Black and blue

A matter of life and death

In April of 1999, the morning after my mom died of breast- to-bone cancer, her oncologist called the house. 

“Sorry for your loss,” he said, “but you want to hear some truly awful news?”

“I don’t understand.”

“A woman came into my office today with colon cancer.”

“What? I—”

“Her cancer is worse than your mom’s. And this woman has so much to live for. A real tragedy.”

“You don’t think my mother’s death was tragic?” 

“Regrettable, but your mother, frankly, was no angel. She was uncooperative during treatment. The other woman, though—that’s sad.”

“I could burn down your office right now.”

“You people always react like that, typical. Mr. Friedman, all cancers matter, all patients matter.”

That conversation never occurred, but you know where I’m going with this. Black Lives Matter. All Lives Matter. Blue Lives Matter.

First the coupling, then the deflection, then the eclipse. 

A few days after Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby killed Terence Crutcher, this happened.

A small group supporting law enforcement gathered at Hunter Park Tuesday afternoon to give support to officer Betty Shelby.

In the story, Crutcher’s name doesn’t even appear. Newson6 no doubt figured it had covered that “angle” already—the dead guy.

“My heart goes so deep with Betty Shelby and her family,” said Charlotte Bates, the wife of former sheriff reserve deputy Robert Bates who was convicted of shooting Eric Garner. “They are going to go through some absolutely horrible nightmares.” 

Does your heart go out to Frenchel Johnson, Terence’s common-law wife, who found out her husband had been shot while she was in jail? Or does she not matter because she was in jail? 

How about Terence’s mother, Leanna? Or does she not matter because her son had previous problems with the law?

How about the four kids and their nightmares? Or do they not matter because the family wasn’t intact? 

Is the message, that the men and women in blue matter more those they kill?

I know. And Crutcher wasn’t an angel.

Shelby’s attorneys claim they received a call from a man saying he saw Crutcher firing a gun up and down East 52nd Street on September 15.

Police found PCP in the vehicle used by Terence Crutcher the night he was fatally shot by an officer, a Tulsa Police Department official confirmed to the Tulsa World on Tuesday afternoon.

Eric Garner had a record.

Outlets from Breitbart to Fox News to The New York Post to NewsMax dedicated considerable time to smearing Eric Garner as a “career criminal” who somehow caused his own death by resisting arrest.

Sandra Bland smoked pot.

At a news conference discussing the preliminary findings of an autopsy following Bland’s alleged suicide at the Waller County Jail in Texas last week, officials placed heavy emphasis on marijuana reported to be found in the young woman’s system.

Tamir Rice was too big for a 12-year-old.

It’s not uncommon for police to overestimate the age and size of black boys. Various studies have found that the general public and police tend to see them as less innocent and older. 

None were angels. It’s how we blame the victim.

Crutcher was a “big bad dude,” a hulking black guy who didn’t listen to a diminutive, church-going, short white female officer.

“As Tulsans, and as Oklahomans, let’s stand up for Betty, for our police department and our sheriff’s department, for these men and women who are out on the streets protecting all of us,” [Charlotte Bates] told NewsOn6. “I’m here to support our law officers who have not been supported.”

Marq Lewis, founder and organizer for We The People Oklahoma, has had it with the conflation.

“I think we have to understand that there would have not been a Blue Lives Matter or All Lives Matter if it wasn’t for first Black Lives Matter. These movements that are not related to Black Lives Matter are just a slap in the face,” Lewis told me.

And when isn’t law enforcement supported, honored? When are their deaths not accompanied by rage and horror? When does America ever talk about African American deaths at the hands of police officers without first prefacing the conversation with how hard cops work, how most are honest, and how they put their lives on the line for us every single day. 

But today, that line is a tripwire.

Paired with official government mortality data, this new finding indicates that about one in every 65 deaths of a young African American man in the US is a killing by police.

You would think we could hold those two thoughts—1) that innocent African American men are being killed in alarming numbers by law enforcement, and 2) policeman deserve our respect and admiration—simultaneously.

But, apparently, not.

Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton said, “We support people who put on the uniform and do a job that most people would run from.”

That’s the criteria—cops getting dressed in the morning and going to work? We can’t expect more? The cop who tells a dying Eric Harris, “Fuck your breath,” is a hero because most of us wouldn’t do his job; the cop who kills him because he can’t tell his taser from his gun deserves a rally?

“I think both Black Lives Matter and the police want the exact same thing — better conditions in black neighborhoods and a stop to the killing,” said Brandon Jenkins, Sergeant of the Robbery Unit for the Tulsa Police Department. “But I do agree that All Lives Matter misses the point entirely and certainly does nothing to move the conversation forward.”

Whether we’re all on the same side is debatable, but Jenkins is a thoughtful guy, a cop for more than 20 years, who sees the faulty logic, the inequities, the well- springs of mistrust between black and blue.

“For instance, look at the trafficking weight of crack and meth. Crack takes 5 grams to make a trafficking charge and meth takes 10 grams—guess which one is seen as a ‘black’ drug?”

He doesn’t, won’t, can’t talk about the Shelby case, but understands the outrage.

“I’ll admit I didn’t understand the Black Lives Matter movement at first since it never occurred to me that black people didn’t know that we valued their lives. It absolutely never occurred to me. That’s my fault for not trying to understand it earlier.”

And this.

“But I do appreciate Blue Lives Matter.”

He does, he says, because not a day goes by in Tulsa where a police officer doesn’t come within seconds of killing someone … but doesn’t.

“That’s a part of our world that’s hidden from everyone else. It’s terrifying for anyone to look at another person and think he/she wants to kill you. It’s just as terrifying to realize you might have to kill that other person.”

It’s not an excuse; it’s an explanation.

Marcus Harper, a sergeant with the Tulsa Police Department, says racism, sexism, homophobia in police forces are reflections of those in society. 

Perhaps. But they have the guns, and the authority.

I ask Jenkins about the politics, the perception of the police in Tulsa.

“We’ve been a political football for the last three mayors.” 

And nationally? 

“Back then the Democrats were our champions because we were a union. Now the GOP seems to be championing us because it’s politically convenient to them and the Democrats seem to be calling us racist because it’s politically convenient to them.”

He remembers better days, days he could take some time to play a game of football, basketball with kids in a community. Tulsa spends $100 million on police protection and yet our cops can’t take 20 minutes a day to shoot hoops with kids. 

A game of HORSE doesn’t save Terence Crutcher, doesn’t make Betty Shelby a better cop. But you find the time to play, anyway, because it’s how community happens, how humanity happens.

Protect and serve.

So what do we do now?

“I’ve talked about the shootings and institutional racism with some friends of mine who are black officers,” said Jenkins. “Not a single one of them believes any of the shootings, including Betty’s, has to do with racism. But every one of them believes that institutional racism exists and is very real. You can’t disagree.”

It’s not about race, until it is, unless it’s not. 

Paralysis.

And Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Walter Scott, Laquan McDonald, Eric Harris and Terence Crutcher are still dead.

For more from Barry Friedman, read his article on the latest scheme to get the Ten Commandments on Capital grounds, SQ 790.