The Feline Warrior

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

— Isaiah 5:20 (KJV)

---

“He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord.”

— Proverbs 17:15 (KJV)

---

Three similar incidents

To start off, let’s first look at three recent police officer-involved shooting (OIS) incidents.

North Little Rock, AR

January 7, 2018, around 1 a.m.

When officers of the North Little Rock Police Department pulled over a vehicle in which Charles “CJ” Smith Jr. (17 y. o.) was a passenger, they asked for permission to search (and the permission was given).
Smith, at the time of this incident, had been charged with seven counts of armed robbery — facing up to 40 years in prison — and was out on bond awaiting trial. (His accomplices would later plead guilty to the robbery charges.)

Shortly after Smith and others exited the vehicle, officers patted Smith down for weapons as he repeatedly ignored orders of “quit reaching, partner.”
But a scuffle broke out between Smith and the officers as a handgun — unlawful for him to carry, for obvious reasons — was found on the 17-year-old, who could be heard screaming “I can’t go to jail!”

The wrestle on the ground ensued, with at least one policeman exclaiming, “Get your fucking hand out! It’s a fucking gun!”
One officer attempted a less-lethal option, using a stun gun (Taser) on his leg but to no avail; Smith still managed to pull out his handgun and opened fire, narrowly missing his own friends sitting on a sidewalk nearby as well as the officers.

Still trying to subdue him without resorting to deadly force, another officer could be seen delivering a few strikes to Smith’s head, in an attempt to knock him unconscious and force him to let go of the gun.

Yet even then, Smith still refused to surrender and instead chose to cock his gun again, preparing to fire another bullet.
This is when the officers opened fire to stop the threat, fatally wounding Smith.

San Francisco, CA

March 6, 2018, around 10:30 p.m.

Officers of the San Francisco Police Department were flagged down by two robbery victims, who told the officers that they had just been robbed at gunpoint and gave them descriptions of the suspects.

Shortly after, officers spotted a vehicle that matched the description. They pulled over the vehicle and ordered the driver out.
The driver complied and followed instructions, and was arrested without incident (i.e., no injuries were sustained, and no physical force was used).

Officers then noticed a man, later identified as Jesus “Adolfo” Delgado (19 y. o.), hiding in the vehicle’s trunk. Numerous orders — including “Don’t reach!” and “Let me see your hands!” — were given in both English and Spanish, but one hand of Delgado remained concealed inside the trunk.

More than 10 minutes had passed since officers began to de-escalate the situation by trying to talk Delgado into surrender. On a megaphone, an officer continued to give instructions in Spanish, ordering Delgado to show both of his hands.
Officers then fired a non-lethal beanbag round (similar to a rubber bullet), attempting to subdue the suspect without using deadly force.

Nevertheless, Delgado suddenly pulled out his handgun with his concealed hand and opened fire.
Officers returned fire to stop the threat, fatally wounding Delgado.

Seattle, WA

February 20, 2018, around 4:20 a.m.

Officers of the Seattle Police Department responded to a report of a car prowl in progress. Upon their arrival, the suspect — later identified as Jason Seavers (44 y. o.) — fled on foot and officers started chasing him.
During the foot chase, Seavers shot at the officers and officers returned fire, though no one was hit at this point.

An hour later, while officers were still actively searching for him, Seavers was reported to have broken into a home nearby and robbed the residents of their car at gunpoint (thankfully, the residents were unharmed).
The suspect then fled and sped away in this stolen car, but ended up crashing into a patrol car.

With their service pistols drawn, officers approached the suspect who had just shot at them earlier. More than a dozen orders of “Stop reaching!” were given, but Seavers ignored and continued to reach the backseat of the vehicle.

Judging from the totality of the circumstances, it became obvious to the officers that he was reaching for his firearm (which he thought was in the backseat, but had in fact fallen onto the floorboard).
As the numerous attempts of persuading him to surrender turned out to be unsuccessful, officers opened fire to stop Seavers from accessing his weapon, fatally wounding Seavers.

Different reactions

The three OIS incidents are incredibly similar.
Every one of the decedent had committed crimes, was armed with a handgun, refused to follow police commands, and fired at police officers.

