Lambasting the Police

Yesterday at Bible study we were discussing Hebrews 4 and why it was important that Jesus had suffered as a human. The dicussion went to the fact that we tend to judge others by our own experiences. This is not necessarily bad, but when so many of us such limited experiences it often makes our judgement incorrect. Someone who has been betrayed many times, may judge a new person in their life as untrustworthy. And people who have lived a sheltered middle-class American life often cannot get beyond their own experiences and so judge others very harshly. "I would NEVER do that!" Well, live their lives and then tell me that. So many examples come to my mind. People judging Cindy's kids as ungrateful because of their tendency to act out during times of stress. Dear Abby today, where a teen-age girl complains about the behavior of her friend. Her friend's mother has been dead for years and her father has a drug problem. The teen-age girl (and her family) took her in. The teen-age girl cannot imagine why the friend would do hurtful things. She can't imagine it, because she can't imagine what the friend's life has been like. About two weeks ago a deputy and his canine partner were shot and killed during a "routine" traffic stop. The next day, following an extensive manhunt for the killer, a 10-man SWAT team (walking in a row shoulder-to-shoulder in their search) found the gunman. When told to surrender, the gunman weilded a gun. The members of the SWAT team fired. The suspect was shot 68 times. 110 rounds were fired. The family of the suspect, Freeland, are now suggesting that this was excessive. They've hired a lawyer. Ugh. This puts us back to viewing life only from your personal experience. Many in the community are supporting the Freelands. How many of these people have ever gone searching for someone they knew was not afraid to kill them? How many are willing to put their lives on the line everyday for the safety of the community? Police are taught to shoot to kill. It is not because of some deep-rooted hatred of people. It is not because police love the idea of killing someone. It is because, once you are in a shot-out, your survival often depends on the other person's demise. Computing an average of shots, each officer fired about 11 times. That happens very quickly. It's not as if Freeland was shot and they saw him laying on the ground and they continued to fire at him. Each man fired as if he were the only one firing and it was over very quickly. Not really relevant, but Freeland shot Officer Williams 8 times. After shooting him in the leg, arm, chest, neck, Freeland than went up to Williams and shot him in the back of the head execution style. So I am upset that the Freelands are suggesting the police did something wrong. But, that is me looking at it from my life experience. As a military brat, my perception of law-keepers and public officials is much different than many others. So I can begin to understand the feelings of Freeland's family when I look at it from their view. From the articles, it appears they are probably lower-middle class African-Americans. Freeland has been in trouble with the law before. That family's culture says not to trust the law. I still don't agree with what they are doing, but am less likely to lambaste them, even if they lambaste the police.