There are so many things wrong with this. The Mayor of St. Paul was correct that an apology was in order. However, A lot of things go into an apology. Some off the hip forced gesture is certainly not going to pacify anyone and I for one do not consider it an apology. The community is not going to heal overnight. They need to process what happened and true healing cannot begin until an open and honest statement is made. I personally would feel better if he would have just admitted that his comments were inappropriate and asked for forgiveness. That forgiveness asking is what was missing here. He also should have asked local community leaders to help him work to repair the damage by performing community outreach and engaging in dialogue with that community. But, he did not do any of that. He made excuses and made and gave an explanation that made no sense. He is not sorry for his insensitive comments and for trying to incite a killing spree. He is sorry that he was outed, embarrassed, and that his crime, yes crime, went public. I have said things I did not mean before. We all have. But you cannot, as he put it, unintentionally encourage people to run black people over with their cars and then say it is not what you meant. I was talking about intent the other day. His intent behind this apology is nothing more than a formality and a last ditch attempt to save his job.
There are a lot of sick people out there that do mean people like me harm and when a public servant makes a comment like this, it just adds fuel to their fire. I hope this man does some soul searching to figure out where his hate for people like me comes from because we are not going anywhere. People talk about global economy, well we have a global population. We are not going anywhere. We are people, not some disease needing to be controlled with the hopes of eventual eradication.
Clearly he has real feelings about protesting. We can all agree on that. Some may take it a step further than that and call him a racist. As, why else would he call for people to be ran over? These feelings stem from somewhere for him. What he needs is education. Something about protesting and people marching for civil freedoms and liberties has him scared to the point of wanting to run people over. He made his statements because he felt empowered to do so. It speaks to a larger issue. He not only felt empowered and privileged to make these statements but also feels that the system protects him. He stated that a jury trial would not find anyone guilty. See the full statement below. Through lack of clarity in conceal and carry laws such as in the Treyvon Martin murder, there are people who feel that they can justify harming someone under the false pretense of fearing for their life. This is a vary dangerous way of thinking, especially when those sworn to protect and serve are condoning and encouraging the public to break the law and coach them on how to avoid penalty. These protests are public knowledge and planned in advance. If marches and protesters scare certain people. They should avoid the area and not engage in the activity instead of seeking it out, getting scared, and taking an unnecessary action.
So what do I think needs to happen? He needs to lose his job. He is not fit for duty and is actually a danger to the public if allowed to continue to perform his job as an officer of the law. We all make mistakes and some of them have permanent consequences. I understand the Police Federation is representing him. But this is not an innocent until proven guilty situation. He admitted to this being his name/handle and spoke out about it. No one is treating him unfairly. His time in service and status as an Army veteran should not mean leniency. It should actually hold him to a higher standard. You do not get to hide behind being a veteran. As a fellow veteran, I do not stand behind him. His service to his country while respected, is irrelevant as it relates to this specific situation. He does not deserve a break here because of his past good deeds.
I do not feel bad for him. I feel bad for all of those people out there who he placed in danger. His words are forever to be seen and for some it was a battle cry to act careless, recklessly and without regard for human life.
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After reading the comment he made, in text... I'm unsure how he could have possibly thought for one second that he was in the right place as a decent human being. Regardless of race, he called, more than once, a fairly large number of citizens in his own community a bunch of idiots.... And his statements about running people over were not flippant. He actually gave people a plan and told them they wouldn't be punished... WTF Minneapolis.
ReplyDeleteIt was definitely a plan. It had detailed instructions down to the rationale for committing the crime. The damage he has caused to the community is going to take a lot of time to heal. Minneapolis Police are already under an enormous amount of scrutiny for a series of events and tensions that have been building for years and this did not help. I do however believe that this was an indirect racial event. When you hold a march or a rally on MLK day, there is a certain demographic of people who have organized, are leading and will attend the event. He did not have to call about Black people, it was like the understood "you" in a sentence. That would be like me putting up a similar post about a KKK rally. I do not have to call out white people for everyone to know exactly what type or race of people I am targeting. I agree his comments were very flippant. WTF Minneapolis indeed.
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ReplyDeleteRemoved only because it posted twice.
DeleteWell number one this is the Devil, in under the flesh of this man, and two, no intergrated human will agree with this. This is strictly for the segregated, and in my personal opinion, will forever be deemed "for the segregated". There's no way this will hold up in court and the day this action is exhibited and does go through a grand jury, and isn't represented with Actual Justice, I too will be very outlandish and unnecessary. Just in hopes, that the injustice will see what the perception really is, on the outside looking in. This is strict narcissism. I for one uphold unity and equality very high in my character and this isn't human.
ReplyDeleteOf course it would not hold up, and I agree that it is very narcissistic of him to think so. Very unhuman.
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