there are more crimes, proportionally, committed by them when if they treated them like everyone else that they would not.
13
We dont actually know that Mr. Clark's behavior was before he was murdered. We don't know if he was the guy that broke ONE patio door near his grandmother's home (and his home). Anyone would run is being chased in the dark and run towards home instinctively. Cops don't have the right to judge and murder possible suspects for trivial crimes. And in CA, fleeing officers to avoid arrest is a misdemeanor. A civil society does not murder folks for misdemeanors. And the cops, as seen on the cop video, did not announce they were cops. Who wouldn't run from two men chasing them? You assume the guy broke a window and from that you get that murdering him was acceptable?
4
What good is an "educated populace," if most graduates cannot have a knowledgeable, factual discussion of slavery and it's aftershocks.
How is US history taught in our educational system?
I am so sorry.
18
What standard, exactly, should replace the "objectively reasonable" standard for the use of force? I'd love to hear a suggestion.
12
What's the definition of "objectively reasonable?" What about defining that standard more precisely, and adding a requirement to deescalate when appropriate?
Similarly I think those states with stand-your-ground laws have suffered from increasing gun homicides because there is no longer a requirement to retreat.
6
Perhaps that standard would be a good one if fewer police officers tended to see every black man as probably heavily armed and intent on murder.
1
Give it a try. Explain what was objectively reasonable about two cops killing a black MISDEMEANOR suspect? Is racist fear of black men objective reasonableness? I don't think so.
1
It's legitimate to blame Americans, but I point a finger at our media. Few realize how many minority men are shot by cops every years. The film of those who kept firing at an innocent victim that surfaced recently was not shown on the evening news.
We are cursed by racist and vicious police, and Congressmen who are easily bought. Until we recover our souls, and replace those types, little will change.
21
"how many minority men are shot by cops every years" who did not OBEY the direct orders to stop by the officers? You leave out that salient fact which is really at the core of these situations.
Less than 30 unarmed black men are shot by police every year. When those fleeing or assaulting police, it's even fewer. More Americans are killed by lightning.
Why do you feel you know this number.
Maybe you are the one who is miss informed.
Mr. Blow is right about one thing. The evidence suggests that we as a society do not value the lives of African American lives as much as we should, especially those of young African American men. But the police are not the problem. African Americans are more likely to meet a violent death than other Americans, but not because of police misconduct. Every time a case like Stephon Clark's occurs, two logical errors are made. First, the case is treated as more significant that the anecdotal evidence it represents. Secondly, people with an anti-police agenda assume bad faith on the part of the police before most of the evidence is even known, refusing to take into account the dynamics of the split-second, life-or-death decisions that police must make, a reality that Mr. Blow here explicitly rejects. Citizens literally experience millions of interactions with police every year, and African Americans are more likely to interact with the police than other ethnic or racial groups. The only statistical evidence Charles cites in supporting systematic discrimination in these police interactions was conducted by an advocacy group with an agenda that is adversarial toward the police. And even they explicitly admit that, "they did not gather enough data specifically related to police shootings to draw conclusions on whether there were racial disparities when it came to the fatal confrontations between officers and civilians so in the news."
19
Sorry, Charles of Tecumseh, but Mr. Blow actually does not reject the reality that police must make split-second, life-or-death decisions. No one argues that point.
The real issue is that, when encountering Black people (and Black men in particular), police are quicker to assume that they've entered a life-or-death situation than they are when dealing with a White person. The statistics of just how much more frequently Black folks (and unarmed Black folks) are killed by police bear this out.
This is Mr. Blow's point - the "objective reasonableness" of feeling in danger would likely be a reliable standard if no one in the world harbored subconscious prejudice generated by a history and culture of dehumanizing people of color. In this country, we're raised with references to Black folks being criminals and/or inferior people, and we all carry that education with us.
125
Try this. Substitute a young male adult you deeply love, picture him breaking one patio window and then envision two cops slaughtering the young male adult you love deeply . . . for an unproven misdemeanor. Use your logic and explain to me how the statistics support any conclusion but racism. Do you seriously believe a young while male would have been slaughtered, shot in the back multiple times and running away so absolutely not attacking the murdering police? Never.
2
Exactly, James. If the person in the back yard had been a woman with a cell phone, they would NEVER have shot her.
