Police Protocols and Community Conflicts – Reflections on “Bad” and “Worse” Deaths in the Wake of the Michael Brown Shooting

Pastor Clifford O. Chappell

My friend and colleague, Cliff Chappell, serves St. Johns All Nations Church of God in Christ in Portland, Oregon, and is the founder of Man-Up, an effective “urban mission project” that serves men and boys in support of their roles as providers, fathers, husbands, mentors, and leaders in their communities. I highly recommend his post regarding the aftermath  of the Michael Brown shooting (and some notable lack in the aftermath of other shootings). You can find Cliff’s post here: http://culturesvoice.wordpress.com/2014/08/16/my-heart-bleeds/

I’m reminded by your post, Cliff, of Theodore Roosevelt’s statement that “Death is always and under all circumstances a tragedy, for if it is not, then it means that life itself has become one.” In my work, being “Death Pastor” in a number of ways, I frequently have opportunities to pontificate about the varieties of circumstances that result in a person’s end-of-life experience, and other people’s evaluations of “good” or “bad” deaths. Since death is not factory-original, but is, in fact, the absolutely worst after-market accessory we human beings have installed, I tend to think instead in terms of “bad” deaths and “worse” deaths.

President Theodore Roosevelt

In the eight years I served as a police chaplain (and less so during the two years I served as an interim prison chaplain), I heard repeatedly: “Rule Number One: At the end of the day, we go home to our families.” That did not always happen, of course. Some officers’ days ended far differently than they had anticipated when they showed up for their shift. But the message was clear. Any death was a “bad” death. (Anyone who has seen, much less been through the personal aftermath of an officer-involved shooting knows that the image of trigger-happy exterminator is difficult to reconcile with reality.) But there was certainly an aversion to having a “worse” death, which would be that of an officer.

In short, there seem to be two equations at work here.

First, from the perspective of law enforcement officers, there is an immediate judgment made toward anyone who willingly enters into an altercation with a trained, uniformed professional who is armed with several deadly weapons, all of which the officer has been carefully certified to use effectively. (The phrase I was taught: “continue firing until the threat is eliminated.”) That judgment: if that individual will confront a uniformed officer, they are, then, an even greater danger to the average citizen. We could debate the logic, but we need to understand the protocol necessary for law enforcement to protect and serve at all, much less with reasonable personal safety.

Michael Brown, dec. 8/9/14

But the second perspective is also valid, and needs to be discussed more frequently, openly, and broadly. From the perspective of most community members, of whatever cultural, socio-economic, racial, religious, or other background, there is an immediate judgment made toward anyone who willingly puts on a badge and a gun in law enforcement. The belief is common that those in uniform, especially, are interested in provoking such an altercation, profiling and eradicating “certain elements” of the community, and to do so with relative impunity. And that belief is common because it is too regularly reinforced through tragic exceptions to the millions of routinely-handled incidents addressed by law enforcement annually. Again, which are exceptions and which are rules can be debated.

What is not in question, from my perspective, is that the public perception of law enforcement officers, as well as that of law enforcement officers toward the public, combine to create an environment where tragedies are likely to increase. Unless, that is, we have a clearer understanding of the unique dangers faced by officers, and the impact that the resulting protocols have on the communities they are called to protect and serve.

"At the end of the day, we all go home to our families." But not always.

I believe, as does my brother, Cliff, that the system must be changed. And where there has been an emphasis on “community-oriented policing,” with greater engagement and education between law enforcement and their communities, improvements have come. But our pursuit of one another as persons beloved by God, despite whatever background we come from, or what uniform we wear, must not only persevere, but increase in the midst of such tragedies—even when they involve the death of a law enforcement officer, not just when it’s the life of someone else in the community that is lost.