Shhh! Don't Tell Anyone.

 

This is an organization, determined that "no other unarmed Black or Brown person is murdered again," that deserves an A for revealing its motive.

In March of 2024, Al Sharpton's National Action Network announced an upcoming forum, Turning Grief Into Action, to beheld at the annual convention of the organization.  The NAN noted that moderator Ben Crump, whom Reverend Sharpton had called the "Attorney General for Black America," would be joined by family members of Eric Garner, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Tyre Nichols, and AJ Owens. 

Each individual had been, the press release stated, "unjustly killed either by law enforcement or in violent acts of hatred" and that NAN had

covered costs for the funerals, with Rev. Sharp and Attorney Crump delivering eulogies and calls to action at their ceremonies. The organization continues to work with these families either to hold their loved one's killers accountable or advance issues to ensure no other unarmed Black or Brown person is murdered again.

Whatever one thinks of the virtue of Ben Crump and Al Sharpton or of the specific cases in which they've intervened, these activists clearly believe they are acting on behalf of not only the families, but of the black community itself, in the struggle against allegedly unjust violence- especially from police- against blacks.

And so, unless we live in Texas, you- and I- did not hear about this splendid police work four years ago when

Timothy Michael Randall was on the phone with his mother when a police car pulled up behind his Nissan Altima with its lights flashing. It was just after 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 14, 2022, and Randall was heading to his cousin’s house after a night out.

“He had called to let me know that he was going to be home a few minutes later,” Randall’s mother, Wendy Tippitt, recalled. “So I wouldn’t worry.”

Randall, 29, pulled over and hung up with his mom. Sgt. Shane Iversen of the Rusk County Sheriff’s Office walked up to the Altima and told Randall that he had run a stop sign, police dash camera footage shows. Randall denied doing so, and Iversen ordered him out of the car.

What began as a routine traffic stop, on a country road two hours east of Dallas, quickly spun out of control.

As Randall was stepping out of the car, he put his wallet in his back pocket and adjusted his waistband.

Iversen dug his hands into the front of Randall’s pants and then told him to put his hands behind his back, the dash cam footage shows. Randall kept his arms raised.

I don't know the reason for this- uh-- excursion, but I'm straight and it seems odd. Evidently, Mr. Randall didn't understand the importance of keeping one's mouth shut while being molested (searched) and

“Officer, I don’t have anything on me,” he said.

“Officer, please, can you tell me what I’m under arrest for?” Randall asked moments later.

Iversen didn’t respond. Instead, he wrestled Randall to the pavement.

“Officer, please,” Randall pleaded again as he struggled to get to his feet.

Police often are appreciative if the motorist is respectful to the point of being submissive. Not so this officer because

Then Iversen threw Randall to the ground again. He landed on his back several feet away, but the momentum brought him back to his feet. Randall began to turn to run away from Iversen, who had already pulled out his gun and was pointing it at Randall.

“Get down,” Iversen yelled as he fired one shot, striking Randall in the chest.

Randall continued to run down the street but collapsed face down. Iversen radioed for help and then tried to render medical aid, but Randall died on the pavement. The bullet had torn through his ribs, lungs and heart, according to autopsy records.

After another deputy arrived minutes later, Iversen, then 57, returned to his patrol car and phoned a colleague.

Chastened from just having killed a human being, “I just smoked a dude,” he said in a hushed voice.

It gets worse. 

You don't recall (as I didn't) this incident unless you live(d) in Texas, western Arkansas, or southern Oklahoma, or possibly not even there. Nor would you recall the customary arrival of the Crump & Sharpton Roadshow because it didn't make an appearance. 

Two days after the incident, Iversen  told Texas Rangers investigators that he threw Randall to the ground because he was concerned the man might be able to reach what he thought was gun but Randall quickl got onto his fat. Iversen added "at this point in time, I see him running towards me. I'm on my knees and I'm like he's coming at me." After Randall was cut down, the officer found in his pocket a methamphetamine pipe which he thought be a gun before he searched him.

The case was presented to the grand jury, which issued a no bill, thus failing to indict the policeman. This might strike one as odd, given the a prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich, or rather, persuade a grand jury to do so. Exceptions, Crump & Sharpton would point out, would include a black man killed by a police officer, especially a white police officer What they won't tell you- and what the media won't tell you- is that sometimes a white man is killed with impunity.

Wait- what? We haven't been told that by police reform advocates, the media, Democrats, and- yes- even Republicans. But if this were a story merely of police sometimes being able to get away with (figurative and literal) murder, it would be a story only half-told. There is an even more important moral to the story because

After reviewing the dashcam footage and the Texas Rangers report, two police use-of-force experts contacted by NBC News said they saw no reason for Iversen to open fire during the encounter.

Mickie McComb, a former New Jersey state trooper, said Randall never made any movement that would suggest he was “drawing or attempting to draw a weapon” and at no point was he “charging the officer.”

“There was no threat,” added McComb, who now works as an expert witness on use-of-force cases. “He should have never used deadly force. It was completely uncalled for.”

 David Klinger, a former police officer in Los Angeles and Redmond, Washington, offered a similarly blunt assessment.

“It doesn’t make any sense why he shot the guy,” said Klinger, a criminology professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis who researches police shootings.

Klinger said he doesn’t understand why Iversen would try to tackle a man whom he believed to be carrying a gun. If he wasn’t able to grab the weapon himself, Klinger said, he should have stepped back, drew his own firearm, radioed for back up and ordered the man onto his knees or onto a prone position on the ground.

“You give him verbal commands to keep his hands in plain view,” Klinger added.

McComb said he believes that Iversen would have faced criminal charges — and likely ended up in prison — had the incident occurred in the Northeast.

“It’d be a completely different ball game,” McComb said. “That’s a bad case.”

It's possible that McComb may be informed by his experience in the People's Republic of New Jersey. There, the investigation of the death of any civilian in an "encounter with a law enforecemnt officer" must be presented to a grand jury, and the investigation conducted not by a county but by the state to maintain its independence from law enforcement.

Nonetheless, what McComb said may in fact be not only common, but standard throughout the northeastern USA   Here, it is a completely different ballgame than in Texas and no doubt some other states.

It's a radical statement because you will hear it nowhere else. One would think that, as the "defund the police slogan" has brought increasing criticism, there would be questioning of the two premises of the black lives matter movement: police overreach is imposed against only blacks; and 2) police misbehavior is widespread, almost uniform, throughout the USA.

These two things are not true and never were. Democrats will not acknowledge it because the base of the party is black women. Republicans won't acknowledge it because they will not admit that police can be in wrong, and also wish to throw blame upon any combination of Democrats, liberals, the underclass,or the media. The media will not acknowledge it because Democrats and Republicans won't, and thus it is not "news".

But it's reality. Many police officers do their job very well, some poorly, and some merely adequately.... kind of, like, other Americans. But they often are characterized as a whole as God's gift to humanity or racist pigs.  Most are neither, and the minnority who are irresponsible are irresponsible to civilians regardless of their race. And when they are, the consequences can range from nothing to very severe, often depending on the jurisdiction in which the act occurred. It's Criminology 101.

   

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