The Street Justice of God
... and does He really have a damn thing to do with it...?

Cleveland Police Officer James Simone is one brave dude. He's repeatedly put himself in danger -- he's been shot twice, stabbed, hit by fleeing cars, and recently jumped into the freezing Cuyahoga River to save a woman from drowning. He probably has more courage in his pinky finger than most of us have in our entire body.

Nonetheless, that still doesn't give Simone the right to hold court in the street where he becomes the judge, jury and executioner all in a matter of a split second... and then to ask God afterwards why he -- out of all of the officers in the United States -- gets placed into these deadly force situations so often. He's killed five people in the line of duty over his career, which has to be some kind of U.S. record, and every one of the killings was ruled justifiable... just as the current one that is set to go to the grand jury undoubtedly will be found justifiable also. But frankly, I don't think God has a damn thing to do with it.

Let me be perfectly clear: I firmly believe that every police officer has a right (and a duty to his family) to safely go home at the end of his or her shift. I also believe that some people are bent on committing “suicide by cop.” They are intent on provoking a situation where an officer has no choice but to kill them. Maybe God does play a role in those situations, since, in some religions, a person who commits suicide cannot enter into Heaven, so the cowards get the cops to do the job for them.

Also, there are some real desperados out there that live by the motto “I’m gonna get rich, or die tryin’” They don’t mind dying, and I really don’t mind a cop killing them.

But a cop should not be allowed to “create” a situation where deadly force is seemingly the only option, the only “choice.” Say, for instance, a kid is stealing a car. A cop jumps in the path of the vehicle, holds up his badge and yells “Stop in the name of the law” (or some other such movie nonsense) and then, when the kid doesn’t stop, the cops shoots through the windshield and kills him. Good kill, right? Wrong. The cop should not have placed himself in harm’s way in the first place over a stolen vehicle, and by doing so “creating” a deadly force situation.

However, our society values property over people, and I can prove it. Virtually every community in Cleveland — especially those of the Eastside — has been begging for a police mini-station, right? But where’s the only one to go up in recent years? At Steelyard Commons. Why, when no one lives down there? To protect merchants’ stuff (property) from petty shoplifters... there can be no other reason.

But hey, what about the safety and the lives of the citizenry? Sorry got to protect those "everyday low prices."

Also, the notion held by some is, if we just had more cops like Jim Simone our crime problem would be solved, right? All of the bad guys would just be blown away. Wrong again. Having more cops like Jim Simone is like building more coffins to solve the problem of AIDS. Cities are not movie sets and Dirty Harry didn’t “clean up” San Francisco any more than Wyatt Earp “cleaned up” Dodge City.

Real life doesn’t work that way.

There’s a 1993 film Falling Down starring Michael Douglas, who portrays an Average Joe named William "D-Fens" Foster who, one day — fed up with all of the crap that petty thugs and rude people heap upon decent folks — just snaps and goes off the deep end, wrecking havoc in his wake. Most of us are, from time to time, confronted with aggravations (both petty and grand) that make us want to just go postal, or fly into road rage like Foster.

We can identify with him, but we don’t act out — we contain ourselves.

However, if you have a gun and a badge (which amounts to a license to kill) it can become too easy to vent at the scumbags of the world on occasion, and if one of them dies, well, so be it. And some of us stand up and cheer, citing the deliverer of such street justice a hero for fulfilling our twisted fantasies.

Is there some kind of unwritten rule that only police know about? That for every time a cop is shot, stabbed or hit by a car, in return he has the right to kill someone? If he saves a woman from drowning, does he then get the right to kill two thugs (the double-up rule)? Under that rule Simone is owed one more killing … he just has to make it look legit, which really isn’t all that hard if you’re a hero, now is it? I’m glad I don’t live in the Westside District Simone patrols — I’d be shaking like a dog passing peach pits… since I’ve been known to j-walk on occasion.

Years ago there was this comic strip by cartoonist Al Capp, entitled Li’l Abner. One of the characters was Joe Btfsplk, “who had a perpetually dark rain cloud over his head and bad luck befell anyone unfortunate enough to be in his vicinity.” Maybe this is the case with Simone. He should have been put behind a desk years ago to prevent additional deaths, and the police department command staff should be ashamed of themselves for not forcing the issue; they know that most of the shootings, while technically legal, could have been avoided by better decision-making on Simone’s part.

They are enablers and they know it, but that’s how the protective “Blue Wall” works. Better to risk more unnecessary deaths than offend a brother officer, right? Even if they know that he’s wrong.

Simone has steadfastly turned down promotions since they would take him out of the “action” since you can’t be a cowboy behind a desk. But there’s simply too great a chance that he’s going to precipitate another situation where he can legally bust a cap in someone’s ass again, and then go to church and ask, Oh, Lord, why did you put me in that situation once again?”

And God will say to Simone (or, as Simone always hears God to say), “Yea, I know this is a tough job I’ve assigned to you Jim, someone has to do this work for Me … I can’t be everywhere all the time, so I have appointed thee to play God for me on occasion in Cleveland. And woe be it unto those who get in your way, for you truly are My Trusty Right Arm, which I use to smite the wicked.” Amen.

A Teaser

It seems as if another plan to “reform” county government is afoot. However, just like the previous effort (which never got very far off the ground) this initiative is going nowhere fast without some fairly substantial support from Blacks within the city and county, and those proposing the changes know this. It will be interesting indeed to see how such support is garnered, in light of the fact that the proponents of the reform measure know so little about the wishes, hopes and desires of the Black community, and what they do know they’ve been told by the usual suspects, who, for decades, have fooled Whites into thinking they, and they alone can “control” (read deliver) the Black vote. Expect more on this topic in the coming weeks....

From Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com
(:divend:)