Muscatine

[Just for the sake of clarity I'm not talking about "all" cops.  Or the Cop who helps an old lady with her groceries, or gets the cat out of the tree, or is kind to his dog - that's the easy stuff. I'm talking about the ones who have the integrity to be "Good" enough to do the right thing, even when it's incredibly hard, even when they have to go up against other cops! When he - or she's - got some real skin in the game and might suffer personal career consequences for it not just from his fellow officers, but retribution from his superiors.  Yes, we have had some of those - like Frank Serpico and others - but not damn near enough.  Not hardly. We need that to be the norm, not the rarity. Anyway - on with the rant!]

It's time to give up on the myth.  The delusion has been revealed.  It's not just about the choke and compression homicide of Eric Garner.  It's not just that Police Departments and DAs who will cover for them with Reverse Kangaroo Grand Juries, who will abuse their authority to seek retribution against those who criticize or reveal incorrect police policies such as Daniele Watts [Charged with "Lewd Conduct" after complaining about being wrongfully required to provide ID and detained] and Ramsey Orta [The person who filmed Eric Garner's arrest] who has been indicted on gun charges.  

Now we have the news that "No Charges" will be filled against the Officers who killed Darrien Hunt in Utah, even after they fired Six Shots Into His Back.  Police argued they had to shoot Hunt because he brandished a sword and "lunged at them", but people can't lunge backwards and the sword in question was a decorative item that was unsharpened with a blunt edge so it makes no sense for him to lunge at anyone with it.  And yet the Prosecutors continue to talk as if somehow Hunt was "dangerous" and police were justified in shooting him while he was running away from them.

"This happened so quickly, violently and without provocationthe officers had to use what was most immediately available to them, which was their firearms," Buhman said, according to AP. Buhman added that the two officers will not be charged in Hunt's death.

"It would have been a matter of seconds before he could have reached someone else," Buhman said, according to AP.

It's also very likely that Hunt pulled the scabbard off the sword to show them it's wasn't sharp, rather than attack them with it - because he had no reason to attack and doing so would have been just plain stupid.

Looking forward we have the cases of Jonathon Crawford and Tamir Rice both shot down by Police within just seconds while holding toy guns which - like so many of these others - will probably be deemed "justified", yet again.

People like Bill O'Reilly and Rudy Giuliani and Peter King keep telling us this kind of thing wouldn't happen to so many Black Men if the "Good Black People" would do something about the Bad Black people that would supposedly make All Black people less terrifying to Cops.

But why can't we apply that same standard to Police?

I used to wonder, where are the supposedly "Good Cops" who oppose the idea that it's perfectly reasonable to take a minor situation like jaywalking, playing with a toy in public or a tax infractions and turn them into a life and death struggle?  

Now I realize, there aren't any of those Cops anymore.  Those whose first inclination when challenged isn't to grab their baton, their pepper spray, their taser or their gun - rather than seek ways to resolve the conflict with brains rather than brawn.

Because if there are any of those Cops around, I don't see them. And I don't see any of them speaking out and taking a stand against all this Death that continues to pile body on top of body in Black and also White communities.  I don't see them standing up to uphold the law against those who would break that law right in front of them, simply because the people doing that - are other Cops.