I suggest that the crux of the matter is contained in Mr. Blow's comment:
"The courts have given police officers broad discretion, but they simply aren’t applying that discretion equitably. Certain people, in certain communities, are viewed as more of a threat more quickly."
The problem, I submit, is not that "what [the police] are doing is legal", or that "police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments", but why those judgments (which I agree that, in the last analysis, should remain legal) are more likely to be that lethal force is required in situations involving blacks than non-blacks. In the end, I suspect that the disparity in these judgments does reflect a biased, possibly not even conscious tendency of police officers (and others) to see black people as more likely to be dangerous than others.
If my theory is correct, then what is needed is the development of tools to analyze police officers’ actions after lethal events with an eye to determining whether bias likely influenced the officers' "split-second" judgment. I suspect that unfortunately, no such tools currently exist, meaning that at present, we have no way of determining the importance of bias in an officer's decision. With time, however, perhaps the analysis of these cases with lethal outcomes will lead to development of tools for determining the presence of bias, at which time police officers will start to be held responsible for their biased actions.
7
Over the last several years the deaths of certain people in confrontations with police which contribute to this narrative are initially reported to be unprovoked killings of African Americans which are not in anyway explained reasonably by anything but police indifference concerning their lives. Every time, the facts are determined much later on but by then the initial story, without regard to what is later determined remains the popularly remembered story.
Now everyone who follows stories knows that initial reports are never completely accurate. However, whatever conforms with people’s expectations is hard for people to forget.
Months afterwards, the cases are wrapped up, blame is determined and responsibility is settled. In some cases the initial narrative corresponds but mostly it is far from accurate. But instead of bringing an end, the final findings contribute to a narrative of coverups and systematic repression that involves all people in the criminal justice systems in nearly all jurisdiction, and by people from every race and community.
Does anyone joining in with this actually think that they are on the right track? I think that perhaps this narrative does not conform with the facts and needs to be rejected and a better explanation determined.
2
If you know of any of these shootings that have been proven later to be justified, please share them. Walter Scott was shot in the back as he ran--for a traffic violation! Tamir Rice was a 12-year-old who was never given the chance to drop his toy gun before being shot by a badly trained cop.
2
The scared shout of 'gun gun gun' could be interpreted to mean take cover, don't approach, call for back up, use extra caution. Instead, more and more, it is a command to open fire. Results such as this shouldn't be surprising.
122
And results such as this should not be accepted, rationalized, or swept away after months of paid administrative leave and a cops-reviewing-cops investigation. Charges, convictions, prison, or this will never stop.
1
It isn't just guns, and it isn't just training issues for the police. It is often who wants to be a police officer and why. The culture of the community may determine whether an officer wants the power of the gun and badge or whether he or she truly wants to serve the folks who live in that community.
129
It wasn't an act for safety, it was a sanctioned, predatory hunt. Police should used common sense and approached the front of house. It would have defused the situation instead of heightened hunt, helicopter overhead, weapons drawn, searching for an "animal". This whole "capture" philosophy is damaged from the start.
155
So well put and so very sad.....
"Police Magazine" seems to understand the problem better than some of the commenters defending police.
37
America's original deplorable sins: racism and guns, the dual scourge of a wretched nation.
Perhaps if America weren't insanely littered to death with largely unregulated guns and bullets, America's police force wouldn't be hallucinating about guns where none existed and perhaps they could do their jobs without committing reckless manslaughter on America's minorities.
Maybe a national shooting gallery wasn't such a great idea after all.....except for 'shoot first and think later' kinds of guys who enjoy a good old-fashioned judge-jury-and-executioner style of 'law and order'.
Why'd the corrupt blue code of silence turn off their body camera hot mikes ?
Why is the police punishment for misdemeanors and petty crimes and 'being black' a death sentence.
Why is systemic escalation to deadly force the Pavlovian response to low-level crime ?
"To Protect and to Serve" ?
Remember that one, police of America ?
Guns - and the love thereof - are the death of American human decency.
441
Everyone should listen to the 911 calls that led up to that encounter. The neighbors were terrified of that man.
4
"Protect and Serve" has been replaced by "do anything to make sure you Go Home at the End of Your Shift".
2
Guns + people = tragedy
Cars + people = traffic jams
Humans + marriage = divorce courts
People + booze = alcoholism
Hammers + nails = pounding
Television + bad taste = "Roseanne"
Some things are very predictable. We need to remove some of these factors, if we want different results, yes?
