Levar Jones, 35, an assistant manager at a Subway store, was
stopped in his hometown of Columbia, SC on September 4 for a seatbelt
violation. After Officer Sean Groubert, 31, a State Trooper instructed Jones to
produce his license, Jones, who was standing outside the vehicle, reached in
the front seat to comply with the order. When he turned around, Groubert fired four shots in rapid succession, one hitting Jones in the hip. Nobody knows why
Groubert fired, but other citizens will not have to worry about him, because
once the powers that be saw the videotape from Groubert’s dashcam, Groubert was
fired and charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature for
the shooting. He faces 20 years in prison if convicted. He will likely also face
civil charges for assault or even federal civil rights charges over this
incident. It bears mentioning that Groubert is white, and Jones is black. Here
is the video from Groubert’s dashcam.
What you just witnessed could happen in your town or my
town; in Peoria just as easily as in Poughkeepsie. Detroit, Provo, Anchorage,
St. Louis, Galveston, Jersey City, you name it. Nationwide, urban, suburban and
state police forces are hiring young people (mostly male), who complete what
many might consider minimal training before being let loose on the streets,
with firearms and a type of authority with which most people their age are
unfamiliar. State Trooper training in
South Carolina lasts 17 weeks. That’s it. Poof. Four months and you’re a cop. No college
required, just a high school diploma or a GED. Oh, and you can do all of this at
the tender age of just 21. Some of these rookie cops are so young they still
live with mom and dad.
For the moment, let’s travel north to Brooklyn, NY, where
that same 21-year-old can become an officer with the NYPD with six months of “intensive”
training. Presumably, the unnamed Brooklyn officer who tackled a very pregnant Sandra Amezquita to the ground on a city street had undergone that training. Amezquita
was trying to intervene as officers arrested her 17-year-old son. Before she
was violently forced to the ground, she was struck in the abdominal area with a
police baton. Another woman, who tried to help Amezquita was forcefully pushed
to the street by another officer. Again,
there is a video. Watch:
Of course both of these incidents come just weeks after
Officer Darren Wilson, 28, shot and killed Michael Brown, 18 in Ferguson, MO,
after Wilson considered Brown a suspect in the theft of some cigars. Wilson is
a four-year “veteran” of the Ferguson police department, having served two
years before that on the Jennings, MO police force. Wilson started his career
at 22 years old.
While I cannot authoritatively comment on the personal lives
and backgrounds of Groubert, the unnamed Brooklyn cop or Wilson, let’s just say
there is an obvious pattern of brutality and abuse in these cases, and they are
not isolated incidents. Jones was complying with Groubert’s order; Amezquita
was visibly pregnant, and Brown, unarmed, allegedly had his hands up in the air
when he was shot.
As usual, the numbers tell the story:
- The FBI reports that a white police officer shot a black citizen on an average of twice a week in the seven years from 2005 to 2012 in the U.S.
- ·Between 2003 and 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that 4,813 people died while in the process of arrest or in the custody of law enforcement.
- The FBI stats indicate about 400 U.S. citizens each year are killed by police officers in acts of “justifiable homicide.” Compare that statistic to six in Australia, six in Germany and two in Australia.
- As opposed to those citizens killed each year, in 2012 (the most recent year stats are available), 48 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty.
- The Lavar Jones incident is the 32nd officer-involved shooting in South Carolina in 2014, according to the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division.
- Black Americans are killed by law enforcement officers in an inordinately higher percentage than white Americans. Case in point: Chicago. In 2012, there were 57 police shootings in Chicago. Fifty of those shot were black, according to the city's own published statistics.
Former S.C. State Trooper Sean Groubert |
As mentioned earlier, Grouber has been heavily charged in the South Carolina case, and the buzz now is that his attorney will use Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a defense. We have no way of knowing if he suffers from PTSD, but the big question will be whether the South Carolina State Police even monitor their officers for PTSD. Is it even a topic of consideration? And if there is a rash of PTSD permeating our local and state police forces, how many other disordered, heavily armed cops are freely roaming our streets in or out of uniform?
To add to all of this, there appears to be a type of arms race between citizens on the street and law enforcement officers. There is an increased availability of firearms to almost everyone in this country, at the same time there appears to be a diminished respect for human life on both sides. That disturbing trend certainly showed itself in Ferguson, MO, when law enforcement produced military style weaponry and defense vehicles in preparation for violent rioting which never came.
I see our current cultural shift this way: Once everyday
Americans become fearful of the police, rather than trusting, fewer and fewer
will depend on law enforcement when the need arises. Already
some citizens in
heavily populated urban areas express their fear of calling the police. At the
same time, once police begin to view citizens as alternately enemy combatants
and expendable, no one is safe even in their own homes. Best evidence? In 2012,
in my town, New Orleans, police executed a drug raid on a local home. One of
the officers, Joshua Colclough, was walking up the stairs in the house when
resident Wendell Allen appeared at the top of the stairs. Allen was unarmed and
shirtless, and his hands were visible. Officer Colclough instantly shot Allen dead.
After two years of legal wranglings, Colclough backed out of a plea deal to
plead guilty to negligent homicide and was ultimately found guilty of
manslaughter. His sentence? Four years
in prison. Said Allen’s mother of her dead son: “He was my everything. He was
my superstar.”
Former NOPD Officer Joshua Colclough and Wendell Allen |
For the record, the white Colclough was 27 at the time of
the murder (my word), and the black Allen was 20 years old.
Colclough’s case is not unique to New Orleans. Until law enforcement
agencies make applicant requirements more stringent, require more education for
recruits and take psychological testing and monitoring more seriously, how many
more Wendell Allens and Michael Browns will there be? And why are people like
Darren Wilson and Joshua Colclough immune from murder charges in cases like
theirs? Sure looks like cold blooded murder to me.
Fortunately, the citizenry is beginning to demand to be
heard. On Friday, September 27, a citizen rally was held in Brooklyn (right) to protest
police violence.
This came just after the pregnant Sandra Amezquita incident. In Ferguson, MO, marchers recently held rallies demanding the resignation of Police Chief Thomas Jackson. In New Orleans, still a hotbed or violent crime, Police Chief Ronald Serpas recently resigned his post. Earlier this year, San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne resigned amid a number of controversies, some involving officers’ unwarranted use of excessive force. One notable case involved an officer who shot and killed a 25-year-old mother in her kitchen because he believed she was about to attack him with a meat cleaver that turned out to be a vegetable peeler with a six-inch blade.
This came just after the pregnant Sandra Amezquita incident. In Ferguson, MO, marchers recently held rallies demanding the resignation of Police Chief Thomas Jackson. In New Orleans, still a hotbed or violent crime, Police Chief Ronald Serpas recently resigned his post. Earlier this year, San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne resigned amid a number of controversies, some involving officers’ unwarranted use of excessive force. One notable case involved an officer who shot and killed a 25-year-old mother in her kitchen because he believed she was about to attack him with a meat cleaver that turned out to be a vegetable peeler with a six-inch blade.
Marchers at the New York rally demanded the resignation of
NYPD Chief Bill Bratton, carrying signs that said such things as “100
Chokeholds, 0 Cops fired; Who Runs this Town?”
Who, indeed.