The Court of Public Opinion, on the other hand, treated them very differently.

Let’s see a few examples —

North Little Rock, AR

• KATV (ABC affiliate) reported on the incident right after its occurrence, interviewing Smith’s brother who was also in the vehicle. The witness was quoted saying:
  • “They say he resisted, but he wasn’t moving. He was talking. He wasn’t doing [anything].” (Aside from…I don’t know, shooting at the police, maybe? As a witness who’s seen every moment of the incident, shouldn’t you know better?)
  • “Why did y’all shoot him? Y’all got tasers. Use them tasers. Why did y’all have to kill him?” (Yes they tried that…if only Tasers work that well all the time.)
  • He also said, according to KATV, that he “never knew” Smith as someone who would carry a gun.
• A vigil was held for Smith which about 100 people attended. In a quite sensationalized tone, Fox16 (Fox affiliate) reported on the vigil, quoting Smith’s family members and acquaintances:
  • “[The officers] need to go to prison for what they did.” (Well, speaking of prison…remind me who was screaming “I can’t go to jail!” again?)
  • “We want justice for him. I’m sick to my stomach right now.”
  • “He was a good kid, he was a happy kid.” (Yes, because a good kid would totally be roaming around at 1 a.m. — which, by the way, was in violation of his court-mandated curfew — while illegally carrying a gun. That’s totally, without doubt, what “good kids” do.)
  • When describing the vigil, Fox16 even commented: “Showing love takes light and hope but it also reminds you of happier days.”
• A GoFundMe fundraising page was set up, which has since collected more than 1,000 dollars.
  • The GoFundMe page read: “What should have been a routine traffic stop turned into 17 year old [sic] CJ being shot 5 times in his back. There are lies being told to cover the wrong doing [sic] of those who are suppose [sic] to protect our children and serve our community” and “He was a great kid, loving, funny, full of life and talent and because someone chose to use excessive force and ended his life, we will NEVER know just how great he would have been.” (Well, at least the “there are lies being told” part is accurate.)
  • After the police camera footage was released, proving the aforementioned claims blatantly wrong, a short update was added: “Although a video has been released there is more to the story and it is under Investagation [sic].”
• THV11 (CBS affiliate) also reported on the incident, quoting Smith’s family members and acquaintances:
  • “The story doesn’t even add up, but we’re going to get justice.”
  • “All of this wasn’t called for. Everybody out here knows he was a good person. The most uplifting thing about him was his smile.”
  • “Long live CJ. You have plenty of love out here; we care about you. And prayers to your family.”
• In yet another report, THV11 reported that Smith’s friends and family were “seeking answers” to the shooting, even after they watched the camera footage that captured Smith’s last moments. And THV11 even managed to find more acquaintances of Smith to interview:
  • “We’re not protected and we don’t know how we’re going to be protected. A traffic stop turns into an execution, it’s scary.”
• “He was a beloved son and student — pulled over by police for a routine traffic stop. Friends say the stop was classic racial profiling,” tweeted activist Shaun King, implying that Smith was shot for no reason (other than his race) while conveniently leaving out all the “inconvenient” facts. His tweet has since gained more than 30,000 retweets and 40,000 likes.

