No Special Right of Self-Defense for Police: The Evil This Time Must Be Shown as Evil On Its Own Terms (Man, Im late.) I keep trying to make the point that historical analogies do not work in convincing people of the evil this time. Every generation has the burden of convincing the world that what it is facing is oppression, that it has been made normal, but that it is nonetheless inherently evil. The Mike Brown Case makes the point that we have thus far failed to make our case, this time. To the average white American, liberal and conservative, lynching is wrong. And it is wrong primarily because it is gone, and they have been taught it is wrong. It is not wrong so much because the accused was never convicted of a crime before being executed, but because the accused was executed before they were born. White Americans are always willing to cop a plea for past sins. Slavery was wrong only after the fact. Lynching was wrong after the fact. If whites believe that lynching was wrong because an accused man was found guilty without a trial, then they would be outraged that an unarmed black man was shot at 12 times or so and posed no threat to anyone and he had not been given a trial. At best Michael Brown was an unconvicted criminal who could have been charged with a minor crime. Yet everyone is okay that he was summarily killed by a cop without a trial because he was a criminal of an uncharged offense. Now think where we would be if he had been accused of rape by a naked white woman running down the street? Would we not be hearing that a criminal had been killed? And would whites be patting themselves on the back for it having been done by a cop rather than the mob? See, your Jim Crow analogies mean nothing when confronting the evil this time. Making an analogy between police killings and lynchings does not work because white Americans today are not willing to cop a plea to injustice that is before their eyes and no historical analogy will do. We have the burden--even if we should not--of showing this evil for what it is today, in our time, on its own terms. The police killing of our children--and all Gods children--is wrong unless there is a clear and present danger presented to a cop. A cops right to self-defense can be no greater than the citizens. When a cop has rights that a citizen lacks that is prima facie evidence of a police state and the antithesis of a liberal democracy. It will not be long before these anti-black policies become generalized in outcomes. As Booker T. Washington said, you cannot drag a man into the gutter without dragging yourself down, too. We must demand that cop killings are all reported at the state and federal levels. We must demand that they must be investigated by outside bodies. We must that deadly force cannot be justified by cop fear--soldiers do not have this right in a war zone. Again, soldiers in a war zone cannot justify killing innocent people simply because they are afraid--everyone is presumed to be afraid. I wish I had time to clean this up, but here it is. Borrow as necessary, post as you will.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 13:40:47 +0000
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