Last year there was a Halloween
party. The police were called in to investigate a
loud party. They went to the front door, and were met
by one of the party goers. who left them at the door
while he went after the owner of the home. One of the
officers walked around the side of the house, shined
a light into a window, where a costumed guy responded
to the light, by pointing a replica gun in his
direction. Today, the officer, a black man was found
blameless of the shooting death of the costumed man,
an African American actor, named Anthony Lee.
There was a radio discussion on
the Larry Elder show, about this story, and the
resulting vindication of the shooting officer. Rather
than stay focused on the shooting policy of the
police department, they decided pose the question,
“what if the shooting officer had been
white”, implying that the black position would
have been wrong had they raised the specter of racism
in such case. I'm sure that the idea felt good to
everyone, in the listening audience, and while I
could appreciate the question, it was in fact, two
fold. The second half of the question was “What if the victim
had been white.”
I realize that a radio host has
to please the audience, and try not to question
another brother's legal hustle.
As to the issue that was being
discussed, I’ll just say that the officer should
have been terminated. Not because he got nervous and
shot in his own defense, but because when he took
himself, (a loaded weapon) and a gun around the side
of that building, when there was no crime to
investigate, he put the entire family of the home in
jeopardy. What if the victim had been a kid in a
western costume, and the cop shot him thinking that
he was a midget with a gun?
I find it hard to believe that
it was, but if it is LAPD’s policy to “secure”
the perimeter of a private home, when there has been
no crime reported, then where do the homeowners’
rights to defend his home against possible prowlers
begin. Would you or I be at fault if we saw a shadowy
figure lurking in the darkness, and pointing a gun or
flashlight in to a bedroom window, and popped a round
into his face, before we realized that he was a cop?
A cop can shoot into your home,
if he thinks that his life is in danger, but a home
owner cannot shoot a prowler until he sets foot into
the house. That's why most police chiefs, including
LA chief Bernard Parks, does not want the citizenry to
be armed. They don't want us shooting them by
mistake, before they can get a round off. Our very
act of having a gun becomes a criminal act. So whenever a cop shoots
us, it is automatically considered to be a justifiable act.But as I tell my kids, the word FAIR
is not in the constitution.
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