3
As a criminal prosecutor inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to the police, I nonetheless think Mr. Blow is spot on when he notes that:
"The courts have given police officers broad discretion, but they simply aren’t applying that discretion equitably. Certain people, in certain communities, are viewed as more of a threat more quickly."
Mr. Blow speaks to the racial double standard in police killings. The essential truth is that, when assessing the conduct of a white cop toward a black suspect, the cop is granted the benefit of the doubt.
Cops are allowed to treat victims as they perceive them and they are allowed to make mistakes. If a cop perceives a suspect as a threat, and if he is acting in good faith, he will not be convicted.
Mr. Blow correctly points out that the perception of a threat differs depending on whether the suspect is black or white. In short, the law protects cops who are more fearful of blacks.
The way to change prevailing practice is to require that the permissible level of fear cannot be race-based. I believe Mr. Blow is arguing that it always has been and always will be. In my opinion, he is 100% right. And I admire him for recognizing that it is the state of the law, not just police attitudes, that are at the heart of the problem.
226
Do you believe that poverty breeds crime? If so, then the police's attitudes towards those in the poverty community is an apt and logical response to a familiar pattern. I believe police officers are doing the best they can in an armed, poverty stricken and angry society.
2
You are spot on too.
2
In the unnecessarily tragic Stephon Clark case, involving a police pursuit based upon a report of damage to personal property, not any attempted physical assault or actual injurious attack, shouldn't the first rule of required, reasonable conduct by responding officers be to "de-escalate, communicate, and wait" rather than "confront, order, and shoot"? And then there was the escalating presence of that hovering, spotlight-shining helicopter overhead adding to the tension and anxiety on the ground.
116
seriously . . . deploying a helicopter for a broken patio window? They deployed the helicopter because a black was the reported suspect, I bet. Mr. Clark must have been scared witless, must have felt like he was hunted like an animal with the spotlight from the helicopter and the chasing animals trained to kill him.
1
"We regard the dead as collateral damage in a quest for safety and civility, not registering that the countenancing of such killings exposes in us a predisposition for racially skewed cruelty and brutality."
This pretty much sums it up. I can't understand why police officers investigating an incident of neighborhood "vandalism" need helicopters and a gang of officers hunting down a figure in the dark as if he were a member of Al Quaeda, followed by 20 shots.
In accounts of the fast-moving encounter, one report indicated Clark had his hands out when the shots began, and then he ran.
I just read a comment here asking why "these people" can't obey simple police commands. Well, if I were in my grandmother's backyard using my cell phone for light to find the door (the front door wasn't working) and suddenly saw copters over head like a war zone, I'd be petrified.
As Clark surely was, and if he had his hands out per police commands, but they got skittish, and fired anyway, well--what can one say other than what Charles just wrote?
405
I am curious if Clark was even able to hear the commands with a helicopter overhead.
Was Clark seeking safety in what appeared to be a very dangerous event in the neighborhood?
The huge amount of police resources used in response to vandalism created a war game.
Can we be surprised that an event escalates when the police are emotionally charged when dispatched?
33
Not completely correct, he wasn't just "in his grandmother's yard" looking for the door. The helicopter IR video shows him fleeing through multiple yards, scaling fences as he flees the cops who ordered him to halt. His behavior no doubt contributed to their anxiety and reaction. That doesn't exonerate them, but please get the facts right.
5
If he only stated what you did then I would agree with you.
The part I did not like is when he made this about race.
You did not make this about race which if you truly believed that Charles was right then you should have mentioned that as well.
America's original deplorable sins: racism and guns, the dual scourge of a wretched nation.
Perhaps if America weren't insanely littered to death with largely unregulated guns and bullets, America's police force wouldn't be hallucinating about guns where none existed and perhaps they could do their jobs without committing reckless manslaughter on America's minorities.
Maybe a national shooting gallery wasn't such a great idea after all.....except for 'shoot first and think later' kinds of guys who enjoy a good old-fashioned judge-jury-and-executioner style of 'law and order'.
Why'd the corrupt blue code of silence turn off their body camera hot mikes ?
Why is the police punishment for misdemeanors and petty crimes and 'being black' a death sentence.
"To Protect and to Serve" ?
Remember that one, police of America ?
Guns are the death of American human decency.
