Lives That Matter

It has been a time of mourning for the country, since the mass shooting of police officers in Dallas, Texas, last Thursday. Five were killed; seven others are in various stages of recovery. And the country is in turmoil.

Dallas police, early July 8, 2016, following sniper shooting
photo AP/LM Otero, found here

When the wicked rule, the people mourn.

The president, who was voted into office in a post-racial world, has been the most racially divisive president since Woodrow Wilson. Saying we told you so won’t help, but…

In Stephen Covey’s book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, one of the principles is “Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood.” So, with that in mind, I’m trying to understand.

There is NO valid reason for sniper shooting of police officers doing their duty in their professional way, which was the case Thursday. They were calmly and professionally escorting protesters—protesters were claiming that police were unfair to black people. They disregarded hatred and misunderstanding aimed at them and did their job. There were heroic acts on the part of police to keep the protesters—the public—safe once the shooting started.

So understanding the perpetrators amounts to this: These were angry, hateful, evildoers who wanted to murder innocent police officers.

Because some police officers somewhere at some time may have been too forceful against particular black people? That’s the story. But so what? What if some police officer somewhere had been in the wrong? That is in the range of possibility, whether you believe the sensationalized news stories of police-on-black-brutality or not. That would still not justify murder of random cops. It wouldn’t even justify murder of any particular bad cop; such a person would be handled through the justice system.[i]

Unless you do not believe in the justice system—and since the FBI announcement last week that Hillary Clinton would not be prosecuted for the long list of crimes the director laid out, maybe there’s reason not to trust the justice system.

But if we don’t trust the justice system, is being more evil and murderous going to get us to justice? Of course not.

So what we need to understand about the evildoers is that they choose to do extreme evil. And they must be stopped. We don’t need to offer sympathy or justification or rationale. There is no rationale for doing what they have done.

The ones we need to share understanding with are the protesters. I believe many of them are horrified by the violent mass murder of police officers. That was not their goal. Their goal was to raise awareness to an issue they are passionate about—an issue that may only be an issue because of bad media storytelling, because the data does not support their claims.

But stirring up anger and fomenting violence was the goal of some leadership. We need to separate out those who are merely reacting from those who are causing.

Because, among those protesters, and others across the country who sympathize with them, there may be some who can be brought to the truth when the truth, rather than lies, is what they hear and are surrounded by. Just since Thursday, I think many of them are saying, “Not all police officers are bad,” which ought to be obvious to any sentient being, but this is nevertheless progress.

Maybe, while this bit of truth has penetrated, they can also accept other truths.

As Matt Walsh put it in a July 8^th post,

It takes 17 seconds on Google to discover that more white people have been killed by cops this year than blacks and Hispanics combined. White people are almost twice as likely tobe killed by cops than black people.[ii] There were twice as many whites killed by cops last year than blacks. Yes, it’s true that black people are a smaller percentage of the population, but they also commit a disproportionate number of violent crimes, which means they are involved in a disproportionate number of altercations with police.

There were over 900 people killed by cops last year. The vast majority were not black, and the vast majority were armed. 

The false narrative they’ve been told is that police officers are racially prejudiced toward blacks, and are likely to use brutal force or even fatally wound blacks, just because they hate blacks. The data doesn’t bear this out, but something in their experience leads them to choose to believe it’s true.

I want to look for a moment at how preconceptions change our experience. And as an example, I’ll use interactions with police officers.

I don’t have a lot of experience with police; I’m not well connected with the criminal element. But I have experienced the rare but occasional traffic stop. And it is my experience that, while we are respectful to one another, police officers have never let me off with a warning; I always get the ticket.

My son Political Sphere has similar experiences. He even believes that it’s particularly important for him not to speed or roll through the stop sign—because he will get caught. And he will get a ticket. Never a warning.

Why? The mind tries to find reasons. It’s not because of gender, because we are one of each. It’s not because of race, because we don’t find this to be the standard case for others of our race. Even others of our family. It’s not even because we drive sporty cars, because I have a small SUV, and he has a minivan.

We feel a little picked on for no good reason. Even if we were speeding a bit, it wasn’t to the point of endangering others, or even out of intent; usually it’s just momentary carelessness at an inopportune moment. Can’t the police officers tell that we’re the kind of law-abiding citizens who would correct any error in behavior just by giving us a warning?

But if we were black, and we had people telling us the cops had it in for us blacks, and we read news stories and got filled with the repeated narrative that there’s something to this thing about blacks getting picked on because of race, we might think that was the cause. Even when it might be no more the cause than whatever it is in my life and my son’s.

