A tale of two Texas cities

This last week I've been watching two related stories unfold.  I live just South of Fort Worth, TX, close to one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world.  It's not uncommon for me to drive to nearby Dallas.

This week two stories are making headlines, two lives lost, law enforcement involved in both.

The first story is about heroism.  Three men, I'm sorry to say African American, who found a lucrative way to generating extra spending cash through armed robbery of local Hispanic bars and nightclubs.  Prior to Friday's incident Dacion Steptoe, Samuel Mayfield and Timothy Huff had shot three other people in seventeen armed robberies.  Friday night when they tried again at Los Vaqueros Sports Bar.  Fort Worth PD's officer Garrett Hull was there undercover.

Officer Hull purposely waited until the murderers left the bar to avoid innocent civilians being caught in the crossfire, and when confronting the the murders outside, he made the ultimate sacrifice for his community.  He was shot in the head and died a few hours later.


The second story is one that underlines the need for policy change in America.  The official story as I understand it is that (white) Officer Amber Guyger came home after a 12 hour shift got off at the wrong floor, and shot and killed her 26 year old (black) upstairs neighbor, believing him to be an intruder in her home.

Only time will tell if that story is the truth, there are many other possible scenarios that make more sense in my mind, but for the moment I'm going to take the story at face value and assume that Officer Guyger is "cut from the same cloth" as Officer Hull.  If that is the case, if on a normal day Officer Guyger is willing to give her own life to protect another's, then DPD faces a dilemma... they're putting their officers at risk by working them past their capability of making good decisions in life-at-stake situations.

We require truck drivers and pilots to get enough rest to be able to make decisions that effect the lives of others.  At very least the one of their officers made a grossly unacceptable error in judgement.  Is it because she was fatigued past the point of being able to make a decision?

In Texas, and a lot of other states "Castle law" is in effect.  Basic principle is that citizens have the right to protect themselves and their property.  Example: if you walk out of the store and find someone breaking into your car, it's within your rights to kill them.

Now taking a life is not something to be taken lightly.  That's not something that the action movies go into.  The psychological after effects of taking a life, even if it's justified.  I've guessing that the people who have given that any thought at all will come to the conclusion that unless life depends on it, let the bad guys have the damn car.

Which leads me to my next point, if DPD doesn't have a policy of checking the mentality of it's officers, then it's a matter of time before Dallas has riots.

There's a saying, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.". You see being a Police officer is a calling, not a profession.  If an officer is there for any other reason than to "serve and protect", if they have the mentality of "Do you feel lucky punk?", or "Get them before they get you.", the results are catastrophic.  American cities aren't war zones, it's citizens aren't to be subjugated.

Part of the problem is the "fish stinks from the head" Dallas City counsel has a habit of making policy that makes things difficult on law enforcement, the anti-panhandling policy is a good example.  I don't like 'em either, but I'll be damned if I'm going to call 911 and tie up the system because I'm uncomfortable saying "No".  Police have better things to do with their time, like tracking down the guy that walked into a local convenience store and shot two people as a decoy so he could go steal the ATM machines from two other convenience stores.  That story probably didn't even make the news, but I'm sure that police are still working on it.

I guess that's my point of this.  I'm reminded of returning Vietnam Veterans.  No, not everyone who went to the war was a hero, the My Lai Massacre was a horrible thing, the troops still deserved our support, the politicians that set the policy that resulted in the massacre should have also been held accountable.

Los Angeles PD changed it's policy after the '92 riots, the city is now safer.  The police are now safer, that same standard should be nationwide.  We owe it to the men and women who form the thin blue line between criminals and victims.