Photo: Jeremy Hogan / Photodisc / Getty Images
It's not about the district attorney. It's about the cop.
About a young man who chose a profession of service and last Monday evening kept his oath and did his duty.
On a very difficult day.
The day they buried one of his brothers. Two days after they buried another one of his brothers. Both killed on a call that looked an awful lot like this one.
They died on what began as a pullover and ended up with a car in a driveway and then a murderous fusillade. Kind of like when he pulled up and put it in park and stepped out, the world looking in from the camera on his chest. Stepping out and walking forward and not knowing what he was going to face.
That is real, and it's pertinent and it is the context that counts. Because supporting the police has got to be more than lip service. It's got to be more than words for the cameras outside the courtrooms.
That young cop went to work that day while they were shoveling dirt on his brother, aware -- like every officer in every department all across the state -- that this was a day of sorrow, a week of sorrow, and of cold reminders that there are bad guys everywhere, and death and danger can lurk around every corner.
That's what he carried.
What she carried was a chip on her shoulder. An honorary Karen nametag. A spirit and demeanor which disrespected him and the law they were both sworn to enforce. The shrillest, bitterest, bitchiest, most contemptuous and snide air. Like she was God and he was dirt and the fact she had his chief on speed dial and her own gold badge gave her her own set of rules.
For 20 long minutes she showed her ass.
Was it 30 years of autopsy photos, was it the three new murders, was it the dashcam execution of a cab driver she had reviewed that morning, was it the worst day of her life? Was she drunk or stoned, was she having a nervous breakdown, does she have a brain tumor or alzheimer's rage? Or is she just a condescending, self-important witch? Is the ugliness she showed that day who she is and how she should be judged?
None of that really matters.
Not in that moment, not to that officer.
Here's a subject acting irrationally hostile and who, not for nothing, keeps turning her back on him and reaching into her car. She refuses his lawful order to come to the back of her vehicle, just as she refused his lawful order to pull over when going 20 miles over the speed limit. She is truculent and confrontational and at one point she disobeys his order and enters her home.
He showed tremendous restraint in not going hands on. If we were watching Live PD, the conversation would have been carried out at the back bumper after she had been patted down and handcuffed.
In situations like that, you usually hear the officer's command voice ordering, "Show me your hands!"
But he played it cool. And he kept his cool. The sergeant came and the lieutenant came and a couple of other officers looked on. And the bosses told him it was his stop and his call, and they walked away.
And a man trusted with a gun and a badge truly was trusted. He's got the chief civilian law-enforcement officer of his county entered into his laptop and her fate and his depend on what he does and how he does it. He had the grounds to put her in the backseat. Her insolence and actions qualified her for an arrest.
But he chose discretion, and let her off with a ticket, and the knowledge that he left his camera on for a reason. There was a truth to be told, an ugly one, and he had made a record of it.
And it's good he did. Because the statement she released about the incident wasn't honest, neither were some of her confidential explanations to others. And that will sort itself out as it will. She will either stay or go, as the public and her nerve, and perhaps the governor, will allow.
They both had a duty to do that evening. The same duty. To respect the law. He did, and she didn't. And she who told juries how great cops were, treated this one like he was crap.That is hard for many to reconcile, and maybe they won't be able to.
But it's not about the district attorney. It's about the cop.
About a young man in a profession under fire, on a day they buried his brother, doing his duty without flinching.
We see too many examples like hers. The example we need is his.