2016 Sept 21^st

The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) has endorsed Donald J. Trump for president. Of course they have, but now that Trump has their endorsement he is saying critical things about the cop that killed unarmed Terrence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Mr. Crutcher, a black man, was shot dead by Officer Betty Shelby a white officer, who claimed that she “feared for her life” because Crutcher was seen “reaching into his pocket as if reaching for a weapon.”

The narrative here has changed, initially Crutcher was said to have been reaching into the window of his SUV, but the window was up and subsequently streaked with blood. The result, of course, was that the story had to be modified to Crutcher reaching into his pocket. No weapon was found either on Crutcher’s person or in his SUV.

A helicopter hovering above the scene was manned by a police officer who claimed that Crutcher who was moving slowly as if possibly drugged, looked like a “bad dude.” There were by this time at least four police officers on the scene and one fired a Taser at the same instance Officer Shelby shot Crutcher. No ambulance was called for Crutcher for several minutes after he was shot, just to be very safe of course. (The terrorist who planted bombs in NYC and New Jersey was also shot, then he was cuffed and an ambulance was called immediately.)

What will happen to Betty Shelby, the killer of Terrence Crutcher? The first thing to happen to her is a vacation with pay. This is standard procedure while the shooting is being investigated. Who does the investigating? The police and the offices of the prosecuting attorney look into the shooting to see if it was justified. Prosecuting attorney’s depend on the police to find evidence so that crimes can be prosecuted and so let prosecuting attorneys keep their jobs, so it is unlikely that they will decide to prosecute a police officer.

Between 1993 and 2011 the FBI was responsible for 150 shootings. All of these shootings were investigated by…the FBI, and every one of them was found to be justified.

Eric Garner was selling untaxed cigarettes in NYC when he was apprehended by four police officers, one of whom put him in an illegal chokehold throwing him to the ground and killing him. A Grand Jury refused to indict his killer and a court sealed the jury’s testimony.

Then we have Freddie Gray, handcuffed and thrown into the back of a police van, given a rough ride for about half an hour which resulted in a severed spine. None of the officers involved, including the driver of the police van, were convicted of any wrongdoing.

The FOP has done a great job of protecting its membership from accountability, but the ultimate result is that in some communities police officers, quite innocent of any wrongdoing, are being executed. Police in some locations must now patrol in pairs for their own safety. Recent shootings in Dallas now bring the total of murdered police officers for this year, as of mid-July, to 31 compared with 18 last year at this time.

This will get worse before it gets better unless something is done to restrict what amounts to granting police a permit to kill if they simply claim they were frightened.