This is one of those stories where the complete truth may never come out, but according to published reports, a group of six young knuckleheads in the Detroit Shoreway area decided to pull a stunt that could have ended up with disastrous consequences. It seems the youth mobbed-up on 85th and Detroit Avenue and began waving guns around. I can only surmise their intent was to see how cops would respond.
They didn’t have to wait long. Cops responded in force.
One cop reportedly fired four rounds at a fleeing suspect that had pointed a gun at him, and other cops reported being fired on as they pursued other suspects through an open field. The incident has all of the earmarks of a setup … an ambush.
An unruly crowd quickly gathered and insults were hurled at police, including Police Chief Calvin Williams, who, at an impromptu press conference at the scene stated, “We’re in an environment where people want a reason to be upset.”
All kinds of crazy rumors quickly spread through the crowd: The cops were hiding the bodies of three men in a nearby building; they opened fire on unarmed bystanders; a man was arrested for using his cell phone to record the incident … but all of them were untrue.
Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association president Steve Loomis, never one to miss an opportunity to play politics, was also at the scene and blamed the incident on the recently approved consent decree entered into by the City of Cleveland and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Ronald B. Adrine (who found probable cause that a crime was committed in the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice), and county prosecutor Tim McGinty, because he put Michael Brelo on trial for his role in the killing of two unarmed individuals in the 137 shots incident.
To Loomis, any and all criticism of police is “politically motivated.”
“What it’s doing, and what all these sideshows and unprecedented events are doing, is emboldening the criminal element. Like I said before, it absolutely is going to get somebody killed; one of us or one of them. Neither is a good thing.”
For once I agree with Loomis: Any loss of life is not a good thing.
But while the incident was monumentally stupid, at its core it was a response to years of unremitting police killings and brutalities, and Loomis, like all others in denial in regards to the role rogue cops have played in creating the culture of gun violence still all too prevalent in our nation’s inner cities, will never, ever speak to that aspect of the problem.
Life is not a game to be played by idiots. When young men begin openly waving guns around to attract the attention of police — no matter their motive — someone could get hurt or killed. Cops are only going to respond to such a situation with force — overwhelming force. And of course they are right to do so. Their first duty, even above the motto of “Protect and Serve” is to go home safely to their families at the end of their shifts.
If there was some way to separate out the bad cops from all of the rest and taunt them into acting inappropriately, what these young fools did might make some sense. But that’s impossible. Most — virtually all — of the cops responding to such an incident are good guys, but the young fools either don’t understand this, or they simply don’t care: All they see is blue. Just like some cops only see black.
However, there sometimes are consequences for pulling stupid stunts, I just hope no one has to pay them with their life.
[Photo by Matt Hrono/Flickr]
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.
2 Responses to “MANSFIELD: Not the Brightest Idea”
Jolyn
There is a way to separate the bad cops. Require a psychological evaluation of ALL officers every 3-5 years. And maybe develop a way that the good ones can help the “brass” identify the bad ones. Because they know who they are.
Chuck Mintz
Time to face the ugly truth. The police union needs to get in front of this problem, stop denying there is a problem, stop blaming everyone else and become an active advocate. For what? A more professional, better trained, more engaged and better appreciated police force. The result will be safer communities and, safer cops with better job satisfaction. They can start by telling the city to give the union the money and they will run the training. If the building trades can do it, so can the police. As for the subject of this article, the community needs to be clear that punks with guns, whatever their motives might be, are not acceptable in our city.