Have you heard about the U.C. Berkeley off-duty cop who was dining in a San Pablo restaurant when a thug tried to rob it? The guy was aiming his gun at the cashier, threatening her life. The cop ordered the wannabe thief to drop his gun. Then something happened—we don’t know what—and the cop shot and killed the man. All we know at this point is that the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Department has announced they’re investigating the incident, and that the U.C. officer has been placed on administrative leave.
It turns out that the dead guy was a repeat offender who had been in jail for bank robbery; the U.S. Attorney for Northern California said he had “a history of violence.”
I’m sure that some pro-criminal person or group is going to call for the officer to be arrested for murder. That’s usually what happens in cases of this kind, especially when the dead man is a person of color (the guy appears to have been a Latino). Assuming, as I do, that the thief turned his gun on the officer, who then fired in self-defense, then he was a hero. The cashier herself said, “I’ll just say thank you because he [the cop] was there. He didn’t know if he was going to get shot. He didn’t know if he could have died at that moment. He just wanted to protect us." When I hear of a police officer putting his or her life on the line against an armed, violent criminal, it makes me proud that the Coalition for a Better Oakland is the leading pro-cop group in Oakland.
Look, no one is ever happy when a cop shoots a criminal. But the fact of the matter, near as I can tell, is that just about every time this happens, it’s because the criminal was engaged in some kind of felonious and potentially violent behavior. Either they’re attempting to kill cops, or they’re trying to kill others, or they’re fleeing from the scene of their crime. Cops don’t wantonly shoot innocent people, unless it’s a terrible accident; they shoot when their own lives are threatened, or when they’re trying to protect the lives of others. Yes, I know that whenever this happens, the dead guy is somebody’s husband, father, brother, son. It’s very sad. At the same time, I think to myself, “Well, that’s one less bad guy on the street to harm the rest of us.” Is it so bad to want to be safe from the threat of criminal attack?
My advice to anyone who doesn’t want to get shot by a cop is this: Don’t break the law. If a cop stops you for something, comply with his instructions. If everybody followed these two simple rules of conduct, there would be no more killings by police.
Steve Heimoff