Officer Beaten by a Convicted Felon Hesitated for Fear of Being Called Racist: Welcome to Post-Ferguson Policing
By Heather Mac Donald for National Review— August 16, 2015
A police officer in Birmingham, Ala., was beaten unconscious by a suspect during a traffic stop last week because the officer did not want to be pilloried in the media as a racist for using force against a black man.
Last Friday, a Birmingham plainclothes detective pulled over a car being driven erratically. The officer, who has chosen to remain anonymous to protect his family, told the driver to stay in the car while he called for backup. Instead, according to CNN, the driver got out and became belligerent, angrily and repeatedly asking why he’d been stopped. The driver, a 34-year-old convicted felon, allegedly grabbed the detective’s gun and pistol-whipped him with it until the detective lost consciousness. The felon, Janard Cunningham, reportedly fled the scene but was later apprehended. His record includes convictions for robbery and assault, among other crimes, and an attempted-murder charge, according to ABC 3340 and WVTM 13.
Several witnesses to the beating posted photos of the bloodied, inert, and prostrate detective on social media, accompanied by celebratory gloating similar to the social-media triumphalism after two New York City police officers were assassinated last December. A typical post read: “Pistol whipped his ass to sleep,” under the hashtag #FckDaPolice.
The detective, who is still in the hospital recovering from injuries to his head and neck, now reveals that he hesitated to use force against Cunningham because of the post-Ferguson war on cops. “A lot of officers are being too cautious because of what’s going on in the media,” the officer told CNN. “I hesitated because I didn’t want to be in the media like I am right now.”
Heath Boackle, a sergeant with the Birmingham Police Department, seconds this assessment. Cops are “walking on eggshells because of how they’re scrutinized in the media,” Boackle said last week.
This reluctance to act is affecting police departments across the country, as virtually every tool in an officer’s tool chest — from traffic stops to public-order maintenance — is villified as racist. In Baltimore, following anti-cop riots and the indictment of six officers for the death of drug dealer Freddie Gray, arrests dropped 60 percent in May compared with arrests the previous year. In New York City, criminal summonses, a powerful gauge of proactive enforcement, were down 24 percent through July, compared with the same period the previous year; total arrests were down 16.5 percent. Arrests in Los Angeles are down 8 percent city-wide, and even further in some of the highest-crime areas. In the LAPD’s Central Division, home to the chaotic, squalid Skid Row, arrests are down 13 percent, while violent crime is up 57 percent. Some top brass are trying to counter what I and others have dubbed the “Ferguson effect.” “We ask our officers to stay engaged,” says LAPD assistant chief Michel Moore. Unfortunately, when officers do stay engaged, they often confront hostile, unruly crowds and resistance from suspects.
There are signs that law and order, and the moral support for such order, are slowly breaking down.
If the Black Lives Matter movement were correct that law enforcement is a scourge on the black community, this unraveling of proactive policing should be an enormous benefit to black well-being. Instead, the country is seeing the biggest violent-crime spike in 20 years, and the primary victims are, as usual, blacks. In 35 big U.S. cities, homicides are up 19 percent this year on average, according to a survey done by the Major City Chiefs Association. Milwaukee has seen a 118 percent rise in homicides; Minneapolis and St Louis, close to 50 percent; and Baltimore, 60 percent. In Dallas, homicides are up 39 percent; in Houston, 36 percent through mid-July. In Chicago, homicides were up 21 percent as of August 2; in New York, 10 percent. Sixty-two percent of surveyed cities reported increases in non-fatal shootings as well. In Cincinnati, shootings have reached a ten-year-high. As of August 8, the number of shooting victims in Los Angeles was up by 25 percent; violent crime in L.A. has risen by 20 percent. The overwhelming majority of shooting and homicide victims have been black, as are their assailants. It turns out that when the police back off, it is residents of poor inner-city neighborhoods who pay, too often with their lives.
But the police pay, too. The mainstream media quickly buried the vicious but non-fatal shooting attack on St. Louis–area officers during the renewed anarchy in Ferguson last week at the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s death. The murder of Memphis police officer Sean Bolton during a traffic stop on August 2 garnered hardly more attention. But such incidents will probably multiply as the media continue to amplify the activists’ poisonous slander against the nation’s police forces.
There are signs that law and order, and the moral support for such order, are slowly breaking down. Few leaders have the courage to speak honestly about the rising violence; even some police chiefs have caved to the false conceit that the police are racially abusing their power.
