“All he had was a cellphone,” said 10-year-old Terrell Wilson to the Sacramento City Council. “20 shots over a cellphone.”
If only it were that simple, then the outrage over the killing of Stephon Clark could be justified.
But, as usual when Black Lives Matter, it simply isn’t that simple.
Stephon Clark was only “armed” with a cellphone. But the two police officers pursuing him (one of them black, by the way) didn’t know that.
They’d just chased Stephon into Stephon’s grandparent’s backyard, but I doubt the officers knew that Stephon was related to the homeowners.
All the officers knew is that somebody had been breaking car windows, and, when they responded to the scene, Stephon ran.
So they pursued him. As any good officers would do.
Stephon ran, as if he was guilty. Maybe he was. Maybe he wasn’t. Regardless, he ran.
Did Stephon expect the police to just watch him go?
Running was his first big mistake. (Actually, if he was the person breaking car windows, running was his second big mistake.)
When the officers confronted Stephon in the backyard, Stephon made another big mistake. Instead of staying put and holding his hands up above his head, Stephon moved towards the officers with an object in his hands.
That’s when the officers made their first mistake. They feared that Stephon had a gun, so they shot him.
Twenty times.
One shot probably would have sufficed. Twenty was probably excessive. That was their second mistake. Like Stephon, they panicked.
But, from everything we know so far about the incident, the officers were justified in using force.
They didn’t know that Stephon was not armed.
Stephon knew the officers were armed, and should have obeyed their orders, but did not. So he was shot twenty times.
Nineteen shots too many.
Not because he was black. Because he ran. Because he disobeyed orders. Because he appeared to be armed. Because the officers, fearing for their own safety, panicked.
It is unfortunate, probably, that Stephon is gone. I say probably, because if he was indeed a hoodlum, breaking car windows and likely committing other offenses, society and his future victims are probably fortunate.
Unfortunate or not, Stephon brought his demise upon himself. If he had been white, the outcome would have been the same. Indeed, white men are shot by the police on a regular basis, proportionate to crime rates.
So why did Stephon run? Guilt? Under the influence? Fear? Perhaps the perpetual false anti-law enforcement narrative spun by the Black Lives Matter movement taught him to irrationally fear the police, resulting in his two fatal errors, which led two officers, just trying to do their jobs, to make a fatal error of their own.
Demonstrators are demanding “justice”, which means, for most of them, condemning and imprisoning the two officers. They want revenge, not justice.
What is needed is due process. If, after an impartial investigation, once all the facts are known, the officers are found to have broken the law, they then should be tried, and, if found guilty by a jury of their peers, convicted and appropriately punished.
But if the facts remain as they now appear to be, the officers should not even go on trial. They should probably receive more training. Perhaps be reevaluated as to whether they have what it takes to be good police officers.
That would be justice.