39
Charles is correct in his assessment. This particular tragedy is a repeat of many others. This fact makes it implausible that the events are due to misjudgments and split second poor decisions. Though the corrections require careful an thorough analysis, I believe there will be found a self-reinforcing pattern of recruitment and training that ensures continuation of the results. There is more than fine-tuning of well-meaning people needed here.
13
These repeated tragedies are painful evidence that current training and response of law enforcement are seriously inadequate or not applicable for the demands of the present day. Police are expected to be soldiers, hostage negotiators, cyber detectives, social workers, and drug counselors and provide community service, among other responsibilities. There are similarities to society's current expectations of teachers, who have many duties in addition to teaching, such as providing life and social skills in loco parentis, and now shooting their threatening students as well. It's time to rethink and re-engineer how law enforcement officers are selected and trained as well as who responds to what incidents and how. Clearly, current tactics are causing tragic deaths, dividing America and making it less safe, deteriorating law enforcement morale, and often simply not working.
32
I agree if you make this comment anytime they shoot someone.
I believe the reason Blow wrote this article is because the victim was black and therefore was not making this about the training the police get and should not have been written.
What surprises me is that these police officers would be going through people's backyards at night with guns drawn. That just seems like a recipe for disaster. Let's remember that even if Mr. Clark was the suspect they were searching for, they were investigating a vandalism complaint, not a violent crime. I agree with other readers who point out that the officers should have taken their time and secured the area rather than charging ahead with guns drawn.
301
Even people who are only suspects of vandalism could have a gun
A cop has to take this into consideration and is therefore justified when they take their guns out of their holsters .
1
Stone - the logical extension of your statement is "anyone could have a gun; a copy has to take this into consideration." Makes sense to me. But can't the cops at least consider other alternatives? Such as: "Maybe this guy doesn't have a gun."
I don't think Americans think this is acceptable. Just like they don't think AR15s are acceptable. A few things that would help:
- Less guns in general, and in particular, in black communities
-Much much better police training - are they taught shoot eight times, ask questions later? Sure seems like it.
-Prosecution of police - we're still waiting.
32
Enough white Americans hate and fear black people to support the system. Enough others look the other way, fearful that they will not be protected from crime if the police are displeased. Many police and their friends and families are fearful and unwilling to admit that they have been deemed expendable by those at the very top. All these factors impede reform.
This old white guy has seen things slowly get better, but not enough. Much remains to be done.
2
It is not acceptable that there have been 3,534 gun deaths so far this year. It is not acceptable that 790 children have been killed or injured so far this year. It is not acceptable that there have been 54 mass shootings so far this year. It is also not acceptable that nothing has been done about gun control.
Gun control is working on the symptom, it is important to do since the symptoms kill people, but it is not the disease. The disease is our idea that violence is an acceptable solution to problems. That being tough and bad makes you more of a man. When we solve that problem, gun control will not be needed, because it will be unthinkable to use violence of any kind to solve a problem.
21
Lacking guns people would be required to learn non-confrontational techniques, deescalation techniques, the art of respect, and compromise.
Right now what we have are bullies with guns who disrespect people and lie about what they have said and done if they are caught.
3
Crimes by members of our criminal justice system are almost never punished. District attorneys who get convictions by suppressing or ignoring some of the evidence are rarely punished in any way. Police lie and fabricate evidence routinely to pressure the accused to accept plea bargains, thereby saving the cost and inconvenience of a jury trial. Minorities are caught in this system much more often than their numbers would indicate, but poor people of any color can have their lives destroyed or years stolen in trying to get out from the system's clutches so that a normal paycheck-to-paycheck life can resume.
29
I don't ever remember my father ever mentioning respect for the law as I was growing up, but I reached adulthood with a profound respect. Whenever accosted by a police officer I always attempt to make his job as easy as possible and "Sir" is a word I often use when responding to any questions he may have.
There is no mention of Mr. Clark's behavior during his encounter with the law, but I cannot help but think that if he had a profound respect for the law and tried to make the job of the law's enforcers as easy as possible he, like almost every other person without a weapon who was killed by police, would be alive today.
Why is it so difficult for these people to obey a police officer?
This is not to excuse the behavior of those police who shot him, but perhaps we should focus more on the importance of obeying law enforcement officers. At times their job is difficult and dangerous. Why make it even more so by disobedience and a lack of respect?
Those who do not obey the orders of police and do not treat the police with respect bear some responsibility if their lives are forfeit as a result.
