We
can always count on LAPD to find new ways to abuse black
people. If there's some kind of abusive first with lethal
force and LAPD, trust me, a black person's involved. While
this one is probably not a first for the department (shooting
a naked man), it's a first for the "new" "post
reform" LAPD.
Last weekend, two officers encountered
a relatively young black man in the middle of the night.
The long story short is the young man ends up dead. Shot
by the police. Apparently no witnesses, and just the cops
word.
There
is nothing more peculiar than the aftermath of an LAPD shooting.
Some of the most creative storytelling ever takes place
after a LAPD questionable use of lethal force.
Every time I want to think that LAPD
has changed, something like this comes up. Never a fan of
the police, I acknowledge that they have a tough job, but
somebody's gotta do it. I even tolerate their sometimes
unnecessarily intolerant attitudes. Yes, their job stress
will make you a little snippy (to use Al Gore's term). And
LAPD has changed. It's not my daddy's LAPD or even the LAPD
of my young adulthood.
That being said, they're not as abusive
as they once were, but some of �em are still snippy as hell
and LAPD still got a few cowboys and Rambo wannabes on the
force who "profile" the community and those who
look like they should be in or from the "community."
We can always expect snippy from them. But snippy many times
leads to extreme intolerance when it comes to our community.
Or is it always convenient target practice? Hey, don't email
me. I'm just asking the questions the community is already
askin'.
Does it make sense that that two
trained law enforcement officers would not be able to subdue
an unarmed, naked man? Why does this always happen to us?�
You can email me on that one. I'm real curious to know how
this happened. I know LAPD will come up with something (they
always do). I just wanna know what he had in his hand this
time to justify lethal force.
We've
heard every conceivable story LAPD can come up with (and
any other police department around the country). Black men
have been killed for having wallets in their hands, cell
phones in their hands, flashlights in their hands, coke
bottles in their hands, and yes...every now and then, someone
has a gun in their hands. And when one draws a gun on law
enforcement, the consequences are what they are. But this,
"we thought he had a gun" business is getting
tired. This "I feared for my life" excuse is now
in the police union playbook as the first line of defense
for "bad shoots."
How
simple do they think the public is? Public disturbance,
or public intoxication, even public nudity, is a crime-a
misdemeanor crime. Not a death sentence. Even resisting
arrest used to bring on an old fashioned "@* * whuppin,
bringin' one close to death (i.e. Rodney King) but not this
type of unwarranted shooting.
I
was at an elected official�s birthday party over the weekend,
and the buzz was the senselessness of this shooting. I stumbled
up on a conversation between several women who were commenting
on the irrationality of the killing. Now these are women
talking. One said he must have had the biggest penis in
the world for them to mistake as a gun. I told them not
to feed the myth. But the point wasn't lost on a celebrity
defense attorney (who we all know-think O.J.) who said,
"you'd be surprised what they'd come up with."
No I wouldn't, but I get it. LAPD would be real hard pressed
to rationalize shooting a naked man with just his big d**k
in his hand, so you knew they would come up with something
else. And they did.
This time, two of them couldn't subdue
an unarmed naked man who weighed 190 pounds. So he wasn't
the "monster" they usually make of the suspect
they have to (choose to) shoot. No claims of PCP intoxication
that used to be the "standard line" in the 1970s,
1980s and 1990s. LAPD shot plenty of folk during the PCP
era as "Supermen" all shermed up made trying to
subdue drugged out suspects were a futile efforts (according
to LAPD). This wasn't the case here. They want to say this
suspect was a former high school and college football player
but these days, a 190 pounder be hard pressed to play football
on anybody's college football team. This suspect was (is)
considered an averaged size man. They want to say Reginald
Doucet, Jr. was uncooperative and turned violent, but aren't
police officers equipped with batons, mace, pepper spray,
tasers and all types of non-lethal equipment to subdue uncooperative
suspects in the reformed LAPD?
Isn't it department policy that legal
force is a tactic of last resort? Not a tactic of first
resort. Did they even attempt to subdue Douchet before choosing
to shoot him. Hopefully, these facts will come out of an
investigation. Instead, the initial report is that a naked
man took on two LAPD police officers in a street fight,
hit one in the face ad tried to take his gun. So they shot
and killed.
No comments on whether non-lethal
tactics were used preceding the shooting. It's possible
he tried to grab an officer's gun, but not probable given
that it's two on one and you'd have one officer always covering
the other. One on one is one thing. Two on one is suicide.
It makes no sense to anybody but, of course, LAPD. Every
new police chief in the post-Gates era has had their new
tests within their first years in the chief's seat. This
is new LAPD chief, Charlie Beck's. Every one of them has
had to convince us that this is not the same ole LAPD. It's
been a tough sell for each one.
The black community, and its sleeping
civil rights groups, must call for an investigation. I can't
wait to see what they come up with this time.
BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad, PhD is a national columnist
and author of Saving The
Race: Empowerment Through Wisdom. His Website is AnthonySamad.com. Click here to
contact Dr. Samad.
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