JCK-at-large SITE

Obviously, the police need protection.  The criminal element out there is not getting any nicer — no matter where you live. Fighting crime is an honourable and most dangerous profession, one which enormously benefits us all.  It takes great courage and calls strong public support.  Including as many safeguards as possible.

Yet there is another battle, the one against the “seven deadly sins” — including “pride” and “wrath.”   And here is where the public may need protection from the police.  According to Steve Kerr and Anquan Boldin — and their high-profile American Players Coalition  — the problem is police contracts.  Police unions are so strong, they say, that their contracts with cities virtually guarantee immunity from prosecution. Similarly, Toronto’s Saqib Qureshi, says, “Bust the Police Unions to Rank and Yank Bad Cops!” (WSJ, June 5). 

In a recent article, Kerr and the Players Coalition — a group of highly respected sports figures with a focus on criminal justice reform, social and racial inequality — provide a snippet of how law enforcement can sometimes run amok: “In 2015, we watched a video of police gunning down a schizophrenic man, Jason Harrison, after his mother called for a mental health check. In 2014, we watched law enforcement place Eric Garner in a chokehold as he repeated the words “I can’t breathe” until he died.  In 2017, Oakland, California, an officer shot and killed an unarmed 20-year-old man and seven months later shot another unarmed man three times in the back and killed him. The department fired the officer, but he appealed, got his job back and received back pay.  And in the past few weeks … we’ve witnessed the killing by law enforcement, or former law enforcement stand-ins, of George Floyd, who was unarmed and handcuffed and no danger to anyone… of Ahmaud Arbery, also unarmed, who dared to take an afternoon jog… and of Breonna Taylor, shot and killed as she slept in her apartment.”  

Mercy, you come away from such a sample thinking that “law and order” has itself become lawless!  Lest the downward slide continue, the Coalition puts forward two proposals:      

(1) First, “We will only have accountability and safety when our elected officials remove from contracts those terms explicitly designed to protect officers from investigation and discipline.” 

(2) Second, the Coalition calls upon the Supreme Court to end the “qualified immunity” that protects police officers from legal liability for abusive conduct. “Qualified immunity” means the victim of police brutality will not receive compensation — unless there is another identical case that has already been decided.  Without such an exact match, “qualified immunity” completely shields officers from civil consequences for illegal acts.

No society can afford to ignore such calls for institutional reform. Another nation had a similar problem and paid such a huge price for letting it go!  Bad enforcement officers on the loose, assured immunity from prosecution — a lot of innocent blood was shed.  The worst of a bad lot of enforcers was a military man, Joab son of Zeruiah, who was murdering, at an increasing rate, unsuspecting men “better than himself!”  The problem was that he had a virtual contract with the irresolute king and knew he was untouchable. 

Alas, King David was so guilt-ridden by his own crimes that he didn’t really have the moral chutzpah to deal with lawless Joab.  In fact, when the king flees Jerusalem before the Absalom insurrection, he interprets unlimited stone-hurling abuse as “God’s punishment.”  As Charles Wesley put it: –

“Pure from the blood of Saul in vain,

He dares not to the charge reply:

Uriah’s doth the charge maintain,

Uriah’s doth against him cry!”

As it turned out, it was only the succeeding generation that was able to deal with Joab.  It was young Solomon who finally dispatched the wretched man who “shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle on his loins, and in his shoes on his feet” (I Kings 2:5).  What was impossible for the father, was carried out by the son.  

Our grand daughter, Lucy Kerr, was among the protesters in Minneapolis.  Their march followed the funeral ceremony for George Floyd, held at her campus chapel.  We’re very proud of Lucy.  And perhaps this is the most promising feature of today’s marches for police reform: a new generation emerging with some fresh ideals.  Perhaps Al Sharpton — and Solomon — had the right text for Friday’s eulogy: “For everything there is a season.”

And a time!