A black cop's take on Ferguson

It's a bit long but quite good. A few key excerpts follow:

"I learned that justice is not blind and there is a very thin blue line that unifies cops. I learned that Americans are not just divided by red and blue, when it comes to the law we are divided by black and white.  I accepted that sometimes we have a justice system with two sets of rules.  I had to accept that no matter how well I raise my son he will grow up in a world where I still have to be afraid for him.  Not just from criminals, but from my brothers and sisters in blue."

"For his sake I have to tell him no matter how professional he looks, no matter how well he carries himself, no matter how much education he obtains, as a black male he has to meet a higher standard of submission to authority or his life is at risk. [...] I blame it on politicians who turn fear in to resentment and the wealthy elites who exploit those resentments to satisfy their own agenda."


"Once an officer decides to make contact in a situation like that things can go from OK to very bad in seconds.  [...] Once that officer’s gun comes out it’s hard to climb back down from that. [...]
It doesn't matter if your subject looks like the hulk, is talking shit and refusing verbal commands, that's not enough for deadly force.  Even if you are trying to put the hand cuffs on him, he jerks back and pushes you off to get away, that's not enough.  It doesn't matter how angry the guy makes you. It doesn't matter if he embarrassed you. It doesn't matter if he told you what he was going to do to your wife and kids.  All that matters is at that moment: was the suspect armed? Did he have the ability to seriously hurt you? Did he pose an imminent threat to use that ability? Were you convinced that you were in immediate mortal danger?"

"Just resisting the police does not meet the standard for deadly force.  Even when a suspect has gone from simply resisting you to actively fighting you, once he complies with your commands and can be taken into custody he should be taken into custody. Once the threat has stopped, then your need to use force stops too.   Even if you respond to a call and a suspect has just shot and killed dozens of people in a movie theater, once he throws down his weapons and puts up his hands, and you can safely take him into custody, then you take him into custody.  You don't execute him because he's a mass murderer."