Shooting in black and white

The recent incident in which five NY cops killed a man about to be married (and injured his friends) is prime talk-radio material.  It has the necessary elements—excessive use of police force, men leaving a seedy strip club hours before the wedding, police using semiautomatic weapons to kill an unarmed black man, the bad guys using their car as a weapon, plainclothes police stake-outs in unmarked vehicles, cops spraying 50 bullets into a car (with less than half of the bullets actually hitting the car).  And the most important element of all is that nobody has a complete picture of what went on.

This evening, while waiting for the snow-virgins to get the hell off of the roads (usually by abandoning their cars in ditches) so that I could drive home in peace, I decided to stream some talkers to get their take on this issue. 

I have a peculiar interest in cop stories being a healthy liberal whose father, uncle, step mother and half sister are (or were) Chicago cops.  You can say that I’ve seen both sides of these issues and learned to appreciate each.  My interest in this particular event was catalyzed by a New York Times article on police “contagious shootings”.

I first found Mike Gallagher on KOL 1300 AM tackling the issue.  (I’ve never listened to Gallagher before, and based on what I heard over about 45 minutes, I doubt I’ll ever have a need to do so again.)  Gallagher spent a couple of segments on the incident of interest.  His view: Don’t blame the cops—it was just self defense.  Charges of racism, he suggested, were manufactured outrage.  Simple, black and white, and missing the salient issues that arise out of this incident.

His treatment of callers was wholly unimpressive.  Both callers were African Americans who tried to explain to the lily-white Gallagher (who grew up near Seattle and probably never saw a black person in his life until moving to Ohio as a teen) some of the subtleties of the situation.   You know, like the reality of strangers (i.e. plainclothes cops unidentified as such) seemingly shaking you down in a rough neighborhood in the middle of the night.  Gallagher would have none of it.  He largely dismissed the caller’s views without so much as a counterargument.  (In a later segment on another topic, he resorted to simply attacking listeners whose arguments he could not easily dismiss.)

An hour later, I was heading east behind the wheel and searching the AM band.  KPTK (1090 AM) offered the topical jackpot with Randi Rhodes.  What a difference.  Rhodes was fully engaged in the subtleties of the incident.  It wasn’t just “bad cops/good guys” or “good cops/bad guys.”  Rhodes explored the issues:  Why did the police fire 50 shots and only 21 bullets hit the car?  Do police really need semiautomatic weapons?  Why do these kinds of police bullet-frenzies always seem to happen to minorities? Should African Americans accept this kind of thing as a cost of living in America?  She discussed the issues, even when she disagreed with a caller’s point.  And she didn't resort to personal attacks. 

(I wish this report could have been more comparative.  Alas, no other talkers took on the topic tonight while I was searching.  It’s too bad, because I suspect that Gallagher makes a pretty lousy representative of the right.)

For a long time the left has stereotyped the right as naively seeing everything in black and white.  And the right stereotypes the left as wishy-washy and taken by nuance over principle.  Comparing these two talkers, however, uncovers a large asymmetry in the stereotypes.  Gallagher used black and white as a crutch to be intellectually lazy and to avoid any real discussion of the issue.  He gave his opinion on the event itself (even while lacking the full story) and shot down those who disagreed.  Rhodes, on the other hand, explored a series of issues that arose out of an incompletely understood event—issues that will continue to be relevant no matter who is eventually found culpable.  And that, my friends, is talk radio done with some smarts.

Comments

[sparky]

This is why i like Randi so much--she does her homework.

[joanie]

Not only does she do her homework, her website links to everything she talks about. She's incredibly well informed. I, too, have great respect for her.

I worked in the Court system and got to know an awful lot of cops. They are good people for the most part; but, they weren't social workers, that's for sure. They had a real mean streak in certain situations or on certain topics. Perhaps not to a person, but collectively they were less tolerant and more judgmental than I was comfortable with. And quite a few of them could be characterized as bullies . . . even by other cops.

I don't know. We seem to have become a shoot-first, ask questions later kind of society.

Also, I love driving and listening to the radio. My car is so comfortable! You home today, too Sparky?

