Shopliftings, Pursuits, and Tragic Outcomes
Tires breaking traction, a vehicle accelerating toward an officer, a shot fired, a criminal killed, drive a conversation that is dominated by emotion rather than facts.
The case ‘activists’ have been waiting for
The death of Ta’Kiya Young is unfortunate. My space doesn’t provide second by second analysis on whether cases are either legal or within policy. Instead, I discuss context and national policy ramifications on the consequences to society when false narratives drive legislative actions. This case is a formula for feelings overriding facts that will set off leftists like bottle rockets.
For expert rational analysis on officer involved shootings, I defer to
where content is reviewed by an experienced officer who also has a juris doctorate. From both a policy perspective and legal examination, he has insight that illuminates my perspective and hopefully yours too. From experience I’ve found that, even when we disagree, we still find some common ground to continue the conversation. In other words, he’s a true professional.My concern is that this conversation of this case will light the fuse disguised as police reform. This case, or one like it, will be a label where a name is attached to a bill and in the fog of political expediency, police authority and public safety will be undermined similar to the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
Prior to the mid-terms, this bill passed the United States House of Representatives twice. As recently as the Tyre Nichols death, President Biden has promised (paraphrase) ‘Congress, pass this bill, put it on my desk I will sign it.’ This would be the end of local police administration in communities. In my previous article I described it as an act of congress that would destroy local policing.
An Act of Congress may Destroy Policing
Every time there is a national police story, President Biden promises to sign the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act into law as soon as the United States Congress forwards it to his desk. Also, as often as a family member mourns a life lost in a police encounter, they include
The shoplifting and shooting
In Blendon Township, there was an allegation of a crime being committed. Based on body-cam video, officers were in the plaza assisting with a lockout and they were approached by a store employee who advised them of a shoplifting of liquor in progress.
The driver was in a Lexus ES350, a make and model that I am familiar. The ES is a four-door sedan powered by a roughly 300 horsepower 3.0 liter V6 driven via the front wheels. The weight of the engine on the front wheels provides additional traction where a rear driven vehicle would be more prone to wheelspin under hard acceleration. The ES is also equipped with a computer regulated traction control system that is effective in reducing wheelspin. A Lexus ES makes a tire chirping sound, briefly, under full throttle.
Activists pretend there was no crime but based on the information provided, I observe that everyone in that Kroger parking lot, including the suspect, understood that the matter at hand was a theft of liquor by shoplifting from the store. However, the initial crime, and I emphasize initial for a purpose, is completely dismissed by those protesting the shooting and declaring the suspect’s death a murder. Several activists are bold enough to come forward and declare that officers singled her out for no reason.
A month earlier and 471 miles away
On August 8, in Glendale, Wisconsin, suspects were observed in a Kohl’s preparing to leave the store with a large amount of stolen merchandise. Officers responded and positioned their cruisers to block in the small Kia SUV. Chaos ensued with the suspect vehicle crashing into three police vehicles before circling the lot and exiting. The pursuit lasting several minutes within the shopping center, which actually returned to the Kohl’s parking lot once, rivaled a Hollywood blockbuster. Watch it in the linked video with surveillance, dashcam and bodycam video and your heart will race.
Upon finding a roadway, suspects travelled the wrong way, into oncoming traffic, on a divided highway. The pursuit ended with no loss of life when the suspect tried to turn a hard right without a left front tire. The foot pursuit lasted another half mile while the two shoplifting suspects were arrested where the car was disabled.
Non-violent crimes become violent quickly
Rafael Manguel of City Journal writes a timely article ‘Non-violent’ Crime is a Myth. Manguel questions whether nonviolent crime and nonviolent offender function as the right sourcing to determine risk. He suggests to intervene in a low-level offense to see how the offender reacts. But we have seen, even recently, how criminals are triggered by any obstruction to their goal. He discussed cases that have cost people their lives by challenging criminals on minor or low-level offenses:
It’s not just thieves. Other supposedly low-level offenses are often carried out by individuals willing to resort to violence if they don’t get their way. In March of this year, a New York City subway rider was stabbed after asking another man to stop smoking marijuana inside the train car. In 2020, two others were stabbed aboard a New York City subway train after asking a man to put out his cigarette. In 2021, a man in Florida was beaten nearly to death, requiring him to be put in a medically induced coma, after he asked his neighbors to turn down their music.
Are some of the protesters are crying Ta’Kiya, why didn’t you just comply with the police, even for a moment? I know both officers are thinking that. Could it be possible that the officer, made the error in judgement that this shoplifting suspect is not going to try to kill me with her car? Despite imperfect tactics, may this officer have to bear some responsibility in her death? Quite possibly.
However, if you review the Wisconsin video, the suspect was not in control of any part of the situation. His aim to bash his way away from law enforcement. Would he have stopped if he ran over pedestrians? I’m certain that he didn’t intend to hit the half-dozen cars he damaged (not including police cars) because he was driving devoid of regard to anyone else’s life or safety. Everyone in Glendale, including the suspect, got lucky that day.
After a shoplifting suspect in Ohio tries to injure or kill a cop, is it still a non-violent offense? If you floor the gas with a cop standing in front of your car, and you are shot and killed, did you get what you deserved?
Focus on facts over emotion
The profession needs to come together quickly and either roll back or codify policies that will provide the right guidelines for officers for the future. Restrict but don’t ban shooting into moving vehicles. Determine when non-violent offenders escalate to treat them like violent offenders.
Pursuit policies always require a high threshold of risk to the public at large to initiate a pursuit combined with a requirement that a pursuit be terminated when the risk to the public increases or becomes somehow enhanced. This pretzel logic absolves management when chases cause damage and harm leaving officers hanging out to dry.
Banning police pursuits is clearly not the answer as demonstrated by Pacific Northwest jurisdictions. Model policies from national and international organizations mainly provide prohibition focused guidelines.
But the real answer is clear! Officers deserve a chief or sheriff who stands in front of them when the mob comes. All criminal conduct including shoplifting is inherently risky, with or without law enforcement intervention. Whether it is a questionable shooting or a chase with a tragic ending, the profession needs courageous leaders who tell the media and the activists that no one is calling an officer a murderer without a complete investigation and, if necessary and appropriate, a criminal trial.
Please keep our officers in your prayers!
References
Video and story of the Wisconsin shoplifting case.
https://www.fox6now.com/news/glendale-kohls-theft-police-chase-man-2-women
According to the criminal complaint, on the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 8, Glendale police were dispatched to the Kohl's at Bayshore for a suspicious activity complaint. Officers were informed by a Kohl's Loss Prevention associate that "two female suspects were filling up carts indiscriminately with merchandise, without looking at sizes nor prices," the complaint says. Also, the two women arrived together in an SUV which had a driver who was waiting, parked in a nearby lot. Officers ran a DOT check on the SUV -- and it showed it was listed to defendant Gallion.
https://www.city-journal.org/article/nonviolent-crime-is-a-myth
Great job..... thank you! Facts over feelings! That’s one of the pillars of the Courageous Police Leadership Alliance!
Given the response to the event in Nevada coupled with the initial internet response to this, I'd say the public's patience is wearing thin for these kinds of shenanigans.
But standing in front of a vehicle? One is depending upon the driver to have a sense of value of human life. They don't. They've proven that already. This could have been avoided, but likely would have been harmful to someone else anyway.
These people are completely self-serving.