Readers interested in the real perils and human costs police work in this stupid era of ACAB and black-clad fascist "antifascists" will find a lot to ponder in the book Shots Fired: The Misunderstandings, Misconceptions, and Myths about Police Shootings, by Joseph K. Loughlin (former assistant chief of police for the City of Portland, Maine) and true-crime author Kate Clark Flora.
This book is not a wad of "copaganda"; it is a realistic, sometimes grim attempt to explain to the general audience what officers go through in deadly encounters. It also is a powerful and thorough answer to questions many of us have after shootings by police, such as why the police fire so many bullets in such encounters, why they didn't shoot to wound instead of kill, and the old Hollywood favorite, why they didn't shoot the gun out of the suspect's hand. (Which is fine if you're the Waco Kid; otherwise, oy.)
The authors tell real officers' stories of all sorts of deadly events, as well as the aftermath on the perpetrators, victims, and the officers themselves. One chapter, "Sometimes They Won't Stop," is about the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombers in 2013, and if you look up harrowing in the dictionary you might find that chapter. At the time of noted asshole Dzhokhar Anzorovich Tsarnaev's capture, all I knew was that the police had shut down a large section Watertown (which enraged a couple of conservative commentators) but they got Dzhokhar while his asshole brother went out in a blaze of glory. I had no idea just how involved and terrifying the situation was.
The effects of encounters that end with the death of the suspect upon the officers themselves are long-lasting. In old cop shows a detective might blow a punk who has it coming away and go back to work like nothing happened, but that's not reality. Even if there weren't all kinds of negative, even dangerous, public reactions in the wake of such things, even if there weren't politicians quick to sell out their own cops, and even if a fatal shooting didn't guarantee being investigated up the wazoo, the officer involved can expect to get put through a wringer on several fronts by his own mind and by the department. When the authors tell me that the police at large are desperate to de-escalate and not draw a weapon, I believe it.
Shots Fired came out in 2017, after the Ferguson riots of 2014 but before the Floyd riots of 2020. You can just imagine how many more chapters could be added in a new edition.
I found the book gripping on every page, so of course I recommend it. And I recommend thanking a police officer on this day, even if you get pulled over for speeding. Traffic encounters can be the most deadly to police of all, which is one reason why they can be deadly to drivers as well. Living in a well-ordered society means that some public employees work in a war zone.
Anyone in a uniform who has killed as a consequence of that uniform is likely to be haunted by PTSD for a long time, possibly a lifetime. Those who say "defund the police" and protest a killing have never been in a situation where they face harm or death at the hands of another. They have never been plunged into a situation of unimaginable stress where an incorrect decision can result in their own death in an instant. To paraphrase Orwell, they can sleep soundly in their beds because rough men stand ready to do rough things on their behalf. I for one wouldn't be a cop for any price in today's world. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't. For 75K a year? Ha! Not for 575K a year!
ReplyDeleteThanks for telling us of this book, Fred. I'll be getting a copy.
You are so right, Mongo! Let me know what you think.
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