A couple of weeks ago my neighbors awoke in the dead of night to their front door being knocked off of its hinges.
At first they thought it was an earthquake, perhaps an explosion, but then they realized there were people invading their house.
The husband sleeps with a loaded pistol nearby because, this is a red portion of Washington state, and he’s heard of suspicious activity on the local social media page. Not to mention your home is your castle.
I keep a hardwood baseball bat and a nine iron handy, but that is just me.
Anyway, he grabs for the gun, gets partway down the hallway, his wife bringing up the rear, sees a shadowy figure at the end of the hallway and has the presence of mind to aim - not to kill - but to maim. In other words, he shoots low for the leg, thigh or calf.
All that he knows is that there is a person or persons breaking into his home and it is unclear if they are armed but their intent seems meant to do harm considering they completely demolished his front door with one of those metal battering rams.
It turns out the intruders are a platoon of heavily armed cops in civilian clothing, and they return fire. Deadly fire. Unscrupulously deadly fire. Indiscriminate deadly fire.
One from outside the home. He just sprays bullets randomly into the dwelling. Frankly, it’s amazing he didn’t kill one of his fellow officers who had invaded the home.
Miraculously, the bullets miss the husband but riddle the body of his trailing wife.
She lies bleeding out in the hallway as the interlopers lead the husband out into the street to be handcuffed and interrogated. She lies in her hallway bleeding profusely, possibly still alive, for twenty minutes without receiving any first aid. In other words, she’s sprawled in the hallway of her own home with multiple gunshot wounds and not one of the police officers present tended to her injuries for a third of an hour after the shooting.
River guides have to have some level of first aid, so I am sure police officers do as well. Even if you don’t know a lick of first aid, the least someone could have done was to show some compassion. Twenty minutes is a long time. Think about it. Washing your hands for two minutes is a long time.
By the time anyone checks on the young woman, who herself is an Emergency Medical technician and in her late twenties, she has lost too much blood.
The husband gets handcuffed and arrested for firing on police officers. Wait a second. What? That’s right. The guy who was protecting his home from invaders was handcuffed, booked and taken to the station. Later on, the county dropped the charges.
It turns out, even though they had a warrant for entering my neighbor’s house, after ransacking the place, they found nothing illicit whatsoever. Not a trace or clue of drugs or drug money or illegal behavior. I guess my neighbor’s wife had a cousin who had run afoul with the law but she hadn’t seen him in a very long time.
Meanwhile, no charges were brought against the gun-happy home invaders for murdering the neighbor’s wife. It’s been several months now.
The authorities just want to call it “one big mistake” and offer some feeble apologies. Let bygones be bygones, you know?
The news reporters’ investigations dug up the police report that was filed for that particular incident and it did not mention any “injuries”. In fact, that section of the report was filled out with one word - NONE. You might think a death might make the police report. But, no. And the section of the official report that inquired about Forced Entry, and had two checkboxes for Yes and No? The ‘NO’ the box was checked.
And I thought my short term memory was questionable. . .
Anyway, this did not happen in my town or neighborhood. This is Breonna Taylor’s story. This was Louisville, Kentucky, but, honestly, it could have been anywhere. I did not know the story of Breonna Taylor’s death. Unlike George Floyd, we don’t have an excruciating nine minute video of her bleeding out in the hallway of her home.
I watched Trevor Noah of The Daily Show’s nine minute video dissecting the details of this story and that is what inspired me to write something about it. It’s easy to ‘not know’. Click like or angry and move on. Send a donation to the NAACP.
The three Louisville police officers involved in her unwarranted shooting remain uncharged and free.
The one who fired wildly into the apartment building has been fired. However, according to the Guardian article story I linked to in the previous sentence, it seems unlikely, despite the outcries for justice and despite professional sports leagues rallying to spread the word and keep up the pressure, that they will ever be charged.
And, as Trevor points out, this is not just a failing of the police department, it’s a failing of the system.
We have one set of criminal justice for the poor. And one for the rich.
We have one set of criminal justice for whites. And one for Blacks.
There is also one set of criminal justice for those who oppose police brutality, and those who commit it.
All of this is on the ballot this coming November. But I am talking the “whole” ballot, not just the presidential ballot option.
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Greg Olear’s Prevail article titled “Battle Hymn of the Republic” this past weekend was exceptional. Take a look.
Also, I am fortunate because I live in one of the states that switched to all Absentee Ballot Voting years ago - also known as Mail-In Voting - which, apparently, is how all of the covidiot-in-chief’s family votes. But. . . .
“AMERICA IS FACING A RECORD SHORTAGE OF POLL WORKERS!
As coronavirus continues to impact Americans across the country, we are also seeing a staggering decrease in poll workers — which could mean closed polling places and long delays for elections in 2020. You can help make sure we have a safe, fair, efficient election for all voters, and potentially get paid to do it.”
Go to Power the Polls to see how you can help.
Well said my friend, well said.
As intended.