18
Some people panic or do not react well when they suddenly find themselves in a situation where their life may be in danger, perhaps because a stranger or two is hollering and pointing a gun at them. The fact that these strangers are wearing uniforms should be reassuring, but sometimes it isnt.
Treating the police with respect entails not arguing or disagreeing with them no matter what, and the word for that, whatever it is, is not respect.
38
@Richard Phelps: you write: "There is no mention of Mr. Clark's behavior during his encounter with the law" and then go on to assume that this young man's behavior wasn't respectful.
Before commenting on this article, I watched a video of the entire timeline published in the Sacramento Bee, including night-vision camera footage and audios recorded on the officer's body cameras.
It was astounding: helicopters and floodlights circling over a figure using his cell phone as a light to locate the back door of his grandmother's house.
I only heard one barked command to put hands up, immediately followed by a barrage of bullets. There simply wasn't time, based on the audio alone, for conversation with helicopters overhead drowning out the commands. According to reports, Mr. Clark did have his hands out in the incredibly brief second before the shots ran out.
I raise these points because you seem to making a blanket assumption that if one gets shot by the police, it automatically means he or she wasn't "obeying" the offices or "respecting the law."
Rather hard to do in a dark backyard with floodlights and noisy helicopters overhead in a scene straight out of a war zone.
308
Why is it so difficult for police officers to act as the trained professionals?
44
Why does no one suggest bringing back revolvers for most officers? The point of having a gun is to deter someone or stop them from continuing an attack on officer or someone else. It is not to make sure they are silenced forever. If the twenty shots fired at this victim were a dozen or fewer and less rapid, he might still be alive.
20
What we know: There was no report that he was armed; no indication he had committed an act of violence against persons; no weapon; no aid provided after being shot. What we think we know: almost no time between being told to show his hands and being shot dead; no substantiation that he came toward the officers before being shot. If the prime determinants were that the police believed he had a gun simply because they couldn't tell what it was, and that they were afraid, not much will change. The job should require cops to err on the side of delaying the use of deadly force if conditions are unclear; and using good judgment in spite of being afraid should be seen as part of the job.
274
If he was "coming toward them" when they fired, he would most likely not have been hit six times in the back.
117
This problem is tied to the proliferation of guns. Police officers understandably do not want to be killed on duty. They would be much less likely to draw their weapons if the likelihood of the person they were encountering was armed was much lower.
301
No reason to think there was a sophisticated probability model applied here or much thinking of any kind.
America will never be free of guns or knives or pipe bombs or MMA experts no matter what the law says, so if your goal is to never tolerate any risk of getting attacked on the job you probably should not join the police.
Plenty of people with guns get arrested or detained without getting shot. There is an episode of The Andy Griffith Show where the sheriff walks up to a house despite being shot at with a rifle, knowing the homeowner is too good of a shot to miss him if he meant to hit him. This was not being bold, it was using common sense.
If someone was going to run and hide to set up a gunfight with police, why would they not take the first shot? I cannot think of a reason, so I would conclude that they almost certainly do not want to get in a gunfight. This is also common sense.
7
Guns are both mostly legal and not magic - they have to be pointed at someone to do harm. In many or all of these incidents, there was no gun pointed at any officers. In plenty of other instances, people have guns in their hands or at their side and were captured alive by police with no shooting. This is not a full explanation. Since there will always be some guns among the people of this country, legal or otherwise, reducing their number is unlikely to keep a paranoid police officer from making this kind of mistake.
5
O fer the love of Pete. This ain’t Andy Griffith! 300million guns later we have cops who have good reasons to be thinking in probabilities.
In another forum someone recommended that these incidents should be investigated not by the police departments but by external reviewers. The writer argued that this is the practice in other settings where corruption and malfeasance take hold. Good point.
130
Great idea that is already being implemented. Civilian review boards for police departments are being formed around the country. The key is whether they have teeth, including subpoena powers.
26
I think more people could be objective if the victims in these cases weren’t portrayed as “sitting on the front porch drinking Gatorade and reading the Bible.” I have yet to see this man portrayed as someone fleeing a crime. The police didn’t randomly chose to pursue him nor would they have known his race until he was confronted. In addition, the police only became involved after a citizen reported the event. I am genuinely sorry this happened but I think we all need to be more objective in investigating what happened and why.
31
He wasn't fleeing a crime. He was in his grandmother's back yard, going home. The officers did not identify themselves.
