Lynching, violent and non-violent
Charles Jordan
Overwhelmed by the mob atmosphere in Atlanta after the shooting of Rayshard Brooks in a DUI arrest entanglement I try to imagine a similar situation in the old South. The Atlanta scenario is not much different from a lynching even if its non-violent. I imagine a crowd of white people reacting to a black man who wrongly or rightly was thought to have caused the death of a white man. Perhaps a lone white lawyer or judge type raises the cry “let the police handle this.” The crowd ignores him, because they don’t need any more proof. They know what is right.
The black man might have done nothing wrong, but was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He may have even tried to explain the misunderstanding to the crowd but the crowd found his obvious defensiveness proof of his guilt. Eliminating him would clear the air of any misunderstanding.
As I watched the Atlanta video, I thought how human and reasonable Mr. Brooks seemed. Surely nothing he might have done would justify shooting him. Yes, he was dead drunk and couldn’t admit it. He didn’t know where he was and he had no ability to understand his position except that he was clearly concerned that anyone would find he was at fault and cause him to be rearrested while on probation for felony cruelty to children, false imprisonment, Simple Battery/Family, etc. Human beings are complicated creatures. Even the worst people in the world like Jeffrey Daumer can be pleasant people in a social situation. I’m sure Hitler could be charming at a ball if you didn’t know anything about him.
A policeman has to size up a man for what he might do in a confrontation with the law. A large man even without a gun can be dangerous, especially if he has the advantage of surprise, putting on a friendly front while desperate about his situation. Forty minutes of small talk trying to get Mr. Brooks to admit that he had driven his car to the Wendy’s while being dead drunk -drunk enough not to be able to stay awake. But after the amiable banter, when the policemen tried to place handcuffs on him, he struggles and as he is dragged to the ground reaches for a taser he sees, fires it at one officer, slugs the other, gets on his feet and runs away. About 10 - 15 feet away, he turns and fires the taser again. He knows how it works. He turns to continue fleeing and the policeman fires at him to stop him from escaping. Presumably the policeman was worried about his own safety, unsure in the rush of the moment, feeling the blow on his face as a sign he might be in danger, not trusting Mr. Brooks to act rationally, he fires three times.
After the shooting Office Rolfe is trying to do CPR on Mr. Brooks. Somehow he is even more guilty in the press because he didn’t recover from shooting someone within 2 minutes to try to keep him from dying and asks Mr. Brooks to “hold on.” The finality of someone dying because you have shot them starts bringing you back to reality, I presume.
Now Officer Rolfe has been charged with 11 different crimes for what to him must feel like a denial of everything he was trained to do. Sort of like the lynching mentioned above. The district attorney must feel panicked just like the officer. A normal case where someone has been shot would presumably go through a couple of hearings before charging someone with murder. The chief of police resigns to avoid having to discuss the situation so central to that job. What did she expect? Did she think she wouldn’t have to face such an incident with large numbers of police with weapons trying to control a large metropolitan area covered with bars and cheap alcohol, people with guns, and thousands of human antagonisms.
But it’s hard for a human beings to be objective when they feel that the whole of America is looking at them through the eyes of a voracious media which still considers itself to be the underappreciated defender of virtue rather than the untouchable dispenser of opinion. Guilt is obvious to the media. Only one side of the question is discussed. Facts tend to be adjectives rather than nouns. News remains news for many days. News has legs rather than facts. “If I use the word racism it sells.” If I can connect the word “racism” to the President, it’ll sell more.
It’s their business model.
