So I have to say a few things about this whole 'Cop Killer' fiasco... and since it might happen, flame away. I get to moderate all my comments anyway, and my blog is not a democracy.
Anyone who lives in or around the Athens area knows what I'm talking about. Hell, all of Georgia knows what I'm talking about. I'm talking about Jamie Hood. THE Jamie Hood... a 33-year-old man who, until Tuesday, was just another black guy living on the east side of downtown Athens. On Tuesday, Hood allegedly committed a carjacking. Cops were called, they went after him/the car. That car was pulled over; the driver was compliant. Hood then stepped out of the passenger side and fired on the cop. That cop was injured, and is still hospitalized. Hood ran, and while running came up on another cruiser with a cop in the driver's seat. Hood fired into the car, killing that officer. He then carjacked another car, and then all hell breaks loose. Manhunt ensues. The car is found empty, leading police to believe that Hood is now on foot, armed, crazed, and who the fuck knows what he'll do. Obviously everyone who has ever known him is surely helping him evade... Schools in Clarke AND surrounding counties go on lock-down. For the next three days, this is the only thing Athens is talking about.
I'm not even entirely sure what the point of my post is. I'm not trying to be self-righteous or defend one position over another. I guess it's just another rant that comes from my "I'm kinda old and I don't give a FUCK what you think about what I say!!" mentality. But I did notice some things about people when something like this happens. And honestly, the things I noticed irritated me to no end.
The biggest thing I noticed while all this was going on was exactly how damn voyeuristic our society is. People wanted to know what was going on with this story up-to-the-second. They wanted live tv and police scanner feeds to show them everything; they all want the newest info first. They want to be the first to tweet these developments, to post them on Facebook, to prove they are completely In The Know. I'm not hating; I am just as nosy as the rest of you. But really- it became all-consuming for many people. But this isn't what really got me ranting....
The next thing that comes to mind is the absolute bullshit "solidarity" that Americans always do whenever there is any sort of tragedy like this. In this case, it was a rally of public service support- 'liking' ACCPD on Facebook, pledging to wear black in remembrance of the officer that was killed, liking/posting links asking for support of completely ludicrous bills that would make the killing of a police officer consequentially worse than the killing of any other human being (
are you fucking kidding me? One life is more valuable than another? One deserves the death penalty automatically, even for an attempt at murder, but everyone else is chopped liver? Seriously. Go fuck yourself, author of that bill. A life is a life is a life. Donning a uniform doesn't increase net worth, just as being a poor homeless man doesn't cause worthlessness. What that bill basically says is that if I knowingly take a high-risk job and get killed in the line of duty, my life is worth more as far as the consequences for taking it go than if I keep my job in the office of a brewery and some douchenozzle I've never met blows me away in a gas station robbery or home invasion. Administrative assistants are much fewer points than cops, for you Death Race 2000 fans), joining groups in support of public safety branches, doing 'chain' statuses proclaiming your love of those who protect and serve ("copy and paste if you are or know someone who has served their community!") or simply beating the issue into the ground twice over and every 2 minutes with their own-authored statuses, leaving self-righteous comments on others' pages in response to totally unrelated updates/posts that insinuate that they (the comment poster) are so much more concerned with these current events than everyone else and Why The Hell Aren't You Thinking/Posting About This One Thing Constantly Instead Of Continuing To Live Your Own Life Outside Of The Actions Of Others You Un-American Selfish Bastard! Good grief. Facebook? Really? This is where you're going to work on changing the world? Idiocy. "Oooo! I'm a Good Person! I Liked that on Facebook. Now it's official! And all the others who didn't Like it... crappy people!"
And don't even get me started on the total hypocrisy let loose in comment after comment. Those who on their info pages identify themselves as Christian people-lovers and who have Bible quotes and talk about praying and God and how He is judger of all and blah blah blah things I don't believe in anyway since I'm a soulless heathen.... then turn around and basically pronounce how they think the cops should just shoot the guy, no questions, no trial, no nothing. No kidding. One example is a comment (from someone that I am not 'friends' with, nor would I ever want to be at this point) left in response to my contact's status update of "Jamie Hood surrendering on live TV! Thank you Jesus!", the response of which said, "he wants to surrender "live" on the 11 o'clock news.... I think "live" should be a relative comment". I went to this poster's page, and listed under the Activities and Interests section of her Info page is "Let's see how many true Christians are on FB! Press Like if Jesus is your Savior!". Well, lady, I think you better keep trying. Because all the Sunday school in the world has yet to teach you much at all. With that one comment, this kind Christian woman committed TWO of the seven deadly sins (Wrath and Pride, for those who are wondering). If I could be like Betelgeuse and 'throw' a zipper at the mouths of these people I would. No, not the zipper. That metal plate that silences Barbara towards the end, just before the sand worm comes from nowhere to save the day... yeah, that's what I want.
Regardless, all of this is just Armchair Activism, and it means absolutely nothing. The other part of this phenomenon are the real things (i.e. not internet) that will happen; the promise of increased budget and support of our police departments and jails and other public safety branches by local politicians, the candlelight vigils held for the victims, the citizen outcry/whining about how our dear city has been overrun by criminals, the opinion articles published in the local paper calling for the suspect to be drawn and quartered, and the counter-point articles published afterwards that claim the suspect is a product of a dysfunctional family/community/school system/legal system/brain function/socioeconomic class system/whatever and that The Man did this to him and it's not his fault. Also total crap. Because in a week or so, Charlie Sheen will resurface and say some other nutjob shit and that will capture the attention of us Americans and Oooooo Shiny!!!!
One thing I really am not going to get started on is the fact that Hood was so fearful of being beaten or simply gunned down by the police that he refused to surrender until it was broadcast on live television. And I don't blame him.
The last thing that came out is that people often do refuse to look at the whole picture, and instead feel societally required to take one side or the other. Many were completely against Hood. They called him crazy, psychotic. While he was running, they assumed he was going to go on a rampage and shoot any and all that ended up within his peripheral vision. Once way back when he robbed a pizza guy so he did have a history, after all. Schools were put on lock-down, events cancelled, all focus went on finding this beast.
Others went the bleeding-heart route. He had a rough upbringing. Fell in with bad crowds. His brother was killed by ACC police. He did a long 12 years jail time for a robbery that got him a total of $3. Socioeconomically and racially he was doomed from the start. The Man did this to him.
The thing is, it's a sad story all around. He did have a hard time growing up. That can screw people up. He got into drugs. That can screw people up. His brother was shot and killed by ACC police. That can screw people up, and turn them into cop-haters. He did spend a long time in prison for a robbery that only got him $3. But the fact of the matter on that one is that his charge was for armed robbery, a felony. Because he put a gun into the face of that pizza guy to get those $3. It was just Hood's bad luck that he picked someone with nothing to take. His sentence did fit the crime. But yes, jail can and often does screw a person up. None of this gave him an excuse for what he did. He is an adult with sound mind, and no matter how bad things have been, he had to know going into this that it could and most likely would end badly.
But it appears that lots of people forget that Hood is a human being, just as those two police officers are human beings, and all three of these people have family and friends who love them, and all three of them also have things and people that they love and things that they fear. All of these people have had nightmares. All of these people have cried over something.
Everyone in this situation has lost something major. Officer Christian lost his life. His wife lost a husband. His children lost a father. Officer Howard lost a coworker. He has also no doubt lost a sense of security in life as well as gained some fear in working his job. Jamie Hood lost his freedom for the second and most likely final time, and possibly his life. Hood's parents lost another son. Luckily no one else was lost in this whole sad mess. Because to everyone closely involved, it's enough loss for a lifetime.