In Cincinnati, a mini-riot broke out when police arrived at the scene of a drive-by shooting on July 30. The drive-by’s victims included a four-year-old girl, who was shot in the head. According to an eyewitness, bystanders shouted profanities at the cops, who had started arresting people on outstanding warrants to prevent a retaliatory shooting. The press was assiduously silent about the anti-police chaos. Arrests in other cities, from Baltimore to Los Angeles, can be equally fraught. The four-year-old Cincinnati victim was the second child seriously wounded that month in the city. On July 5, another drive-by left a six-year-old girl paralyzed and partially blind.
The New York Times recently did a hit job on a police use-of-force expert, William Lewinski, who has the temerity to testify at trials that officers have only a split second to decide whether to use force when confronting a possibly lethal threat. Lewinski’s conclusions, according to the Times and some psychologists, lack an adequate scientific basis. If more officers adopt the wait-and-see-policy of the Birmingham officer, Lewinski and his detractors may have a lot more evidence to argue over.
Z: Please comment…….who’d EVER want to be a policeman? What hope is there now? Can we turn this around? (I’m always a bit surprised at how many of you don’t at all trust any cops and I’m hoping we can keep that down in Comments and talk about how we’re supposed to feel when cops literally can’t do their jobs for fear of retribution for even just defending themselves. We all know there are bad cops, and they don’t make it easy for the good ones…OR US in terms of our safety…thanks)
z
I read that article yesterday, and as usual, she nailed it.
Looks like people in those big cities are getting the type of policing they’ve been screaming for, and they are also getting the consequences.
What is so hard about simply shutting up and doing what you’re told when a cop stops you? You will never win in a confrontation with them. If they do something dirty, you lawyer up afterward.
The real shame in all of this is that electing Barack Obama gave us a truly historic opportunity to try to come to some understanding, but he squandered it it the most flagrant way. He will leave office with race relations worse than when he arrived, and that is sad.
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Z, this is a terrible state of affairs. Creating a situation where lawlessness goes out of control historically causes the masses to demand martial law – or in the worst case revolution. The result of both tends to be very bad.
I was always pro-police in the strongest way until I moved to NYC. I met two wonderful cops at my previous church. Unfortunately, there are many who are not so wonderful in New York. And the policies from the top down feed and in some cases create the outrage.
Stop and frisk may still be going on here. And for those of you who think that reasonless going through the bags and pockets is harmless or necessary, I’d like you to imagine experiencing it for yourself. Being humiliated publicly when you’ve not committed any crime will quickly make anyone a 4th Amendment advocate.
Somewhat off topic, but take a look at this story of young female pro-lifers who were illegally arrested and strip-searched publicly by the police: Angela Swagler. They happened to be white.
And I’m still pro police. But local police, not those under the control and direction of federal forces or the military. Didn’t there used to be something in our American Republic separating the armed forces from domestic policing in peacetime?
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SF: Ya, it’s kind of a “be careful what you ask for” situation in those cities. Obama definitely did nothing but stir things up, aided well by Eric Holder.
Alec, Stop and Frisk is certainly controversial, as are many actions done by the police, no doubt about that. When you talk about armed forces doing policing in peacetime, what are you pointing at, the times they had to be brought in for Ferguson, or?
TEACHERS used to be respected.
LAW ENFORCEMENT used to be respected
BUSINESSMEN used to be respected…
PARENTS used to be respected…!
It seems now that it’s the exception who’s respected these days and that loss of respect has been brought on by a LOT of things. I don’t know if a society, literally, can continue as peaceful, productive, decent and successful without that respect, particularly for our kids, most of whom grow up with very little………And it’s a two-way street….most of those people I mention above merited respect.
As a side note; I know a single mother with a 3 year old and she overheard me talking with another young mom recently….We were talking about how little kids used to call their parents’ friends and their teachers “Mrs. Jones” or “Mr. Adams”….and, if the adult was close to our parents, we called them “Auntie Gloria,” for example. I said how nice those days were, it bred a kind of respect immediately…and the single mother chimed with the 3 year old, said “Kids shouldn’t respect unless there is reason to respect that teacher.” And I felt so sorry for her child and that whole coming generation.
I’m ALL FOR deserving respect, but for a 3 year old to call his preschool teacher JILL….and to think that 3 year old must discern whether she deserves respect or not told me a LOT. anyway, it’s not how I’d raise a small child….she has every right to her feelings, but…. it told me a lot.
