“He who hesitates is lost — swift and resolute action leads to success; self-doubt is a prelude to disaster.” This proverb was first penned by English essayist Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719). If this saying rang true back in the 16th century, it is certainly an even greater reality facing law enforcement today.
Every time a law enforcement officer straps on his firearm he does so with the knowledge that political correctness and the very real and present danger of losing his home, property, and accumulating a mountain of debt to stay out of prison is the reality he faces, should he have to protect himself. And if the cop is a white male and shoots a black, no matter how much of a dreg the suspect is, the officer will be excoriated by the liberal press, reviled by the community he is attempting to protect, and used as a ploy by race baiters to further their agenda.
A case in point is the recent shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. The people outlined above do not care: If the shooting was justified, whether the thug was obstructing traffic by walking in the middle of the street thereby creating the problem which led to his demise, or that he had just robbed a convenience store and then attacked the police officer. The cop be white – the thug be black – that is the only consideration to many within the black community and the bias media, struggling to find listeners and readers.
Fast forward to New York City and we have a man running toward four police officers brandishing a hatchet. The attacker, Zale Thompson is, or was, black — he is now dead. The fact that four police officers hesitated before shooting the attacker again proves the fear and apprehension these men in uniform experienced when faced with using their weapons against a black man. That momentary hesitancy caused a severe injury to one of the officers and a wound to another.
Certainly no rational individual wants law enforcement to indiscriminately kill anyone without due cause. However, when protecting one’s own life is not considered due cause, we face a tremendous problem in this country. The current atmosphere of trepidation places every law enforcement officer at greater risk than the job itself.
Then to exacerbate the problem, we have law enforcement hierarchy making dumb statements to the media. Case in point: August 20, 2014, CNN Tonight — the sheriff of Gadsden County Florida stated, “You have some [cops] who want to get in the business for, you know, to shoot and kill.” How does Sheriff Young know that? If he really suspects that one of his officers has an urge to shoot someone – why on earth did he hire him or keep him on the force? And if he has an officer on the force that enjoys shooting people – why does he keep him on the force? And if he has no first-hand knowledge – why the verbal diarrhea? It would seem that the qualification for being a sheriff in the Deep South does not demand more than a room-temperature IQ. And for the uninformed: Yes, Gadsden County, Florida is more South Georgia than it is Florida – only the state-line makes the distinction.
Then we have President Obama’s new chum, the Right Reverend Minster Alfred Sharpton, who never misses an opportunity to make a bad situation worse by fomenting racial division. Sharpton does however, give us hope; if he can host a television program then every journalism student should feel that he too can get paid to stand in front of a camera. Sharpton is to journalism what Debbie Wasserman Shultz is to political civility and common-sense.
Back to the point at hand: Law enforcement is restricted by the same handcuffs that they use on criminals. They cannot stop anyone without fear of being accused of violating their civil rights. They cannot search anyone they encounter on the street because they would be violating that individual’s Fourth Amendment rights regarding “unreasonable searches and seizures.” Nor is law enforcement allowed to monitor radical Mosques — it wouldn’t be prudent.
We don’t want to offend followers of Islam so we do not distinguish between young Muslims and white-haired grandmothers. Even though young Muslims have caused almost all the destruction to America and its innocence during the past few decades and grandmothers merely want to spoil their grand-kids.
This week a black police officer in our little community in Florida killed an unarmed black mental patient — the circumstances seem to mirror the Ferguson, MO incident. I wonder when Alfred and Jesse will show up?
America’s biggest problem is that it can’t get out of its own way.
Have a good week. Bill Shuey is a freelance writer from North Carolina.
