The Shot That Killed Law and Order

It doesn't take much to turn the world upside down. One shot did it for the Colonies. One shot can do it today, too. There is a little town in Oklahoma to prove that point.

With a population of 7,000 maybe it isn't that small, for Oklahoma anyway. Being a small town people can raise chickens if they wish. It's kind of like a modern Mayberry. People can have horses and pigs and goats and because everybody here is really nice, it doesn't matter that much. But even in a big town like Houston there are snakes once in a while, and sometimes snakes are dangerous. It's hard to tell about snakes. Some of them feel like underdogs, and some of them think they are dogs.

There was a lady in this small town who found a snake in her bird house. She thought it was a rattler. A lot of snakes look like rattlers when you see them suddenly appear out of nowhere. A call to the police brought not one, but three officers.

Should healthcare be completely privatized - or should a segment of it be left in public hands? As the debate infects countries adhering to the "social model of capitalism" (e.g., Scandinavia and France) and spreads to countries in transition in Central and Eastern Europe -it is worthwhile to study the experience of the bellwether in privatized health care: the USA.

The True Fourth of July by Muhammad Nasser Bey.

They verified it was a snake. They determined that the snake was alive. It was decided that it might be a rattle snake. After consultation it was decided the best way to eliminate the snake was to shoot it.

One shot, two shots and the snake was dead. The police officers weren't even through congratulating themselves on a job well done before it was discovered that a young boy, down through the woods, completely invisible to anyone at the bird house and down there fishing had been struck in the head by a stray bullet. Before midnight he was dead.

In a manner like this, the death of any child is awful. The death of this child is a tragedy, an awful tragedy. This was a child of dreams, a child of promise, a child loved by all who knew him. It is right and normal that the whole community should grieve his loss. It is completely natural that the family should be close to inconsolable.

Before midnight the whole town and most of the state had turned upside down. There were cries of support for the stricken family and there were more cries to lynch the police officers.

“Put them in jail NOW.” “Send them to prison for life NOW.” “Why is the chief of police protecting these MURDERERS?”

An herpetologist declared the snake was not a rattler. Furthermore it was non-poisonous.
No one asked if more people die from non-poisonous snake bites than from poisonous snake bites. Instead, people demanded to know why these murderers were still “at large!”

I admit I am not a lawyer, but I have watched every Perry Mason show ever produced and I have watched most of the Matlock shows too. Murder is a killing done on purpose. By no stretch of the imagination can this be called murder. By no stretch of the imagination can one see these officers taking aim at this child and pulling the trigger.

It takes very little imagination to believe that second only to the family of the child, the officers involved are more stricken than anyone in town.

Why then is the town turned upside down? Why the hue and cry for blood?
Most of the blame can be put on Hollywood. In the movies even the good cops are little less than criminals and most of the time they are worse. The second reason is that the police never have a good press agent working for them. Nobody hears how the police go hours out of their way to serve the public. Nobody hears how hard they work to avoid making an arrest when there's a juvenile aching to prove he's bad and nobody else cares enough to help turn him or her around.

Yes, there are nests of bad police. But there are also a lot of places like this little town where the police force consistently bends over backwards to be part of the community. They try to plan ahead for likely emergencies and they offer their expertise on a free, after-hours basis when citizens in the community ask for volunteers. In this day and age there are very few volunteers. There aren't even very many people interested in learning about opportunities to volunteer. “Let the police do it. Let the firemen do it. Let the pastors do it. Raise taxes if you have to, but don't bother me.”

Second-guessing citizens KNOW no weapon should have been fired. They should have done this. They should have done that. I don't believe anybody can make a judgment based on what facts are open to us at this time.

The truth is, only a proper and thorough investigation can determine what should have been done. Not just one investigation is underway, but two investigations are underway. Two INDEPENDENT investigations are underway. “If the left one doesn't get you then the right one will.” I see little reason to believe these officers will escape the heaviest censure that can be levied.

But even if they are completely exonerated the careers of these officers will probably be destroyed. Worse than destroyed, a burden of guilt will weigh them down for the rest of their lives. This too is a tragedy. It is a tragedy to the police officers, to their families, and to this little community.

When the time comes, as it surely will, that this community needs more police officers every potential candidate will ask themselves if they want to work in a community that turns so quickly on its silver-shield champions. The ones we do get will be the culls that were turned down and couldn't work elsewhere. That's a shame. That's a tragedy.

Before I moved to this community, before this event happened I took the time to meet the chief of police. I made the effort to see what kind of officers we had on the force. It was my belief then that we were getting far better than we were paying for. Personal and daily observation since moving here has reinforced that belief.

Before I moved here and afterwards too I mingled with the citizens of this community who felt the urge to donate their time to maintaining and improving the quality of life we have. These are the ones I believe will step forward now and ask for the voice of reason to prevail here.

Let the furor die down, let the investigations continue unhindered by cries for blood.

In this time of tragedy let us judge no man before his trial even begins.