Let's ponder, for a moment, the cases of Abner Louwema, Amadou Diallo and Eric Garner. I won't pretend to know all of the details. But I've picked up enough to have some thoughts.
It's not hard to suspect that there are other cases of a similar nature that I'm unaware of.
The case of Louwema, too, is somewhat different from the other two. But I think it's similar enough, where it counts, to include.
These cases could still be tragic accidents. But they're coming up often enough that a reasonable person must wonder if the police aren't taking a too-hostile view of the very people who they are entrusted 'to serve and protect'. Does this prove that their attitude is similar to the attitude that, say, the SS took toward their captives? Of course not. It doesn't give us reason to think that contemporary American police have anywhere near such an attitude. (I happen to believe that the police are nowhere near that inhumane and hostile. I would need to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into such a belief.) But these cases do give us reason to think that something is wrong. And that it would be immoral to defer investigation into the matter.
And I can certainly sympathize with a police officer who perceives himself/herself as being in a life threatening situation. And I would not try to deny them the use of even deadly force at such times. But Amadou Diallo took --what was it?-- forty bullets or so. When shots number 37, 38, 39 were being fired, did those police have a reasonable belief that their lives, or the lives of nearby citizens, were in danger? That seems like a real stretch.
When Eric Garner was being suffocated, did those police see themselves, or the public, as being in imminent danger? I've not heard the claim that they did. And such a claim would be pretty laughable. I must conclude that they, when Garner said he couldn't breathe, believed he was faking it. Not an unreasonable belief, by the way. Many of the bad actors in our society (whether Garner was such or not) do "fake it" when they realize that their escape routes are closing fast. But when a man's very life is at stake, and he's more or less under control, then one must tread a bit more carefully. I think that did not occur to those particular police until it was too late. It should have occurred to them. Could this be an indication that the police culture is neglecting the need to have some basic humanity toward the society for which they're responsible?
So this does bear investigation. But that'll take a while. In the meantime, the mere fact that cases like this pop up pretty regularly is already giving us a fuzzy picture of what these investigations are likely to find. That the relationship between law enforcement and the local communities has been poisoned and that the tactics used by the two sides are becoming more and more barbaric.
Asking the criminal side of this situation to ease up on their barbarity would be like asking the tide to not come in. So the police must bear that burden. But that's the price you pay for being the good guys. The benefit the police will gain is that when they do use real force, they're far more likely to be using it against the people who are worthy of such force. As opposed to mistakenly using it against those who did not deserve it. The police are the good guys, right? Then it's hard to see how they could disapprove of this.
So Mayor de Blasio comes along. Large-scale remedies are not immediately obvious or available. He decides to at least work around the edges. He orders a moratorium on stop-and-frisk. (A highly questionable policy.) This seems to have generated a lot of the NYPDs anger against him. He also ordered them to be a bit less gung-ho about small 'posession' arrests. I think there was more. Dealing with procedural matters that wouldn't seem to be very Earth-shaking.
This is a reason for accusing him of having blood on his hands? Under these circumstances this was a very offensive thing to say.
When they turned his back on him at the hospital and then at the funeral, the message I received from them was, "The Mayor is an enemy, rather than an ally, in our war between the civilized and the un-civilized." Ridiculous! To the point of being kinda pathetic.
To the NYPD: I suppose you're trying to weaken your adversary in the turf battle that's starting up. It's even understandable. You're trying to weaken him by attacking his credibility on the issue. But you overplayed that hand. You had the equivalent of a pair of deuces. You shouldn't have even bid. It's your credibility that's been damaged.
Why not have a little faith in his good faith? Negotiate. Help the poor guy ease this problem. You're not likely to find huge remedies, fixes, solutions overnight. But you can make things better. And you can help the next administration do the same.
Like most endeavors of any importance, things might go all wrong. But that's nothing new. You merely hope that wrong turns can be corrected before disaster.
If all goes right, then we have a more just society where the police are held in even higher esteem. Isn't that worth working for?
For all of our worries, most of us still believe that you're, underneath it all, the good guys. But please don't forget that you must remember to be the good guys. Without that, the whole thing dissolves.
The back-turning theatrics did a lot more harm than good.