generalspeaking

Saturday, July 08, 2017

Uninhibited Murder as Senseless Vengeance

"All of a sudden there was all this running and stuff going on, and I look out, probably 40, 50, 60 cops screaming, 'Call a paramedic, clear the block!'."
"It looked like there was a riot going on, and two seconds later I hear gunshots, 'Bam, bam'."
Jay Marzelli, witness

"Don't think every brother, cousin, uncle you got that get killed in jail is because of a Blood or Crip or Latin King killing them."
"Nah, police be killing them and saying that an inmate killed them."
"I'm not playing, Mr. Officer. I don't care about 100 police watching this [video on Facebook]."
"It's time for people to wisen up."
Alexander Bonds, 34, parolee, Bronx, New York

"PO [police officer] Miosotis Familia has been assassinated in an unprovoked attack on cops assigned to keep NYers safe."
New York Police Commissioner James O'Neill

New York Police Department officers stand at the scene where a fellow police officer was shot and killed in the Bronx borough of New York, U. S., July 5, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Webb

After a triple shooting in the high-crime area of the Bronx in March, police set up a mobile command post to protect the neighbourhood. In that mobile command post sat 48-year-old black Hispanic 12-year veteran of the New York police force on July 5. She will never return to her family of three children all of whom live with her mother. The family, originally from the Dominican Republic found a new life in the United States.

Miosotis Familia worked the midnight shift. Seated in that vehicle, she was writing up her notes, after midnight. Along came Alexander Bonds, a man with a criminal record, armed and set to kill. And kill he did, aiming his weapon through the passenger-side window, firing a round and striking Miosotis Familia in the head. Desperately, her partner radioed for help.

Of course when a police officer is hit, it is hugely symbolic; the very law enforcement agency established to protect the public has suffered a casualty. Everyone's attention is suddenly fixated on the death of one of their own. Not that it might have been entirely unexpected since there has been a rash of such targeted killings of those in blue by dangerously disgruntled members of the public who feel they are avenging those of their class, ethnicity, whatever from police target practise.

A New York City Police Department (NYPD) investigator carries an evidence marker to a police vehicle where a gunman fatally shot a female New York City police officer in an unprovoked attack early on Wednesday in the city's Bronx borough, New York, U.S. July 5, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar

Her killer had been sentenced for armed robbery to six years in Attica prison, then paroled in 2013. As a teenager in 2001 he had attacked a police officer with brass knuckles. His backstory is a not uncommon one for black teens who are raised in an impoverished culture selectively steering toward crime and eschewing education, nourished on resentment and self-delusion.

So when the alarm went out, police responded with alacrity and in numbers warranted by the fear and shock that failed to numb them, instead electrifying them with the urgency of the moment. Pursuing the 34-year-old killer who is said to have pulled his weapon on his pursuers they reacted as expected, shooting him dead.

Where there exists the smoke of ignorance, stupidity, blame and hatred, the fire of consequences is certain to follow.