The police seem to be getting rougher as their communities get rougher, aren’t they……they, too, as my article pointed out, are frightened for their families should they be killed or maimed, etc…they have feelings, too, and apparently are to be trained out of those feelings.
Gangs and other criminals don’t have those ‘rules,’ they just commit crimes and try to hurt those stopping them from doing so.
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obama and holder, supported by media, characterized the Trayvon death as blatant racist homicide and have never acknowledged that it became a simple case of someone trying to kill an armed man with his bare hands.
Ditto Mike Brown.
Zimmerman will be hounded the rest of his life.
Darren Wilson will never work as a police officer again.
If there is any question about the validity of the above analysis of the events, they’re based upon trial and grand jury review that refused to convict Zimerman or even bring Darren Wilson to trial. Most importantly, neither case was brought to court for a ‘wrongful death’ suit as was continually promised by the riot inciting Atty General holder- and where it is Much easier to get a conviction.
How many people out there, especially black believe Trayvon and Brown were murdered ? I’d say many.
Then obama and holder drag Mike Brown’s deadbeat parents to the UN to mis-characterize the events to the world. Unreal ins’t it.
I believe obama and holder are directly responsible for most of the black on white attacks since these events. They are guilty of encouraging these attacks. Granted they’ve had some help from some bad cops. The one who shot the feeling balck man in the back several times and the UC cop in Cincinnati who murdered Samuel Debose.
When you give a loser an inch they take a mile, and obama and holder have been giving the loser class an inch a day since they’ve been in office. What are black people supposed to think when the president and US atty general encourage you to attack whites and cops.
The end result is that we now have a feeding frenzy on our hands nationwide. It’s not going to go away anytime soon. We’re right back to pre-1960 race relations thanks to obama and holder.
Worse yet, it is not going to turn out well for the black folks in these communities. I’m less inclined to do anything for them and I’m the most non-racist person I know.
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“Can we turn this around?”
Yes but not unless/until somehow gainful employment is restored to this Nation and, in particular, to the chronically, inordinately unemployed subjects of this post. As long as we have what passes as leadership, at the top, so adverse to economic growth with a declining Labor Force Participation Rate the situation will continue to deteriorate. Yes, we have good cops and bad cops but law enforcement alone can, at best, be only a Band-Aid on a metastasizing socio/economic problem. That said, under the current circumstances, I see declining incentive for anyone to pursue a career in law enforcement at least in the subject venues of today’s post.
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On the other side of the “respect police” coin, I have black coworkers, and they are not surprised at all by the instances of cops caught on film abusing, and in some cases outright murdering black people.
The maintain that this has always gone on, but now with the proliferation of cameras in everyone’s hands, we all get to see what black folks have always known. And these men are not OWS types. They are military veterans with families.
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Things such as this were practically unheard of prior to this administration, but how many on the Left will admit or even realize this? I’m afraid the damage and fallout from this President will be felt for a looooong time.
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Z, I agree completely with your comment at children and respect at 7.34am.
In answer to your question about armed forces and policing, I was thinking more about DHS. Local police integration on a federal level can be seen in training, weaponry, fusion centers, and embedded CIA advisors like Lawrence Sanchez. Homeland Security maintains a domestic military force which polices in local jurisdictions. Homeland Security also directs local police.
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So where is Dirty Harry — or Robert Williamson! – when you need him? Yup. Remember how shocked the liberal community of the time was when black audiences in the hood STOOD AND CHEERED for Dirty Harry? Yeah, they did.
We certainly need to pray for our police. I mean pray. That story of the mom with the 3-yr old bodes very ill. You RESPECT AUTHORITY until given a good reason not to. Now, ‘Authority’ must earn that respect and not be a bully. But you start from a position of respect.
It’s a mixed bag of good and bad cops. There have ALWAYS been bad ones. It’s when it infiltrates the culture of the PD and they feel they are above the law that guys like Alec and me go off on this. (And it’s why I support the ADF who took Angela’s case.) This gratuitous degradation and humiliation of women happened many times in the pro-life movement. And worse than the example Alec cited – women openly stripped to the waist in full public view of male officers and not in areas sequestered for that purpose.
