"He Wasn't An Angel"

Another black guy gets murdered by a cop for a minor traffic stop. Again. And again. It happens so often now that it's impossible to keep track of the whens and wheres, and that in itself is almost more of a tragedy than the unnecessary loss of life. Not only dead, but anonymous among the hoard.

There's all the usual reporting, how it supposedly happened, how it was mishandled, all the both-sides stuff you hear about incidents like these when everybody's pissed off, either about the shooting or about the outrage over the shooting, and nobody reporting on it seems willing or capable of taking any kind of ethical stand. Ratings, don'cha know. Get everybody mad at somebody else. Never risk their being pissed off at you.

There's this little zinger at the end of the story this time, however. It seems to be offered as a defense, for the cop's actions, against the outrage, or for ignoring the way a lot of this country is so screwed up and blinded by prejudice. "He wasn't an angel."

I'm sorry, say what? What the shit you talking there? He wasn't an angel? This is the "justification" given for why he was shot? For why it wasn't such a crime? For why it doesn't really matter? This murdered man was not an angel?

I got news for you. I'm not an angel. Neither are you, nor you, nor even you. We are none of us angels. By this "reasoning," all of us have pre-earned capitol punishment by whichever cop feels like it for whatever reason they come up with, for any cowardice on their part making them feel threatened by - well, frankly, anything, for appeasing any need they might have for exercising their superior power in the world to make up for the worms they truly are.

Oh wait, worms have a genuine purpose on this planet. I shouldn't malign them. Sorry, worms.

Neither do I malign the honest, hardworking, careful, brave and just cops out there. They also have a genuine purpose on this planet. I've been helped many times by them.

But then I'm white. And that should never be where the line is drawn.

Never.