And the protests start when? NYPD Officer Brian Moore dies from injuries.
It’s always sad, indeed usually tragic, when a cop is killed in the line of duty. When it happens, police from everywhere show up. Every cop knows there is a risk in just being a cop. Beside death and physical injury, every cop runs the risk of psychological and family issues by bringing the job home with them. We haven’t lost a lot of cops in Western Massachusetts, but Gary DiNapoli, a Holyoke cop, was one I remember. He was a friend of a friend, and by all accounts, a good guy. He was killed in 1999:
DiNapoli, 52, was in plain clothes, unarmed and in an unmarked cruiser, out running an errand when he wound up volunteering to respond to a disturbance call at Walnut and Sargeant streets on the morning of Dec. 22, 1999.
DiNapoli followed one of the men involved in the disturbance who was leaving the scene on foot, police said, and, a block away at Walnut and Hampshire streets he was shot dead in his vehicle….
In what was an apparently unprovoked act, Eddie O. Morales shot 10 times at DiNapoli’s cruiser; five of the shots from the 9mm handgun struck the officer, killing him on the spot. His killer, who admitted he’d been selling drugs on the street corner, later claimed he had been “nervous” when he opened fire on DiNapoli’s cruiser.
DiNapoli was an innocent man, just doing his job. His killer is in jail. Justice was served. Freddie Gray was just a guy who ran away from eye contact with a police officer. Unfortunately, most people who die at the hands of police are never charged, never mind convicted. And in Baltimore, you have a pretty good chance of getting abused even when you’re entirely innocent. The reasons for the protests in Gray’s case and the cases we’ve seen the the last several cases isn’t that these men were killed. It’s because, when it comes to black people, justice remains to be served. When it comes to police malfeasance, justice has almost never been served. People protest to draw attention to injustice. Not death. Not crimes. We have a justice system to address murder, but it doesn’t work so well when police do something wrong.
So why does Kevin Cullen want to see protests over the death of slain NYPD Officer Brian Moore? In part because he a columnist, which, in itself, puts one foot perilously close to a trench of bullshit. He gets paid to have opinions. Insight is secondary. But Cullen’s tweet is stupid. I know he gets his street cred loving cops and writing books about Whitey Bulger, but he’s wrong here and muddying the waters. Or maybe he’s been hanging out with Sean Hannity. As Vox has it:
People can reasonably disagree on whether police officers unjustifiably kill black men at disproportionate rates, whether cops should be given less legal latitude to use deadly force, and whether the criminal justice system really does disproportionately hurt minority communities. But trying to set up false equivalencies between the murders of police officers and killings by police officers fundamentally misunderstands what the Ferguson and Baltimore protests are about — and it undermines the legitimate tragedy of Brian Moore’s death by cheapening it into a political talking point.
I have plenty of cops either in my family or friends of the family, but I also sympathize with where you are coming from Mark. It surprises me that the side that generally opposes public sector unions, opposes big government, and has such a strong strict constructionist constitution fetish suddenly defers entirely to government agents and glosses over clear 4th amendment violations in each one of these circumstances. With very few exceptions, the right wing commentary on National Review, Fox News, American Spectator, and the like tends to differ to cops at all costs, support their militarization, support giving them wide latitude to ‘do their jobs’ with little to no third party oversight. Meanwhile, teachers salaries depend entirely on increasingly faultier tests.
Scott Walker is a hero for bashing teachers unions and restricting that professions rights to good benefits, good pay, while passing draconian oversight while Bill de Blasio gets crucified for wanting comparatively tepid oversight authority over police. Karen Lewis and Randi Weingarten have gone out of their way to say she won’t protect ‘bad teachers’ and support putting children’s interests ahead of their members self interest, and yet morons like the Baltimore and NYC union heads get to disrespect the officials and public they are sworn to obey, while the bad cops in Chicago are costing taxpayers far more than any bad teachers. Cullen and his ilk are doing more to polarize us than anyone protesting police brutality or asserting their constitutional right to freedom from unlawful searches.
…until the person standing in the way of that is someone like Cliven Bundy:(
I have a lot of cop friends. I don’t know any bad ones personally. It’s not them I criticize, but the system, particularly in Baltimore.
I feel uncomfortable talking about a cop losing his life in the line of duty, but the two instances shouldn’t be compared. Cullen sucks eggs.
…it’s not like there have never been support the police rallies or vigils in honor of fallen cops and calling for peace in the streets.
This cop was killed by an actual criminal in a craven action, the protesters are asserting their humanity in spite of attempts by society to criminalize them and their rights to due process under the law. The sad reality is, none of us as white men would be pulled over for no reason.
Stop and frisk and similar policies are blatantly unconstitutional policing that have done little to reduce crime in the communities affected and done a lot to create this polarized line of mistrust between police forces and communities of color across America. Cullen is stoking such a division, when what is needed is action to prevent abuses and ensure the real criminals are apprehended before they can kill another cop. The biggest irony of this false dichotomy is that this officer and Freddie Gray would both be alive today if our policies reflected our values.
That’ll be the day.
It’s as if protests were a kind of honor.
Guy hasn’t had a creative thought since he called figured he could everyone by pretending he’s from Southie and has cred with the darkside of life.
He doesn’t. he’s just a tool for certain people.
Everyone knows that, right?
People are protesting when cops kill people because there is almost never a consequence of this behavior. It would be appropriate to protest when a cop is killed when the person who does it is allowed to go free with a similar lack of consequence. The person who killed the cop in New York will likely be given life in prison.
I see the people who are calling for this as more interested in perpetuating the status quo whereby cops are given free passes for any use of force, especially when it is on someone in a racial/ethnic/social group that they see as somehow “the other”.
Can’t wait to use this line myself at an appropriate time