A Failure of Training

It is the nightmare scenario.  In this case, it was a 73 year old volunteer reserve deputy.  He was going for his taser and he drew his service weapon.  He was going for his taser and he shot a suspect, killing him during an arrest.  He was going for his taser, seeking to protect the public and enforce the laws and a man is dead.  That is the face this volunteer reserve deputy is going to carry around in his head and in his sleep for the rest of his life.


This is not Ferguson, Missouri, nor Staten Island, New York, and certainly not North Charleston, South Carolina.  Tulsa, Oklahoma is something worse. 


It is worse because, from what I can see, it is not a racially motivated shooting.  Criminal intent, race hatred, a human hunting culture, a bully-boy police department, they are not in play here.  Yes, a lot of people will try to bring them into play.  And maybe there are details I do not know that make it appropriate for them to be in play.  But I haven't seen them.


The reason this is worse is because an officer was trying to do his job and the power of life and death that he is entrusted with led to an incident of failure.  There are a lot of reasons that might be drawn upon to cite for this incidence of failure.  There was a failure in his training that he was unable to distinguish between the two weapons in a moment of high stress.  There will be questions of the legitimacy of being able to train a 73 year old adequately in the stresses and needs of law enforcement.  Even if such training is deemed to be legitimate, there will be intense scrutiny of a volunteer officer of his age being utilized in the higher stakes and stresses of a 'drug bust'.


It is worse because this is not a bad man hiding behind the authority of law enforcement.  And the court of public perception will not be able to accuse him of such, not as it has accused those other officers, not unless there is something we have not yet seen.


It is worse because the system that is designed to bring justice and enforce the law and protect the citizens of the United States broke down. It is the nightmare scenario for every officer and every police force that seeks to legitimately serve and protect the public.  It is the nightmare scenario for every citizen.  It is the nightmare scenario because it could have been fixed in the training, but it was not, not until someone paid the ultimate price.


It is akin to Columbine, when police training was designed around hostage taking and not the active shooter, when the cops created a perimeter and did not intervene, when they stood still and children died, because that is what they were trained to do-then.


So pray for the family of Eric Harris, a life tragically cut short.  But pray also for Reserve Deputy Robert Bates, who will be living that moment for the rest of his life.  Pray that he will not choose the barrel of his gun to silence the pain.