Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., a former Marine who had heart problems and wheezed if he walked more than 40 feet, triggered his medical alert system pendant. The system operator came on the loudspeaker in his one-bedroom apartment, asking: “Mr. Chamberlain, are you O.K.?” All of this is recorded.
Mr. Chamberlain didn’t respond. So the operator signaled for an ambulance. Police patrol cars fell in behind — standard operating procedure in towns across America. Except an hour later, even as Mr. Chamberlain insisted he was in good health, the police had snapped the locks on the apartment door.
They fired electric charges from Tasers, and beanbags from shotguns. Then they said they saw Mr. Chamberlain grab a knife, and an officer fired his handgun.
Boom! Boom! Mr. Chamberlain’s niece Tonyia Greenhill, who lives upstairs, recalls the echoes ricocheting about the hall. She pushed out a back door and ran into the darkness beneath overarching oaks. He lay on the floor near his kitchen, two bullet holes in his chest, blood pooling thick, dying.
Simple Justice points out the obvious result of all this...
Shockingly, the White Plains Public Safety Commissioner declared the shooting "warranted" because, well, they invoked the First Rule. Not that it wouldn't have been a good idea for the police to have remained calm and de-escalated the situation, calming an old man who might have been in some emotional distress. After all, they didn't know what was happening, which means they had to break into his room. Sure, he told them he was fine at the door, but the police can't trust the word of the person they're there to save.Of course they can't. You might have drugs in there. Or a dog, or something.
Remember, whenever you might be tempted to call a cop, the First Rule of Police Work: Make it home alive. It's a pretty good rule for life, too, but those of us who are not cops interpret it in another way. To a cop, it has come to mean kill everyone who frightens you. To a "citizen," it means - among other things - stay the hell away from cops.
6 comments:
Ever since I read this, I've been fizzing with so much anger I didn't know what to say.
I know cops murder people and excuse themselves all the time, but this poor sap hadn't even done anything! So cops are demanding to come in and he's using his absolute right as an innocent person to refuse them -- and for that they kill him? Overkill him, in fact. Tasers, beanbags, AND "two to center of mass"?
What the hell where the whole group of them thinking?
Even if he actually came at them with a knife, he was totally within his rights. He was doing nothing more than repelling illegal armed home invaders.
Pigs, pigs, pigs!
The following is just a simple, bald statement of fact:
When you call 911, you are saying "Help me, Government!" and the government is going to come help you. From that point, you are a passenger on the train until that "call is cleared".
You don't get to shout "Help me, Government!" and then say "Just kidding!" because you have summoned a genie that thinks with a checklist and will not be stopped until it has ticked off all its boxes.
So think long and hard before you summon that genie, because it will only go back into the bottle when it's damn good and ready.
(This is why I wouldn't call 911 for a medical emergency unless I was, like, actually bleeding out on the floor...)
But he didn't call 911. Granted, he was wearing an emergency monitor and for some reason IT called for help. But what do you expect an old guy with heart problems to do?
I wonder if the cops realize that using this mindset is counterintuitive to the purpose of "getting home alive".
If the public figures that there is a 3 out of 4 chance that a citizen will be shot in any interaction with law enforcement, what will protect the cop from the citizen who feels like there's nothing to lose?
In ANY contact I might have with PO PO, I consider myself in grave danger. So I conduct myself accordingly since I too have a rule that says COME HOME ALIVE.
Post a Comment