San Francisco, CA

• Protesters marched in the streets almost immediately after the incident, protesting what they considered an unjustified shooting by chanting:
  • “No justice, no peace, no racist police!”
  • “Hands up, don’t shoot!” (Which, ironically, was also the command the police repeatedly gave Delgado — one that he refused to follow till the very end.)
• A vigil was held for Delgado, and a makeshift memorial was set up where the incident occurred, with signs that read:
  • “You will be missed” (…probably not by the robbery victims, I suppose.)
  • “Rise in Power”
  • “Justice 4 Jesus Delgado”
• The San Francisco Examiner reported on the incident by quoting intensively Delgado’s family members and acquaintances:
  • “It was the most horrific thing I have ever seen in my life. It was a firing squad to me.”
  • “He said he was going home, and I trusted it. He was with a good person.”
  • “He would stay at home a lot and not come out. Whenever he did come out, it was always a treat, and he was the life of the party.” (Well, if only he’d stayed home, or at least left his gun at home on that fateful day…)
  • In the first paragraph, the newspaper called Delgado “a young man whom friends described as a hard worker, with a unique sense of humor and a bright smile.” (The choice of words is so nice that it almost sounds more like a church chorister than a felony suspect.)
• “Teen Suspect Dies Inside Car Trunk As San Francisco Cops Unleash Barrage Of Bullets”, Vibe.com reported on the incident with a quite sensationalized title. More quotes can be found in the article:
  • “SFPD murdering undocumented kids of color in the Mission is gentrificaction’s [sic] death drive. #FTP [fuck the police].” (“Show me your U.S. passport or you’re getting shot!” — that must’ve been what the cops said, no?)
  • “I don’t know why they start [sic] shooting. It doesn’t make sense. They should have let him get out.” (Yes, they have indeed tried to get him out — repeatedly — and it worked on his accomplice, but didn’t work on him.)
  • “It was sad, because the video shows everything, of [sic] how he died, and he didn’t even deserve it.”
  • Even after the police video footage was released, which clearly showed Delgado opening fire first, Vibe.com nevertheless still insists “Police said they found a handgun in the trunk, but it is still unclear if that weapon was used during the incident.”
• A town hall meeting was organized a week later, on which SF Weekly ran a lengthy, highly sensationalized coverage, titled “Mission Residents Furious Over Another Fatal SFPD Shooting”:
  • “He was one of the first kids in that door every morning, and one of the last kids to go home. Some of the first field trips we took were for him to walk on the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time. To ride a bike for the first time. To go on his first college tour. He believed in the program so much that he convinced his parents he wanted to spend more time there.”
  • “We are the Mission. We are Adolfo. We are all one community, we are all one Mission. This is our kid, we claim him and everything about him.” (If you really do claim “everything” about him, including his crimes and wrongdoings, then…perhaps you’re also a part of the problem.)
  • Attendees of the town hall meeting, indeed furious as the report says, were at one point heard yelling “murderers!” to the police officers (whom SF Weekly described as “calm and firm, fairly emotionless”).

Seattle, WA

• The Seattle Times reported once after the incident occurred, once after the police dashcam footage was released, and once after the decedent was identified.
  • The Seattle Times’ attempts to contact Seavers’ family were unsuccessful. No activists, politicians, or acquaintances of Seavers were interviewed.
  • All three reports are fairly brief, and the language seems fairly neutral and not sensationalized. No follow-up coverages seem to be available.
• No protests, vigils, town hall meetings or city council discussions seem to have ever been organized.

Why?

Yellow journalism

After both the North Little Rock case and the San Francisco case, the news media immediately publicized not only facts known to them but also interviews with the decedents’ families and acquaintances — and mingled them together.
The narratives in such interviews are, however, highly emotionally charged and often turn out to be factually incorrect — which shouldn’t be surprising: it’s perfectly understandable and even expectable that, regardless of what really happened, a grieving family would almost always side with the family member they’ve just lost.

Still, there’s no reason the reporters and journalists, being professionals in the field, would not understand that such narratives tend to be unreliable for this very reason.
Yet in both cases, their coverages relied heavily on these narratives anyway, some of them prolonged and highly sensationalized.

Because it sells well.

Welcome to the era of “post-truth” politics and mass media, where facts and evidence no longer matter but are constantly trumped by feelings, emotions, biases and agendas.
That’s why these news reports would easily turn into biased, one-sided coverages, and accordingly, the Court of Public Opinion would’ve already decided on its verdict long, long before the facts come out:

What the poor grieving family said must be right — he was an innocent victim, he didn’t deserve to die, and the police were wrong.

And how many people would actually bother to follow up on the cases, after the Court of Public Opinion has already rendered its verdict?
Not many, indeed.

“A lie travels around the globe while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

Race to the top

You may wonder why the Seattle case was covered and reacted to so differently than the other two.

Remember, three cases were incredibly similar: criminal drew a gun and shot at cops; cops returned fire and the criminal is now dead.

