By Doug Traubel

There is no easy way to arrest a non-compliant person, particularly when the offender is armed. Police deserve the benefit of doubt until all the facts are in and due process has run its course.

Public trust is fragile. Certainly, someone needs to police the police.  The media are a logical starting place to expect truth seekers, but like the Department of Justice they’ve lost all objectivity as evidenced by their “reporting” designed to racially charge police shootings for public consumption.  Mainstream news has become propaganda disguised as news.

Seldom do I comment on a police shooting before all the facts are in.  The October 24, 2014 Chicago case involving Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting to death Laquan McDonald is the exception. 

As a preamble to my comments I must emphasize that police video never captures the whole story.  Body cameras record in 2-D a three dimensional event from one angle.  Video is subject to interpretation together with other evidence (i.e. the veracity of witness statements,  off-camera contextual factors that must be weighed in the totality of circumstances to include pre-attack body cues (often undetectable by camera), and a suspect’s prior violent acts immediately preceding the use of deadly force [1] by police.

Ten limitations about body cameras the public should know come from the Force Science Institute:

• Camera speed differs from the speed of life.
• A camera doesn’t follow your eyes or see as they see.
• A camera may see better than you do in low light.
• Some important danger cues can’t be recorded.
• Your body may block the view.
• A camera only records in 2-D.
• The absence of sophisticated time-stamping may prove critical.
• One camera may not be enough.
• A camera encourages second guessing.
• A camera can never replace a thorough investigation.

For more details read the related article on this site.

In the Chicago case there is one question that must be asked 16 times by the prosecutor; once for each bullet fired:  “Officer, why did you fire the first time?  Why did you fire the second time? Why did your fire the third time? …Why did you fire the sixteenth time.”

If you watch the video carefully the suspect (with knife in hand) does appear to pivot toward the officers ever so slightly at an apparent distance that has been proven to be deadly in edged weapon attacks.  This is when the first shot is fired.

It takes time for the body to send signals to start and stop an action. A threat can change faster than the signal from the brain to the trigger finger to stop shooting. With that said, the first shot can possibly be explained. Each subsequent shot in this instance becomes less defensible to the point of criminal charge(s) against the officer.

This case does not retroactively validate the faux outrage, ignorance and lies of Black Lives Matter.  I have done significant research on the topic of police use of force. In addition, I have sat on peer use-of-force review boards resulting in termination from the ranks of one officer.  Incidents like this are extremely rare and politicized to girder the Big Lie of a systemic problem of racist white cops killing young black men — as though they are operating by proxy as Klansmen on behalf of an equally racist white-majority America that gives its tacit approval.

The public’s failure to discern fact from fiction will result in ushering in the federalization of police to “fix the problem.”  This will result in a real problem replacing a make believe one.  Crime rates soar where ever a federal consent decree is put in place over a local police agency.

Furthermore, accountability is slow at best when the feds use excessive force. To my knowledge there has been no accountability for the excessive force used against lawful protesters at the Bundy ranch.  It took years for the truth to come out in the Ruby Ridge case and for a modest award to be given to Mr. Weaver for federal agents murdering  his teenage son with two rifle rounds and his wife, Vickie.  Vickie was shot in the head while holding her baby.

Maintaining local control of police is essential for effective policing,  accountability and for defending our constitutionally protected liberties.  This is why a strong Sheriff is vitally important in your county. 

Let’s debunk the Big Lie moving us toward federalizing the  police.  If we had the kind of press our Founding Fathers envisioned the following facts would be common dinner conversation by now:

Offender demographics and yearly LEOKA reports (law enforcement officers killed and attacked) paint the opposite picture of the Black Lives Matter mantra.  Day-in and day-out police show tremendous restraint, particularly with young black males who commit a grossly disproportionate amount of all violent crime in the country and who also disproportionately attack police officers.

• Black males between the ages of 13 to 24 constitute only 1% of the population, yet this 1% commits over 20% of ALL violent crime in the United States!

• This same 1% of black males is responsible for 21% of all murders of police officers in the line of duty, 86% of whom are white.

• Black males are disproportionately incarcerated because they are only 6 % of the population yet commit over 50 % of ALL violent crime.

• Annually, in almost 50% of the incidents (44.3% to be precise) in which police officers are feloniously attacked and/or murdered the assailant is a black male.

• Police use tremendous restraint. The fact is that only about a quarter of people killed by police yearly are black.

• 800,000 police officers representing 18,000 agencies kill 429 people a year. 113 of them are black and 316 are non-black.

• Yearly, police kill less black males than they do members of any other race.

Truth Matters.  Blue Lives Matter.