Mr. White Seems Angry At The NYC Cops
The following comment was left for my post on the NYC cops shooting an unarmed man and using 50 or more rounds to do so.
Mr. White has made some assumptions on matters we do not have all the facts about, so I question whether Mr. White has had an unfortunate experience with police, the NYC police in particular, or has an ax to grind.
The first assumption is that the cops are racist. Well, since only one of the officers involved was white, and the rest were black or Hispanic, we have to leave some room for a motivation behind the shooting other than racism. Although racism--at least institutionalized racism--may indeed be involved, one would like to think that black and Hispanic officers might have the where-with-all to rise above that type of prejudice and action.
The second assumption is that only the victim of the shooting was the only one scared or fearful of their lives. As I understand the reports from four different sources, the victim was in a car and the car was moving and aimed at one of the officers. Again, it is a matter of investigation whether the initial officer on the scene identified himself as a police officer before pulling his weapon. Certanly, given that the victim was involved in an altercation just a few minutes before the shooting, the victim could have been fearful for his life. If the officer did not identify himself properly--a situation that I have experienced in NYC myself--then pulling his weapon was indeed way out of line. However, there are a lot of details that we do not have. So, I have to question whether or not Mr. White has rushed to judgment.
In my original post, I stuck to the issues that even the NYC Police Commissioner and the NYC Mayor called into question. The issue of "contagious shooting" and the amount of training conducted to aid in preventing it from occurring, the excessive number of rounds fired (even in light of the possibility of "contagious shooting"), and the mob mentality that this incident represents were included in my criticisms.
The third assumption by Mr. White is that, given the nature of my blog and my reluctance to use vulgarities in colloquial form, I would appreciate his use of such vulgarities.
In the past I have posted some rules for posting a comment to my blog. They are not hard and fast rules, but generally require that some genuine thought and sincerity go into the process. I spend a significant amount of time reading about the issues, formulating my thoughts and then writing about these matters. I try to put a lot of reason into what I write. I work at geting to the facts and I try not to let my anger, emotions and passions to become the only part of my thinking and feeling that I let readers see. I even work at not being insulting, although it has been awful difficult in regard to the Bush administration. But even when I am insulting, I try to do it with a little class and not employ overtly vulgar language to do so. As my Judo sensei used to tell me, only a weak mind resorts to vulgarity as their primary weapon.
So, while I understand Mr. White's feelings, I do wish he would do some deeper investigation into the facts, some proper reasoning, some restraint on the use of the vulgarities, and a lot less assumption. In the end, a lot of his points have a hint of validity, but who is going to listen when his ideas are presented in such a manner?
"Look, if the racist and/or dumb ass undercover cops did NOT identify themselves as cops, it is quite likely the black men shot were in fear for their own lives, being followed by who the hell knows, as far as they were concerned. They were obviously trying to get away from these fools. No excuse justifies firing 50 shots at people who are obviouly not firing back. These dumb f***s ought to be kicked off the force, prosecuted and sent to prison. End of story, until the next time."--Miles White
Mr. White has made some assumptions on matters we do not have all the facts about, so I question whether Mr. White has had an unfortunate experience with police, the NYC police in particular, or has an ax to grind.
The first assumption is that the cops are racist. Well, since only one of the officers involved was white, and the rest were black or Hispanic, we have to leave some room for a motivation behind the shooting other than racism. Although racism--at least institutionalized racism--may indeed be involved, one would like to think that black and Hispanic officers might have the where-with-all to rise above that type of prejudice and action.
The second assumption is that only the victim of the shooting was the only one scared or fearful of their lives. As I understand the reports from four different sources, the victim was in a car and the car was moving and aimed at one of the officers. Again, it is a matter of investigation whether the initial officer on the scene identified himself as a police officer before pulling his weapon. Certanly, given that the victim was involved in an altercation just a few minutes before the shooting, the victim could have been fearful for his life. If the officer did not identify himself properly--a situation that I have experienced in NYC myself--then pulling his weapon was indeed way out of line. However, there are a lot of details that we do not have. So, I have to question whether or not Mr. White has rushed to judgment.
In my original post, I stuck to the issues that even the NYC Police Commissioner and the NYC Mayor called into question. The issue of "contagious shooting" and the amount of training conducted to aid in preventing it from occurring, the excessive number of rounds fired (even in light of the possibility of "contagious shooting"), and the mob mentality that this incident represents were included in my criticisms.
The third assumption by Mr. White is that, given the nature of my blog and my reluctance to use vulgarities in colloquial form, I would appreciate his use of such vulgarities.
In the past I have posted some rules for posting a comment to my blog. They are not hard and fast rules, but generally require that some genuine thought and sincerity go into the process. I spend a significant amount of time reading about the issues, formulating my thoughts and then writing about these matters. I try to put a lot of reason into what I write. I work at geting to the facts and I try not to let my anger, emotions and passions to become the only part of my thinking and feeling that I let readers see. I even work at not being insulting, although it has been awful difficult in regard to the Bush administration. But even when I am insulting, I try to do it with a little class and not employ overtly vulgar language to do so. As my Judo sensei used to tell me, only a weak mind resorts to vulgarity as their primary weapon.
So, while I understand Mr. White's feelings, I do wish he would do some deeper investigation into the facts, some proper reasoning, some restraint on the use of the vulgarities, and a lot less assumption. In the end, a lot of his points have a hint of validity, but who is going to listen when his ideas are presented in such a manner?
posted by Jim Downey at 4:26 PM
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