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Commentary
Even if police did everything right, eighth-grader's death is wrong
by Gary Dop
Gary Dop is a poet and an English professor at North Central University in Minneapolis.
It's been a week since police in Brownsville, Texas, shot and killed a 15-year-old boy who refused to drop a weapon that turned out to be a pellet gun. Police said they gave the boy numerous opportunities to drop the gun before they opened fire.
I was shocked by how many people vilified the eighth-grader. While all accounts indicate that the officers acted according to protocol, the media coverage and general conversation seem to be overly focused on defending the officers.
I have three daughters, and every time there's a gun involved in a school anywhere, I think of them: What if my daughter was in the room? What if my daughter knew the boy? What if my daughter had been holding the pellet gun?
The morning after the shooting, I heard two radio jockeys defend the officers as heroes and blast the eighth-grader for his stupidity. The next day, I overheard a couple in the grocery store discussing the shooting. One said, "If you're dumb enough to wave a gun, don't be surprised when you get killed."
I know it's important to support police officers. But police officers don't make decisions based on whether or not the public will defend them. They know their decisions will be and should be scrutinized.
We need to allow time for other perspectives, because there's more to the story. The boy's devastated parents must have the opportunity to ask, "Why is it ever OK to shoot an eighth-grader? Why is my child dead?"
They will likely never find an acceptable answer.
The officer's "right decision," as it's been called, is also the wrong decision. An eighth-grader with a pellet gun should never be shot and killed. On the other hand, an eighth-grader who will not put down a pellet gun that looks like a real gun will almost always be shot and killed.
Pellet guns shouldn't look real. They should be painted in bright colors. But that attempt at a constructive suggestion misses the point.
The real question is an ethical conundrum: Is it ever right to shoot an eighth grader who is armed with a pellet gun? The answer is "no." It is allowable, and perhaps understandable given the circumstances, but it is not right. It can't be.
I grow weary hearing people dismiss the eighth-grader as a fool. Perhaps every decision he made in this process indicates his youthful idiocy, but this is nothing to celebrate. A child — a Cummings Junior High School drum major — is dead.
I doubt the officers want our congratulations. This justifiable thing they did will likely haunt them more than it will ever honor them.
As for me, I'll pick up my daughter from school today, nod if I see the security officer, and I'll hug my daughter tighter than usual. And I'll empathize with a father in Texas who can't understand what none of us would be able to understand in his place.
Comments (6)
Thank you for writing this column. What a tragedy for the family, the school, and our society.
I don't think people have stopped to think what it is like to be a 15 y/o boy in our society. Mature enough to carry a weapon (even a pellet gun) but not mature enough to override emotion and make the reasoned choice.
Furthermore, its really sad that our society continues to reinforce the idea that men must be affect "might" to be right, or even to be a "man". We actively sell our kids on the idea that a man must be strong to be a man and lacking physical strength a boy or man just isn't good enough. This message is out of sync with reality where brains now outwit brawn nine times out of ten and the smart ones, regardless of gender, get ahead.
"Pellet guns shouldn't look real. They should be painted in bright colors."
Pellet guns are 'real guns'... they fire a projectile that can kill. If we were talking about a airsoft gun or a water gun you might have a valid point, but pellet guns and bb guns are 'real' guns.
What a concise and honest piece. Thanks, Gary.
"Pellet guns are 'real guns'... they fire a projectile that can kill. If we were talking about a airsoft gun or a water gun you might have a valid point . . . "
If your answer to the following question is "no," then Gary Dop's point seems very valid to me:
"Would the police officers have shot and killed a 15 year old boy if they'd known it was a pellet gun?"
Personally, I'd wager that they wouldn't. Additionally, if they did, and it was revealed that they knew it was a pellet gun, their actions would not be so defensible.
Springsteen song-
"41 shots and
Lena gets her son ready for school
She says 'on these streets, Charles
You've got to understand the rules
If an officer stops you
Promise me you'll always be polite,
that you'll never ever run away
Promise Mama you'll keep your hands in sight'
Is it a gun, is it a knife
Is it a wallet, this is your life
It ain't no secret
No secret my friend
You can get killed just for living in
Your American skin"
This is not a race or socio-economic problem. This is a modern human problem. The NRA can't tell me that "people shoot people, guns do." Humans invented all the methods of killing each other. The politicians, social leaders, and all of us taxpayers are the murderers. Human reproduction is highly over-rated. Sure, we've had the daVincis and Mozarts and Einsteins, but we've had crusades and jihads etc. and we can't grasp that compassion IS something to emphasize, more primary than reading, writing, and math. I am not hopeful.
Gary is right, while the actions of the 15 year old were stupid, but we have to remember that the brain isn't fully mature til age 26 so stupid choices are common until then and many of us as adults past that age still make stupid choices but should we be villified? I too right away thought of the parents and how devastated they must be. I wonder however where he got the pellet gun and if the parents knew about it and how did this kid get it past the parents and to school. I realize Gregory that people harm people all the time, and it isn't the fault of the weapon it is the person using it. I am a hunter and I have owned guns and I would not want to live in a country where I can't own a gun for either hunting or protecting myself if need be. I do believe we should supervise what children are watching, playing and bringing to school that is our job as parents. Too much random violence on TV, games and movies and all in our own homes why do so many feel it is ok to expose our kids to this garbage it fosters the ideas that eventually lead the unsupervised kids to bring guns to school, of course there are exceptions some parents are doing everything right and yet peer pressure can make the child plan and sneak around and somehow get past the good parents. I don't know the entire story but it is sad, tragic and the officers will most likely have nightmares on this one I don't know any officer who really feels good about killing anyone especially a kid what a shame all around.
Gary, what if this fellow was cognitively, emotionally, and/or socially at the 8th grade level? What might be the difference in what an officer would consider at a time like these? How could a parent in both cases have missed teaching a lesson on how to deal with weapon-toting authorities? I tend to not blame the victim, but those who were charged with educating the victim missed getting a basic lesson out...
http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/137727743.html
http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/137727743.html
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