But there are differences too:

• Smith, in the North Little Rock case, was Black.
• Delgado, in the San Francisco case, was Latino (also a Mexican national and without lawful immigration status in the U.S.).
• Seavers, in the Seattle case, was White.

When a White man gets shot, since it doesn’t fit into the “racist police” narrative, the Court of Public Opinion would treat it as an isolated, individual incident (and never say “he didn’t deserve it” — surely, no news media ever called Seavers a “victim”).

But when a Black or Latino man gets shot, the bullets alone are enough to confirm and reinforce the “racist police” narrative, regardless of what may have preceded the gunfire.
So the Court of Public Opinion would make sure to call him a “victim,” quote their acquaintances calling him “a good kid,” and inflame the public to anger and outrage.

Yet strangely enough, the same group of “racist” police officers “murdered” Smith “just because he was Black,” but for some reason never even laid hands on other people in the car — who are also Black.

And right before “murdering” Delgado “just because he was Latino,” the very same group of “racist” police officers somehow miraculously talked his accomplice — who is also Latino — into surrender, successfully taking him into custody with no force used at all.

Strange, no?

Who to blame?

In the San Francisco case, there seem to be people who, even after reviewing the footage, still think that the shooting was avoidable and the police were in the wrong.

In other words, they’re basically saying:

He can rob people at gunpoint, point a gun at the police and shoot, but it’s still the police’s fault for returning fire.

What world do you all live in?

No matter what country on this planet you are in (yes, including Mexico where Delgado was born), when you shoot at a group of trained, competent, armed police officers, there’s a 100% chance that they’ll return fire.
Or what else do you expect them to do? Run toward your gun, dodge your bullets, and wrestle the gun out of your hand?

Don’t get me wrong — I’m only analyzing and discussing these three individual incidents on a case-by-case basis, with no intention to sugarcoat or oversimplify any complex social issues.
The point is, no matter how I look at them, there’s no way I could say that these particular cases could’ve been avoidable had the police handled them differently.
(At least not until fully bulletproof robo-cops are invented.)

Also.
While it is perfectly reasonable for family members to mourn and grieve for the deceased, as for the rest of the community — the upright, law-abiding citizens — perhaps you should think about this before you get “furious” over what you see on the news:

Who are the real bad guys? Who should really be blamed for ruining your community?
Those who endanger everyone’s lives by committing robberies, burglaries, sexual assaults, drive-by shootings and other violent crimes?
Or those who are trying to stop them?

And if you always choose to side with the former and always rush to their defense, unthinkingly and unconditionally “claiming everything about them,” what message will that send to your children?
Will they be able to tell the right from wrong anymore?
Will they begin to see those criminals as innocent victims, martyrs, or worse yet — God forbid — role models?

Another grieving mother

A similar incident also occurred in Cleveland, OH.

On October 25, 2017, a known drug dealer and convicted felon named Antonio Levison (33 y. o.) attempted to flee from police officers, engaged in a gunfight with them, accidentally dropped his first handgun and was fatally shot as he aimed a second handgun at them.

His mother, still overcome with incredible pain and grief, told the Cleveland 19 (CBS affiliate):

“I told my son [on Sunday] I’m not trying to identify your body. Here it is Wednesday, I’m identifying my son’s body. That’s a message right there.”

“It’s not [the officers’] fault. They were doing their jobs. They had to do what they had to do. My son pulled the gun on them. So that’s what happened. They had to do what they had to do to protect themselves.”

“I didn’t want it to end like this. I wanted to hear my son’s laugh… October 25, 2017 is when my son’s life was taken from him, because he was being real ignorant. And I’m sorry to say that. And I love my son.”

I have no doubt that she must’ve tried everything she possibly could to raise him right — to stop him from living as a criminal — and yet, regrettably, her son still failed her.

And her message to those who lead a similar lifestyle like his son did:

“Please put these guns down. Take it from a mother that knows… It’s not worth losing your life running from the police, shooting at the police. You’ve got families… My son was a street person. It’s not worth it. It’s not worth your life. Trust me.”

While still grieving over the heartbreaking loss of her own son, this mother was still so unbelievably wise and rational.

I pray that she can find peace for the rest of her life.
And I think we all have one thing or two to learn from her.