I wonder how objective it is to avoid facts that are easy to find online.
240
I agree.
I agree police need to be less trigger happy. Even if Clark had a gun, the police could have retreated and tried to diffuse the situation without violence.
And I also agree that it doesn't help to have one-sided reporting and opinion pieces that misconstrue the facts and make it seem like Clark was just hanging out peacefully in his own backyard, rather than a suspect fleeing from a police chase. This guy Clark isn't exactly a role model. He's a victim; not a saint.
22
The issue at hand was whether the police would have reasonably deduced that there was an imminent threat of violence, posed by the suspect, to themselves or to innocent civilians. Given that the report was of a nonviolent crime, that he did not, in fact, threaten anyone and certainly that he had no weapon, lethal force was not justified.
Whether a given individual is sitting on the front porch drinking Gatorade and drinking the Bible is not a threshold to pass in order not to be killed.
18
Rarely do "split second" decisions need to be made. Most of the time, police officers can back off, secure the area, call for reinforcements and not violently engage unnecessarily. The rules governing the use of force are indeed the real problem. Police officers should not be allowed to use force except as the last resort. If that simple change were made, most police killings wouldn't happen. Lives would be lived.
As long as police train their cadets that it is better to be judged by 12 then carried by 6, and the law allows them wide latitude in use of force, unnecessary police killings will continue unabated.
309
Complicit prosecutors ensure that cops are not even threatened with judgement by 12. When was the last time a cop was charged in the shooting of an unarmed suspect? Cops are literally free to shoot whoever they want without fear of prosecution, as long as they yell "gun!" before firing, and claim that the cell phone, candy bar, wallet or toy looked like a gun and they feared for their life.
7
It’s not that I think that Mr Blow is wromg. He’s not . It’s that I’m not sure what he thinks can be done about it. As he concedes much of the problem springs from the decision in Graham. But short of a constitutional amendment ( never ever will happen) all other courts are stuck with the decision. I would love to hear his suggestions.
4
The black man approaching? A threat!
His color is menacing , yet,
Inequality festers
Non-whiteness pesters
And law enforcement's ill met.
The haters picked the right POTUS
Their feelings expresses, you notice,
Does Racism bring guilt?
A small conscience tilt?
If not, ill fortune doth bode us.
83
good as always Larry. but change approaching to REtreating.
2
I'm beginning to think that our police/black relationship is mirroring the Israeli/Palestinian relationship. Both are rooted in treating people as if they are second class and their lives aren't worth as much.
These are systemic problems. That means no amount of police training will abolish them. They are societal problems. They date back to the slavery days. They are so systemic that they operate on automatic pilot.
Police brutality against blacks has always existed. It's just now we have cameras everywhere to document it. By saturating society with guns, the cops are super edgy. Everyone is packing heat now. Everyone is a threat to everyone else. Guns are never the application of controllable force. They are designed and intended to apply lethal force.
I've never been in a shooting situation, but when the cops start shooting, they always seem to empty their guns. And when one starts shooting, they all start shooting. Hence a guy with a cell phone is met with a hail of 20 bullets.
I'm not a cop. Don't want to be a cop. Maybe some people who wear badges shouldn't be cops either.
567
If I were a cop out there on the mean streets, I would be very nervous. In fact, just thinking about how stressed cops must be, it warns me not to call a cop unless I absolutely have to: These guys are walking a tightrope; you don't want to push them.
7
Sorry, the comparison to the Palestinian situation is way off base. Certain Palestinian groups have an active terror network that has a long and active history of killing Israelis. That is not comparable to the very unfortunate incidents that have happened here in the US.
3
Bruce - comparing the police/Black situation to the Israeli/Palestinian situation reflects a complete lack of knowledge and understanding of the history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Prior to 1948, both Jews and Arabs lived in Palestine, and both were called Palestinians. The UN and the the League of Nations before it, offered partition plans, but the Arabs rejected them. They also rejected the Clinton partition plan in 2001 and the Olmert partition plan in 2008, instead embarking on air plane hijackings, intifadas, attack at the Munich olympics, bombings of busses, restaurants and shops, not to mention launching wars in 1948, 1967, and 1973 to try to destroy the young country or at least terrorize it into giving up. When Israel did evacuate all Jews from Gaza, they responded by launching thousands on missiles into Israel.
Bruce - what part of this story mirrors the situation between police and blacks in this country?
7