I am Angry and Disappointed! It has been a very long time since I have been as angry as I was last night. The student protest at Virginia Tech offered a blanket and uninformed indictment of all police. It suggested Michael Browns death was a racist murder of an innocent kid who died trying to surrender. The signs being carried by students and other citizens, including some I know personally, were disgusting, offensive, wrong and intolerable, with some suggesting that Brown was only stopped on the street because he was black. Such could not be further from the truth. I am not a conservative. When asked to describe me, most of my parishioners and friends describe me as a centrist, with some saying I am center-left. When I am asked if I am conservative or liberal, my answer is, On what issue? No thinking person picks a side and then assumes that side is always correct simply because an idea or a position originated from their camp. Such thinking is foolish. My tendency is to research the facts and then choose a position that reflects both the facts and my values. The most rudimentary research into the Michael Brown case yields facts quite divergent from those depicted by last nights protesters. Contrary to the signs displayed, Michael Brown was not stopped on the street because he was black. A robbery had occurred minutes earlier where a store owner was assaulted and his merchandise was stolen (store video would later identify Michael Brown as the primary culprit in the assault and theft). The store owner reported the robbery and assault, and he gave a very accurate description of the assailants. Minutes later, Michael Brown, who fit the description, crossed the street directly in front of Officer Darren Wilsons car. Wilson stopped and began questioning Brown in regards to the incident. A fight then ensued within Officer Wilsons car. Forensic evidence would later show Browns blood and DNA on Officer Wilsons gun, his gun holster, his utility belt, his uniform, on his car seat, and on the inside door panel of the car. This evidence came not as a result of a kind and caring teenager having brought Officer Wilson a Tootsie Roll, but as a result of Brown having attacked Wilson in his car and having attempted to seize the officers gun. I doubt he was intending to clean the weapon as a favor to Officer Wilson. Speaking as a former member of law enforcement, if you try to take an officers gun, you are quite likely to get shot ... unless, of course, you take the officers gun and then kill him or her with it, as happened last week in Upstate New York! Michael Brown was not shot with his hands up trying to surrender. No witness who stated such was found credible by a grand jury of eight whites and four blacks. In fact, all who initially made such statements were later discredited by other eyewitnesses or under cross examination. Some even admitted to having not actually seen the shooting, or to having made the statement based on having heard others making the statement. In the end, no evidence supported this claim. A law enforcement officer is killed in the line of duty every 58 hours in the USA. If the average citizen in Blacksburg were dying at police hands at such a rate, the streets would be packed with protesters, and for good cause. However, no such protests exist anywhere in the nation in support of the police, or in response to such an alarming violent death rate. Apparently, it is fine for law enforcement officers to die violent deaths twice a week, but the death of a teen who attempted to take a police officers gun is just cause for riots and uninformed protests. While the vast majority of officers will never fire their weapon in anger, it has been assumed of late that all officers are racists who itch for a chance to kill others, and particularly young black males. Yet, in Blacksburg and Christiansburg, four officers have been shot to death in the line of duty since 1997. No one marched in their support. No one! In truth, in the past two decades, five officers in Montgomery County and Roanoke have been killed, and one has was permanently paralyzed by assailants. Two of those deaths and the one permanent disability were at the hands of unarmed perpetrators. Clearly, one does not have to have a gun or a knife to be a mortal threat to another. I strongly support the right of the citizenry to protest. Such Is part of the American psyche and our system of national responsibility. When injustice exists, it is our duty as Americans and as humans to protest. I have joined in such protests. I would do so again. However, it is also incumbent upon every citizen to obtain the facts before joining a movement. The signs being carried at last nights protests and the words that were chanted by the Virginia Tech students and other citizens did not reflect the facts in the Ferguson case. Such acts were insulting to the officers of both the Virginia Tech and the Blacksburg Police Departments. Neither department has shot anyone in the past two decades, and no pattern of racial discrimination has been found in either department. Having said all of this, I must also say that I was disturbed by the acquittal of the NYC police officer in the death of Eric Garner. Granted, Garner was non-compliant to the officers commands. Non-compliance to an officers instructions is not acceptable and cannot be tolerated. Yet, having been in such incidences, the response to this non-violent non-compliance seemed excessive, and it did appear to me that the hold applied by the officer was a form of a choke-hold, a fact supported by an autopsy. It should likewise be noted that the use of any form of choke hold is a violation of NYPD policy. Unfortunately, we may never know what evidence was presented in the Stanten Island case. Unlike in Missouri, the State of New York does not allow the public release of detailed grand jury proceedings, a fact that adds further fire to any thought of conspiracy or cover-up. What is known is the NYC Medical Examiners Office ruled Garners death a homicide caused by compression of the neck and chest, and prone positioning during physical restraint. Contributing factors included acute bronchial asthma, obesity, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Nevertheless, despite Garners chronic health issues, he was not obviously dying prior to being choked and pinned to the ground. In this case, it seems justice may not have been done. However, caution is advised here since we do not know what evidence was presented to the grand jury or why they chose against an indictment. Perhaps the impending Federal investigation will lead to the release of more facts in this case, but from the outside looking in, this case seems a possible miscarriage of justice. The police are not perfect. Sometimes they make mistakes. On rare occasions those mistakes are intentional. I worked with such an officer many years ago. One of the best investigators I had ever witnessed was also an overly aggressive deputy whose tactics were questionable even to those of us who worked with him. His behavior would soon lead to his dismissal from the sheriffs office by a highly scrupulous and professional sheriff (the first sheriff in North Georgia to intentionally recruit and hire blacks into his department). Let me say that I believe we should hold law enforcement to a very high standard. Those who we charge with the protection of society and with the enforcement of law should be carefully scrutinized, but they should not be uniformly demonized by an uninformed minority, as occurred last night on the Virginia Tech campus. I was appalled, angered and disappointed by what I saw. Our officers deserved better, especially given the tragic events on the VT campus of recent years. Would that they would have received better! Dr. Tommy McDearis Chaplain, Blacksburg and Virginia Tech Police Departments
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 16:15:34 +0000
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