If I were black and had that narrative surrounding my interaction with police officers, and it colored my experience, how would I come around to seeing without that inaccurate filter?

The shocking murder of five police officers might be an opportunity for clarity. Because, like we said, the internet if full of sources for the data. If, among these black protesters, there are those who love the truth, they may react to the facts with, “Oh, I didn’t know that before; that changes what I think.”

That is what should happen among civilized people.

If acceptance of the truth doesn’t happen for all, then among the unaccepting there are a couple of possibilities. One is that individuals personally have experienced something really negative, and they have generalized that such a situation happens to everyone like them. If we’re willing to say, “We understand your experience was bad. You shouldn’t have had to go through that. We’re willing to work on training and on improving the system to correct that so others don’t have to experience what you did. But can’t you see, from the data, that your experience was an anomaly and not the common experience?”

To some people, changing their point of view, even in the face of facts, is difficult. But if they really want society to be better—more civilized—then they must be accepting of truth. We all must.

If they prefer to remain angry, ignore facts, insist that the story of racism in America—and especially among cops—is what they claim it is when reality is otherwise, then they might just be race baiters. People trying to stir up anger and hatred for their own power-seeking agenda.

Until those people are willing to change, there’s no amount of non-racial-bias perfection we can live or think or do that would be perfect enough for them to admit we’re not all racists. And a blog post isn't complete enough to cure what ails them.

I’m still puzzled by those who use violence against innocents as a way of persuading the public to come join their side. This is true for terrorists of any stripe. Do they think that blowing up women and children, or using sniper fire against police officers is going to make us say, “Hmm, maybe they have a point; they’ve persuaded me they’re in the right. They’re the kind of people I want as my leaders”?

I can only assume they really think, “If enough people fear us, they will cower and succumb to our rule.” But a free people, a civilized people, will not give in to evil. Our souls and the lives of our children and grandchildren depend on our not giving in to evil.

We will stop the evildoers, because we must. We prefer to stop them by persuading them to change their hearts away from evil. But that choice will be up to them.

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[i] I wrote about the Ferguson situation here, and violence against the police here and here. You might also want to read The War on Cops, by Heather MacDonald.

[ii] This piece by Larry Elder is worth reading in its entirety. He also spoke about the issue at length on his radio program Friday and Monday. Larry Elder grew up in South Central Los Angeles, and he is black.

Thinner Blue Line, Part II

I did not intend for this to be a two-part post. Sadly, Monday’s story of a police officer being executed, in a week when 7 officers had been killed nationwide, was not the end.

Fox Lake honor Lt. Gliniewicz
image by Brian Hill, Daily Herald, via AP, found here

Tuesday, there was an officer killed in Chicago. A manhunt continues for three men, two white and one black. According to news reports,

[Veteran police office Lt. Charles Joseph ] Gliniewicz was patrolling in an industrial area in the suburb of Fox Lake shortly before 8 a.m. The officer radioed dispatch to say he was going to check on suspicious activity he had spotted. He requested backup about three minutes after initially spotting the men, and the responding officers got to the area six minutes later, according to police. The responding officers found Gliniewicz's body lying in a marshy area.

Lt. Charles Joseph Glineiwicz
image from Fox Lake Police Dept., via AP, found here

Gliniewicz was the father of four boys, and known as a positive force in the community. He had been an officer for more than 30 years. While details of the altercation are unknown, stopping to question three people who appear out of place in an area of open fields and abandoned industrial buildings would be considered basic police procedure. He was killed for just doing his job.

And in Abilene, Texas, 27-year-old Officer Don Allen was killed in his home in nearby Clyde. It appears to be a premeditated murder, possibly only because he was a police officer. He was found by family members. He leaves behind parents and siblings, and his fiancée. Texas Rangers are leading the investigation, with help from local police and the FBI. They have leads, but so far have not captured the killer(s).

Officer Don Allen
image found here

Chief Stan Stanridge said Officer Allen was a great man and a great officer, who loved his job and always did it with a smile. He had been part of the Abilene force for about a year and a half, after serving elsewhere. When he moved to this force, he went through the entire six-month course, rather than an abbreviated one, to be fully integrated into the force in Abilene. He went above and beyond expectations.

Eventually the president, back from renaming a mountain in Alaska, took a moment to make a phonecall to the family of slain Deputy Goforth here in northwest Houston. And he made a statement, or rather, he sent out a paragraph to the media.

