ATLANTA SHOOTING 2.0

UPDATE: The DA of Atlanta announced tonight that there are three possible charges. First degree murder; Felony murder- the felony being aggravated assault; or manslaughter. Let us say this- one of the worst pandemics to hit the African American community is the felony murder rule. There are countless minority people serving life sentences for a murder they never committed. Filing a felony murder charge would be a total cop-out; an abandonment of the prosecutor's powers to bring charges. It's either first degree murder or manslaughter. 

Ralph Waldo Emmerson wrote that "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds", which is why- like the 11th circuit when they rule for the defendant and the government files a motion to reconsider- we are willing to reconsider  our positions  when we are wrong.

So here are our thoughts about the Atlanta shooting. 
First, from the perspective of the police, the Monday Morning quarterbacking we are seeing is nauseating. You cannot judge a police officer until you have been in his or her shoes. Until you know what it is like to leave your home every day for work with two infant children, hoping nothing happens that day and you can be there to raise them until adulthood. So when the officer is running in the parking lot and Rayshard Brooks turns and fires at him,  fear and training and instinct take over.

But we are willing to consider this deeper. And here is what we know. Brooks was intoxicated. Brooks was searched and no weapon was found. Brooks resisted arrest and disarmed the officer of his taser and fled. The Monday morning QB say that the officer overreacted and should have just let him run and in a moment Brooks would have stopped, winded and being intoxicated, surrendered. 

So the next question is whether this is a matter of race? Was Brooks being properly arrested? Yes. He was passed out, in a car, in a drive-through and apparently his breath alcohol as measured, was over the legal limit. 
So Brooks should have been arrested regardless of his race.

Next question: If Brooks was a white man, would he have been shot? 
Based on what we saw here, with the police officer reacting and over-reacting based on being attacked and having his taser taken-  yes, we think when that officer went after Brooks he was not thinking about Brooks being black. Does that mean that the inherent prejudices that arise with black men did not in some way affect the officer's decision to shoot? There is no way of knowing.

 Now, we have to take a moment and define our terms. Various social movements are highlighting the prejudices that arise simply from a man being black in America in 2020. The differences between the way the police treat a black man being stopped in a car and a white man being stopped in a car. Black parents have to speak to their teenage sons about the dangers of a traffic stop. White parents do not. This is what we mean by the term "inherent prejudice"- the simple and wrong action of judging someone as more dangerous simply because they are a black male.  

We have to disagree with our conclusion yesterday. The shooting is not so clear cut justified. 

But to take it a step further we have to engage in Monday Morning Quarterbacking. We have to say that the officer could have let Brooks run a bit more after Brooks discharged the taser at the officer. We have to say that the officer should not have actively chased Brooks and just remained a distance back and let him run himself out. These are all things that it is easy for us to do from the safety of our voluntary home confinement. Just like it is easy for us to decry how black men are treated differently by the police although we have never experienced such violent treatment. 

What we want to say is that this is not a matter of race. And yet...George Floyd couldn't breathe when a white officer used his knee to end his life. And yet Arthur McDuffie in Miami was shot and killed and the officers acquitted. And yet there are literally hundreds of instances of black men like Trayvon Martin being killed by white men. In 2009 Oscar Grant, a black teenager, was shot in the back and killed by white officers in San Francisco. In November 2019, Ariane McCray was shot and killed by white officers in South Carolina after being stopped for shoplifting at a Walmart. Terrance Franklin, a 22 year old black man was shot and killed in 2013b with his hands in air by Minneapolis SWAT officers responding to a burglary complaint. The list goes on and on and on and on. It is why people are taking to the streets. They have had enough. And we- the wealthy, successful ruling class of America have not listened closely enough. We have shaken our heads in sadness until the next black man was shot and killed or choked to death and then we have shaken our heads again. 

The time for just shaking our heads has run out. That is why people are protesting and burning things and attacking police stations. 
 So how can we say this is not a matter of race when time and time again race factors into an officer's decision to use force and deadly force? 

We are confounded. We do not want this to be about race. And yet....