Editor:
No one can be everywhere all of the time, that is why we have “the news.” Too often, I have been in interesting places (arguably at the wrong time) and later read and watched news reports that were grossly inaccurate, misleading or downright lies. If someone is lying to you about one thing, it is a safe bet they are lying to you about something else.
Mr. Platt’s article “Homicide by Police” (May 14) is a shameless collage of aspersions and falsehoods. Unfortunately, delays in releasing the investigation create an environment where creatures like Mr. Platt feed and grow; if there is a story, there it lies. Admittedly, when more facts are revealed, there are people who will spot that the video was generated in the same studio as the moon landings, but new technology is prohibitively expensive. Fortunately, most of us believe about half of what we see and in all but the most newsworthy incidents reasonable minds prevail.
It is shameful that the North Coast Journal stooped to publish this article. I look forward to seeing the retraction published with the same prominence.
Tom Dammann, Arcata
This article appears in The War on Hippie Christmas.
The author of this letter is fantastic at proving the point they’re not trying to make… I guess? So that’s something.
“You can’t be everywhere at once,” and thanks for many other platitudes and vagueries in your opening. But I can work with it! Police have been shown to lie – repeatedly – about what happened during an incident that lead to the use of lethal force. Platt proposes we have civilian review boards instead of the police investigating… themselves. This is a legitimate and basic request. Because if they’ve lied about one thing, it’s safe to assume they’ll lie about something else. They even try to get away with under-reporting the frequency of those incidents. Maybe you have pleasant encounters with police, but I never have. You are correct (again) that the article was littered with evidence of their aspersions and falsehoods, at least you represented both sides here. If you were referring to something else (or something specific maybe?), I couldn’t find it in your letter.
But honestly, the longer you defend an indefensible position, the more pathetic you look to normal people who aren’t monstrous. Just stop. It’s not audacious to ask for police accountability and for people themselves to take front-and-center. Here is a VERY short list of things that deserve death in American policing, with citations to specific cases – all with video and photographic evidence of wrongdoing:
Run (Walter Scott)
Stay and get arrested (Freddie Gray)
Lay down while handcuffed (Oscar Grant)
Fight back (Trayvon Martin)
Mind your business (John Crawford)
Put your hands up (Mike Brown)
Proclaim your innocence (Eric Garner)
Getting married (Sean Bell)
Pants sagging (Ervin Edwards)
Beg for your life (Thaddeus McCarroll)
Be alive and 12 (Tamir rice and Cedric Bartee)
Be outside (Rekia Boyd)
Be at home relaxing (Kathryn Johnston)
Run into your house (Ramarley Graham)
Injured and asking for help (Johnathan Ferrell)
Be in a stairwell (Akai Gurly)
So… “What can people do to avoid being killed when encountering police?” Or more precisely, “What can police do to resist the urge to kill anything that moves?”
We would just like to know. People are being pretty damn calm in my opinion over this whole thing. Seriously. These are people’s wives, sisters, mothers, fathers, brothers… all dying needlessly. Police deaths don’t figure into the conversation. There are plenty of jobs more dangerous than being a cop, being a farmer or a garbage man is more dangerous than being a cop. Police under heightened fire and threat is a myth, even the numbers at the cop-friendly National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund can tell you that. You should not – as you say – believe grossly inaccurate and misleading news reports that you seen on the television. There is not an abusive position of power and violence in favor of the people. If you insist on driving them to rise up further and take command of that position if we can’t have question and demands satisfied otherwise, I support that too!
So the next time you’re going to come out with this petulant and cryptic defense of why people should just endure a worsening problem you don’t think exists JUST because YOU’VE never been lucky/unlucky enough to survive it… then you should just resist the urge to make yourself and your ilk look like the victims in this situation. Failing to do so might be about the only thing more embarrassing than your ability to reason.
Thank You Mr. Thiessen. I wish I would have read your response sooner. Might you consider sharing this comment with the community in print? The editor may be open to the suggestion. People who think outside of the box are hard to come by in the North Coast Journal Community! Thank you again!
Leanne Estrada