[joanie]

Just read the Times article. I think that instead of talking to those who expended so many bullets, officials should talk to the officers who only expended the 3, 2 and 1. I think one would find out more information from them than the over-zealous or perhaps over-stressed officers who couldn't stop themselves.

From what I read, sounds a little like the ill-timed meeting of two emotional events.

[sparky]

Whoo hoo!!! snow day! Or i should say, "ice day."
Im so glad i didnt have to drive in this today...yesterday was terrible enough and I guess its even worse today. Im listening to the CB and even the judicials are having a hard time getting around...lots of cars and trucks on their sides or tops.

[Darryl]

Sparky,

"Not only does she do her homework, her website links to everything she talks about."

Indeed...she linked to the NY Times article (which I didn't realize until after I was well into writing the post).

Joanie,

"officials should talk to the officers who only expended the 3, 2 and 1."

Good point. They're the ones who didn't get sucked into the moment. It might be something simple, like being at a greater distance, or concern about hitting an officer in front of them. But, who knows, maybe they have better training or more disciplined personalities.

The group "bullet shower" almost seems like some primordial "pack" response to fear.

Another explanation for this incident might be that the sounds of shots from other officer's guns (and maybe flashes reflecting off the car windows, chrome, etc.) tricked each officer into believing guns were being fired from within the car. But, this explanation doesn't really cover some other cases of contagious shootings.

[ryder]

My experience with NYC cops

Back in 72 a 18 year old black boy I knew was doing something totally stupid. He was playing around with a B B Pistol. You remember those things. So weak you couldn't punch a hole through a piece of paper five feet away. Anyway he was clowning around with it.

This upset some neighbors so they called the cops. The cops came, handcuffed, proceeded to question him. Then one of the cops accidently dropped his gun on the ground right in front of the boy. The handcuffed boy. For whatever reason the boy kicked the gun away from him. Eight bullets later he was dead.

Dispite being handcuffed, the shooting was deemed justified.

Okay, the kid was being an idiot. But shot eight times while handcuffed?

The fact is New York City cops are mostly pigs. Having just returned from there last spring I can say the situation is better but not that much better.

[joanie]

Dave just interviewed Bill O'Reilly about the war on Christmas and Culture Wars

It was civil throughout and Dave held his own pretty well. He's the best at that. Never pushed hard enough to cause Bill to hang up but didn't let him win either.

[joanie]

Maybe we're making this too hard. Maybe it is simply the corrupting influence of police power.

I've always heard that in a life/death situation, we often think from our brain stems - a very primitive response. You know, flight or fight. But, I can't believe these guys are really that threatened in such a situation. So what else can it be?

[sparky]

It might be 3 black men together= up to no good.
Racism is still very much alive in this country...

[joanie]

Well, I've never been a big fan of
Bloomberg; but, have to give him credit that he's upset about this as well. He's out and about on this issue.

Gee, where is everybody! Should be stickin' close to the fire tonight. Hopefully you've all got cozy fireplaces. :)

[ryder]

Oh Joanie if I only had you here to keep me warm!!!

Its COLD in this 70 year old heap of a house.

[joanie]

Mmmm mm!

Don't tempt me, Ryder. My furnace is still broken. . . and it's a four-blanket night!

[joanie]

Reminds me of another song from "Nashville" . . .

I"m easy . . .

And now its beddie bye. Sweet dreams, Ryder. Sparky, I'm thinking we'll be back in school tomorrow. I hope you have an easy drive. And Fremont, I love your taste in music!

[FREMONT]

As an addendum, we have yet another questionable police shooting situation...the 92-year-old Atlanta woman killed in a no-knock search warrant incident. Information regarding this event is withheld, uncorroborated, or missing...

BTW, Randi Rhodes won Buzzflash's Wings of Justice award! Yay!

[Joe Bolton]

Are you saying that a 92-year-old woman can't be considered dangerous if she is holding a handgun? Interesting logic.

[Dana]

"His treatment of callers was wholly unimpressive. Both callers were African Americans who tried to explain to the lily-white Gallagher...some of the subtleties of the situation. "

Are you sure he isn't Dori Monson's seldome-discussed sibling? His attitude matches Dori's exactly--he's white but he knows everything there is to know about being black in America.

[sparky]

JOE, did you read the article? She lived in a neighborhood where she needed a gun for protection.