It's rearing its ugly head again. The case of an off-duty officer shooting a drunk/high man who was illegally blocking a private driveway is in the news. I commented about this case in my second entry of this blog. I still feel now exactly as I felt then. The "victim", Thomas, was a man with a history of violence, convicted twice of assault (both times with a gun, once against a police officer). The officer, Miller, was off-duty and acting as a private citizen. And Thomas' family have had to work on their story for a year to get it straight. First they said that Thomas had no gun. Then they claimed that the gun was planted by police. After Thomas' girlfriend testified that she'd seen Thomas place the gun (which was stolen) in the truck before the fateful trip, then the family said Thomas had never actually raised the gun. But both the witnesses were drunk or had cocaine in their systems, and one of them was asleep in the back seat and didn't even see the confrontation. We're supposed to believe them over an officer of the law whose record is, by all accounts, sterling?
The Associated Press article about the new developments leaves out all the ugly facts about the Thomas family, and presses the racial issue too much for my tastes. This isn't about race, or it shouldn't be. Thomas was drunk, high on cocaine, illegally parked, and refused to leave when asked politely. Then he threatened the land owner whose driveway he was blocking with a gun, and got shot because that land owner happened to be an off-duty police officer who was used to carrying his gun around with him, even while off-duty. Had Miller not been carrying his gun, there is more than a small chance that he would be dead, and Thomas would be at large or in jail for his murder.
The fact that anyone in the community is using Thomas as a symbol of police racism is not at all laughable, it's counter-productive and damaging to any real victims of racism. Anyone who looks at the facts of this case knows that Miller was, if not completely justified, at least not in the wrong. So any complaint of police racism backfires since this isn't about police racism. If you use this as an example, then maybe there aren't any good examples to use?
Worse, the Thomas family, after working on their story for a year to get it right, are now suing the county and Miller for $25 million in a wrongful death suit. They'd be better off suing the cocaine dealer, and whoever provided Thomas with the stolen gun. Or keeping quiet and learning from Thomas' mistakes. But that would require them to take responsibility for their own actions. They won't do that, because they believe themselves to be victims of society. Never mind that Thomas was breaking the law... he was black, which is why he died. Never mind that Thomas had a stolen gun and pointed it at a person... he was black, which is why he died. Never mind that Thomas was drunk and had cocaine in his system... he was black. His skin color makes it impossible for his actions to be the reason he is dead. If that's not racism, NOTHING IS.
0 comments:
Post a Comment