There’s been a lot in the news lately about the woman shot by an ICE agent who fatally wounded her–a protestor/activist who, according to several different videos from several different perspectives appeared to be a rather obnoxious “Karen” who appeared to have an agenda that didn’t appear to include obeying commands from Federal agents. All this said, that does not mean the woman deserved to be killed because of apparently left-leaning bias toward law enforcement. I would offer that this is not a rare occurrence these days, especially from those leaning to the “blue” side of things. Often these men and women represent law enforcement as people on a wanton killing spree directed at a particular group of people.
Yet when you look at the details of the situation, it sounds a whole lot more like a split second reaction to a tense and possibly threatening situation than it does murder. Law enforcement often have mere seconds–or even a single, split-second to react to potentially life threatening situations. Speaking only for myself, I’m not sure what my response would be with only a second or two to choose how to react in a similar situation.
Consider. Tensions are high. A protest is ongoing. Someone is in a car and could do this or that or the other. What do you do? I have no idea of the agent’s chain of command structure or rules of engagement regarding this particular situations.
There are, of course, extraneous circumstances–as there always are in these instances. The media is certain to let us know about them. Yet I got to thinking–it’s so easy for us to second guess police or authorities. Why don’t they tase them? Why don’t they shoot them in the tire, or shoot the gun or knife out of their hand? Or not shoot at all? I don’t know.
Imagine someone facing you from a few feet away and pulling out…anything. How long does that take? Or walking toward you brandishing something. When…the person gets close enough to you to make out what he’s carrying, what do you do? You can’t take your eyes off him long enough to study the object for any real length of time. He’s coming toward you. Or driving toward you. What do you do? How long does it take for this person to get close enough to harm them? Assuming that’s what they thought.
Roughly speaking, it takes about 1.5 seconds. A second and a half. A great deal can happen in 1.5 seconds. Try this: hold out your arm straight in front of you with a pen in your hand. Drop the pen. Catch it before it hits the ground.
It isn’t that easy, is it? Or even possible. Now add stress to that. Someone shouting. The possibility of nearby people being injured.
Watch someone pull a banana from their waist. Or a Nerf gun. Time it. What if their back is to you? What if they’re driving? How long does it take for your eyes to recognize movement? Where the movement is coming from? What the movement is? The guy’s hand is moving…what’s in it? Is it a knife? A gun? Does he have anything else within easy reach?
1.5 seconds. That’s all you’ve got. That’s all that’s between you and…anything. Knife, gun, whatever it is.
Just watch this short video, and tell me how the police in the Georgia Tech incident–or any incident–could have reacted differently. Should they have thrown their handcuffs at him? What if he leapt? What if he lunged and sliced with a knife? What if threw something lethal or toxic? They tried to get him to stop–he didn’t. He left suicide notes; he wanted to die. Certainly these men didn’t set off wanting to kill anyone, and it’s hard to imagine the incident being related to homophobia. But what do I know?
1.5 seconds
A Work in Progress 