We wish the family of Bradley Blackshire strength, but they may not need our wishes. They were featured in Sunday's paper at a picnic they had put together in honor of Bradley Blackshire. After several months now, the mourning's not over (it might never be) but the hugs and eating and fellowship can be enjoyed, finally. And apparently were. Good for them. (So much has been bad for them.) Good for the rest of us, too, for we're all one people made in His image.
There were those who demanded that the cop involved in this shooting be prosecuted--before the prosecutors had reviewed the facts. That's not the way it's done in this still-free country. We don't know the officer involved from Adam's Off Ox, but he got into a job that's a poor-paying and dangerous act of public service. Let's remember that, too, as we remember Bradley Blackshire.
And doubtless this has been a low point in the officer's career, maybe life, and we wish for him the grace that could make something good, yes, even of this. Stranger things have happened. Only the foolish think life is about perfection. It's about always doing better, no matter what we have done. Coincidentally, a particular Preacher celebrated this week talked about similar things.
We don't envy news reporters in times like these. People looked at the video, heard the officer's orders, heard Mr. Blackshire's response, and may have come to very different conclusions. Chalk that up to backgrounds. Some folks will never know what it's like to be, say, followed in a retail store because of the color of your skin. Some folks will never know why anybody, ever, would disobey a police officer in uniform. Different life stories, different views of the world, different ink blots on a daily basis. And a news reporter must walk a careful line, not to assume that folks will see the same thing. In cases like this, it's easier over here in the opinion section.
It's only because of recent technology that newspapers have been able to attach videos to stories, as this newspaper was able to do after the February shooting of Mr. Blackshire. The facts, as we understand them, are these: The police officer stopped a car reported as stolen. He ordered the driver, Bradley Blackshire, out. Several times. At one point Mr. Blackshire, 30, simply said, "No." The officer couldn't see the driver's right hand, which might have been used to put the car in drive. The car moved toward the officer, and the officer opened fire, at one point laying on the hood of the vehicle as it continued to move.
That's pretty much where agreement ends. As the prosecutor's office was putting together its report, the writers therein made it clear that U.S. Supreme Court precedent says that an officer's actions cannot be judged by 20/20 hindsight, as with videos, but must be judged from the situation and the officer's understanding at the time. Of all the unfortunates in this case, add (to a much lesser degree) Larry Jegley's office. This was a no-win case.
We counted the officer saying "Get out of the car," or "Get out of the car, dude" a dozen times, and, again, once the driver actually said no. The officer was still saying "Get out of the car" as the car moved forward--before he fired. And the officer ended up on the hood of the car, firing his weapon with one hand while he radioed with another that he was firing.
Is there a lesson here? Perhaps many. But one that might need to be emphasized to our young people: If a police officer pulls you over, unholsters his gun, and demands you get out of the car, ignoring him puts your life in danger. Sure, he may be wrong, he might have misread a license plate, he might have wrong information from dispatch, he might have--for a hundred different reasons--pulled over the wrong car. But that can be worked out later. What can't be worked out are 15 shots through a windshield as a frightened and/or threatened cop is tossed around on the hood of a car.
Maybe something like this video could be shown in drivers' license class, just to make the point. Or perhaps over-make it. Because this was a man-made calamity that should never be repeated.
Split-second decisions can lead to a lifetime of sorrow and regret. Police officers deal with that every day.
So does the citizenry.
Editorial on 04/24/2019