January 27, 2015
I
don’t envy professional quarterbacks like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. They are amazingly proficient at what they do
– arguably two of the best quarterbacks ever to play the game. Yet, despite their demonstrated abilities,
they are subjected to constant second guessing.
Why did Brady leave the pocket?
Why didn’t Manning throw to the wide open receiver? They must make split second decisions, then
act upon them with tremendous precision.
There is a sense in which these two men, who are so gifted they make a
very complex job look easy, are made victims because of their proficiency. It is precisely because they are so good that
many forget how difficult what they do really is.
Football
is a billion dollar industry and incredibly entertaining to millions of people,
but the bottom line is it is just a game.
If a team wins or loses, if a quarterback makes a good decision or a
poor one, throws a perfect pass or an interception, no lives are lost. Mourning or rejoicing may occur based on who
wins or loses, but there are no lives are on the line. No one will live or die
based on the outcome of decisions made and performance rendered.
That
is not the case when it comes to law enforcement. On a daily basis, thousands of men and women
put their lives on the line in order to protect our lives and property. These
are officers who never know when they approach a car in a traffic stop whether
or not the driver or passengers may be armed and ready to shoot. These are the men and women who respond to
domestic calls and suddenly face an enraged man armed with a knife. They are forced to make split second
decisions in regard to the use of deadly force. And, increasingly, they are being subjected to
second guessing on those split second decisions. Should the officer have used deadly force in
this situation? Couldn’t she have simply
allowed the suspect, though armed, to run away?
Couldn’t he have decided to use a Taser instead of his sidearm?
Deadly
force should never be taken lightly, and it should always be subject to review. However, we must all remember that such
decisions often occur in very stressful situations and must be made in
milliseconds. Police officers are
highly trained individuals, and the vast majority of them are very competent in
what they do. Still, these highly
trained and very capable officers live every day with the knowledge that,
suddenly and unexpectedly, they may be faced with making a life or death
decision in mere moments.
Within
the last couple of weeks a police officer in the nearby city of Muskogee shot
and killed an armed suspect. The man had
threatened to kill a young woman attending a wedding. The panicked minister, aware of the
situation, phoned 911 asking for an officer to immediately respond. The responding officer confronted the suspect
and was in the process of placing him in custody when he broke away and ran. The officer pursued him. The suspect, as he ran, dropped a pistol,
then stopped to pick it up. After he
picked up the gun, the officer made the decision to fire repeatedly, killing
the man. The entire ordeal was recorded
on a video camera the officer had attached to his uniform. This video was subsequently released to the
public by the Police Department. It is available for viewing on Youtube. While hard to watch, it drives home how a
situation can escalate in seconds into life or death decisions.
I
have listened to numerous discussions of this fatal shooting. And I have been appalled at the Monday
morning quarterbacking that has occurred.
Why did the officer choose to begin to cuff the suspect? Why not just interrogate him? Why did he pursue when the suspect suddenly
broke away from him and ran? Why did he
choose to shoot when the suspect dropped, then retrieved the pistol, but
appeared to begin to turn and run again?
Why did the officer fire repeatedly instead of only once?
All
these questions are being asked when, thankfully, there is a recorded 911 call
from the minister describing the situation and asking for an officer to
respond, and the subsequent video of all that occurred courtesy of the
officer’s body cam. This is not a
situation where there is only eyewitness testimony, which has been proven to be
notoriously inaccurate. The whole
heartbreaking scenario is recorded. Yet,
despite this, some continue the second guessing and condemning of the officer.
I
have only the utmost respect for anyone who would choose to be involved in law
enforcement today. They knowingly enter
into a profession where, not only do they put their lives on the line, but they
subject themselves to being second guessed and judged on the decisions they
make. The vast majority of the time the
decisions they are required to make do not involve deadly force, but there is
always the possibility that may occur. In the highly charged and contentious
atmosphere in which officers now function, they must not only make those split
second decisions, but must have, in the back of their mind, the knowledge that
such decisions will be subjected to
intense scrutiny. While deadly force
decisions should never be taken lightly, and I don’t believe they are, I am
concerned that such extreme scrutiny will lead to officers hesitating in a
moment when such hesitation could be fatal.
How many officers are going to lose their lives because, in those
milliseconds when decisions must be made, they hesitate and die as a result?
The
police officer in Muskogee is being viewed, by some, as a criminal. What seems to be lost in all of this, and
many other such cases, is that the suspect brought all of this on himself. He made threats of violence. He possessed a firearm. He resisted and fled arrest. When he dropped the gun he stopped and picked
it up. He didn’t have to die. He simply needed to follow the officer’s
instructions and he would still be alive – maybe in jail, but still alive.
We
seem, in many ways, to have become a nation of Monday morning quarterbacks,
reveling in our ability to second guess decisions. From the President on down, everyone is
constantly subject to criticism for whatever decision he or she may make. While such second guessing is normal and
even, to some degree, healthy when it comes to politics and football, I don’t
know that it applies in the same way when it comes to the police officer
constrained to use deadly force. Unless the
use is obviously and clearly egregious, and frankly I haven’t seen evidence of
such in highly publicized recent cases, we need to give those men and women in
blue the benefit of the doubt. They put
their lives on the line every day for us, and I believe they deserve our
support and our trust.
Dan Rouse
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