But your post is thoughtful to its depths. WE HAVE A PROBLEM. Even in my neighborhood, as we are gearing up for the train coming through – where snatch-n-grab break-ins proliferate within 3 blocks of the tracks (I’ve been warned by a Metro employee) – we are wondering what happens when we call police? Will they just shunt it off as minor property crime? Unfortunately, since there is a racial element to the criminals who have been doing this, we’re concerned they’ll want to back off touching it unless there is bodily injury that requires hospitalization.
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Does any profession have perfection in every employee? The only difference is these people have guns and make mistakes, too. And mistakes aren’t losing an account or a customer but KILLING someone.
What we have to realize is all training is aimed against the well being of the cops: Trained not to be quite so tough, trained not to go near a minority unless you really have to, trained to be sensitive. Clearly, it’s ‘trained to be the first to die now or you’ll be called racist.” I totally get those in the article who backed off to the point of getting hurt rather than face what Darren Wilson has, and others. Totally get that.
Obviously, the perps don’t get any training, do they.
And THEREIN lies the problem.
Perps are generally badly raised, tough guys (very few really innocent people get killed, and I know, ONE IS TOO MANY, I get that)….everyone’s forgotten seeing the poor little store owner pushed around by the huge black kid, etc. etc.
The latest shooting was done by many cops…. most used tasers on the guy, the one cop shot and killed. WHy didn’t he tase? Those are the questions we need answered and that’s the training they need.
I just can’t argue this point the way we are when we know the majority of cops are good cops and we’re addressing only the bad ones… I’m talking about good cops here……it just stands to reason some are not. Or, let me suggest they might be good cops and are pushed to their ends with what they see all day long and how they’re treated by PURE PUNKS.
So far, cameras are doing a LOT toward showing the PERPS were in the wrong and it’ll be interesting to see how minorities work THAT ONE OUT.
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Baysider: You said “they’ll want to back off touching it unless there is bodily injury that requires hospitalization.”
That, I fear, is the direction of law enforcement these days. They’re pushed with budgets and not enough help, and these punks practically have permission now to do what they want and cops are not bearing down….I believe this is true; until someone’s hurt, they won’t even COME. For a LOT of reasons. All bad…All not the America we knew.
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Re: cameras. What I found particularly disgusting in your post were the WITNESSES who took video and posted it in triumph! A ground rule of guerrilla warfare is the guerrilla is the fish but the people who support and supply are the ocean. You can’t just catch the fish. You still have an ocean for the next ‘fish’ to swim in.
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continuing … in fact, THIS was the precise problem the King of England had with his American colonies!
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Gosh, Z, there is SO MUCH in your post today. I finally got to THIS link: “The New York Times recently did a hit job on a police use-of-force expert, William Lewinski.” good stuff. Especially that video of a suspect pulling out a gun, then turning and running away. Very clarifying.
Civilians just don’t realize how little reaction time you have. A suspect within 21 feet can close on you in TWO SECONDS. I’ve seen it demonstrated by a deputy who trained law enforcement. 21 feet is barely time for a good draw to un-holster his weapon, aim and fire. No wonder we see cops approach trouble with their hand already going for that weapon.
“A batter can’t wait for a ball to cross home plate before deciding whether that’s something to swing at. … Make sense? Officers have to make a prediction based on cues.” As do we. Women especially are tuned into this ‘reading’ of potential threats, aren’t we?
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Baysider, I could NOT agree with you more…..and I know we want and deserve to have our cops well trained (who doesn’t?) and most ARE, but then when you throw in emotional and physical fatigue, disappointment with how they’re treated because of the actions of a few bad apples, the media hounding, the “Pig” epithets, the family at home they’d like to live to see every night for dinner….how the hECK are they supposed to get it right every time?
Something I feel most people don’t understand is cops are scared, too.
Your information on reaction time is STUNNING……who’s going to WAIT AND SEE if that person follows through with a threat while running toward…who knows if that person running toward them has a knife or a gun…or whatever?
Thanks for this….”prediction based on cues”….and we know those cues are in their training but, let’s face it, most of this is NOT textbook, is it… It’s tough, day after day encounters and now, with the horrible attitude toward cops, who’d keep that job?
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It’s called “profiling.” It’s the reason the Israelis don’t have trouble at their airports, and we’re going to have more trouble on our streets. They do it. We won’t be. Chris Rock’s video (what to do when the police stop you) STILL rocks.
This crazy notion of equal outcomes will end up with authorities saying “well, 60% of your stops aren’t white, and whites are 60% of the population in that area.” Oh, wait a minute – I believe they are already saying this nonsense.
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