Wednesday evening there was an additional attack, in Pennsylvania. A female officer, Sergeant Melissa Ruch, stopped to offer aid at a car that was pulled over on Route 309 of West Penn Township. She was slashed with a knife (apparently only got her shirt) and then was thrown over the guardrail. She was airlifted to the hospital, and at last report is in critical condition. Trooper David Boehm, reports, “The person that we’re looking for is a Hispanic male, 6’2″ to 6’4″, 240 to 260 pounds. He was wearing a black t-shirt and blue jeans, the kind that go way down below your knees and possibly in a dark colored Nissan Maxima.” An earlier news report said the perpetrator was a black man, but probably the trooper’s report is more accurate.

Is there a war on police officers? That’s a question I didn’t expect to ever ask.

Going back a bit further than the last ten days, CNN lists the 24 officers across the US that have been killed this year. If you add in the officers who have died from other causes, such as traffic accidents, the number goes up to 85.

When I was growing up, and there were riots in various cities (not mine), there were certain elements who referred to police officers derogatorily as fuzz and pigs. I never understood it. But that seemed to go away, at least from my general awareness. Now it’s back, with viler language.

A young woman in Houston tweeted that she thought Deputy Goforth deserved to die—because he had “perv eyes,” whatever that means. She doesn’t like his looks, and that’s a capital offense? Karma worked in her case: because of her tweet going viral, her location was revealed to police, and they arrested her on an outstanding warrant of causing bodily harm.

Further away, there were anti-police-brutality protestors at the Minnesota State Fair who shouted “Pigs in a Blanket, Fry ‘em like bacon,” a chant that has been used at various protests across the country. But this was the day after the shooting of Deputy Goforth. Ironically their invective “free speech” was protected by local police.  

Calling for violence is savage. Acting violently is even worse. The people who do these things are so full of hate, they may not even recognize how savage their behavior is. They are essentially a new version of the KKK. How was that defeated? It was shamed. That meant some of it went hidden, but it’s so wrong that you can’t find anyone today who is accepted in polite society. Overwhelming majorities cringe at the very idea of a group that hides their faces and goes out terrorizing and even killing people because of their race. There’s no part of society, beyond a few marginal wingnuts who consider the KKK a legitimate segment of society.

We used to have the Black Panthers, who, unlike Martin Luther King, Jr., used violence to express their hatred of the larger society. Martin Luther King’s way won. The Black Panthers disappeared. Until they reappeared a few years ago as the New Black Panthers, claiming to be wanting positive movement in society, but in the process using intimidation, such as at polling places. It may be that BlackLivesMatter is an offshoot of the hatred of that other group. I don’t know. But this version seems to be particularly hateful toward peace officers.

How do we overcome this ugly, violent hate? We’ve done it before. By being better people. By standing up for what is right. By supporting those the haters target.

I thought my community’s response to Deputy Goforth’s death was appropriate. All people came together, in honor of Deputy Goforth’s memory, in support of his family, and in support of the police. No one protested at the perpetrator’s home; it is satisfying enough that he was apprehended and will go through the legal process.

Glenn Beck called for a time of prayer for our peace officers, and in our state Governor Abbott has called for prayer and support at the same time. Tomorrow at 11:00 (CDT), we ring bells, turn on flashing lights if we’re in our cars, and otherwise stop what we’re doing and pray. Beck suggests a prayer adapted from the 1700s:

Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you with humble hearts. We pray for your protection over all law enforcement as they faithfully serve our communities. We lift up to you the family of Deputy Darren Goforth and all the families of first responders in our military who have lost loved ones. Comfort them and provide them with your peace that surpasses understanding in the midst of unimaginable grief. God, we ask for your healing over our communities. Let us come together and unite in peace and prayer. In your name we pray. Amen.

If we do have a significant segment of society that thinks it’s all right to kill whomever they hate, we are in dire trouble. As Beck says, go to police stations and “pray for safety of all of the people there, pray for vision, pray for sight beyond their own eyes, and safety and protection for those protectors who protect us.” And he adds, “I’m out of political solutions. I’m out of financial solutions. I’m out of business solutions. We have passed all of the exits. What will save this country is us standing.”

I stand with the police. For our nephew who recently graduated from the Police Academy in New York, where he will now serve as an officer. And for our neighbor, who grew up in our church, who recently graduated from the Police Academy in Austin and will serve there. And the many many I don’t know but nevertheless care about and trust and support. I pray for their safety in these difficult times. And I pray for better times, if that is God’s will.