While We Were Sleeping, or "To Protect and Serve"

-Picture of a police officer leaning against an LAPD cruiser inscribed with the words “to protect and serve”

The excerpt for this blog is a bold face lie. The Supreme Court's ruling did not take place while we were distracted by "Game of Thrones". Reason being, "Game of Thrones" wasn't even out yet when the ruling took place. The latest ruling took place in 2005 on June 27th. What's worse, that ruling was a reaffirmation of the original ruling that took place in 1989. Yeah. Staggering. For a quarter of a century, the police - those fellas we rely on to protect us - have not even been obligated to do that.

 In 1999, her estranged husband, whom she had a restraining order against, murdered Ms. Gonzalez's 3 school-aged daughters. It was avoidable.

If you refer to the picture above, you'll notice that the cruiser in the image is emblazoned with the words "to protect and serve". I have left the words uncapitalized as I have judged them to be hollow considering the "Supreme" courts ruling and Southern California's wretched track record of police brutality (think Rodney King, Oscar Grant, BART cops, and the Black Panther Party's reason for being). The reason LAPD vehicles still bear this cliche is because it's still their advertised motto.

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ME?

I am glad you asked, but you asked the wrong person. You should ask Jessica Gonzalez. In 1999, her estranged husband, whom she had a restraining order against, murdered Ms. Gonzalez's 3 school-aged daughters. It was avoidable. You see, immediately after her husband violated the order and kidnapped her children, Ms. Gonzalez called the police department and entreated them to search for the man. They refused. Hours later he showed up at the station firing the same gun he used to kill all 3 of the children. To make a long story short, she sued the police department and lost. The jury cited the original ruling handed down in the 1989 case DeShaney v. Winnebago County

DESHANEY V WINNEBAGO COUNTY

The following is a real tear jerker so get ready to be appalled.... In 1980 the courts awarded Randall DeShaney with custody of an infant. Three years later the police were called to his house on suspicion of child abuse. The Department of Social Services (DSS) became involved and mandated reoccurring visits from the state agency to ensure that nothing was amiss. On 5 different occassions during 1983 DSS employees reported suspicion of child abuse in conjunction with those visits. In March of 1984, Randall DeShaney beat his 4 year old son so badly that the boy ended up in a life threatening coma. He lived, but sustained brain damage that would impair the boy for the rest of his life. The mother sued the state and lost.

CONCLUSIONS

I am a harsh critic of this country.  One of my harshest critiques has to do with the almost unbridled, fearful gun culture that exists in America. This assessment is not my opinion, it is a fact.  We are the only developed/industrialized country on the planet to experience nearly 10,000 gun homicides a year. Worse, there are only 4 countries on the planet that experience more gun homicide per year than the U.S. And just as a reference, our northern neighbor Canada only experienced 173 gun homicides in 2012 as compared to the U.S.'s staggering 9,146. As other countries have comparable access and regulation, I attribute this disparity to our culture. This culture is spread by people like Dan Cannon, founder and editor of gunssavelives.net. I am not a fan nor am I a supporter of Cannon and his site. In my humble, he's just another gun nut who is propagating this sick and harmful obsession with firearms. I bring him up because if you follow the link I embedded 2 sentences ago, you'll find an article where he cites this Supreme Court ruling as a reason to be a shooter/vigilante.

This is what we are up against. This is why 136 unarmed Black people were killed in 2012 by police, security guards, and vigilantes like george zimmerman (caps left off on purpose). And this is why we need to turn the T.V. off and pay attention to the laws that our elected officials and our "Supreme Court" are crafting right under our nose.

-H. Pace