2 Phoenix police officers crossed a line. Look at what they were dealing with
The personal-injury attorneys were back on TV on Monday strongly criticizing two Phoenix police officers caught on video kicking a man and jabbing him with their gun barrels inside a West Valley convenience store.
Before I could even make sense of the story, that old standby, Tom Ryan, says on camera, “As a citizen and a lawyer I’ve seen many shocking things. This was in the top, top 1 percent of all videos I’ve seen in terms of police misconduct.”
Got that? The “top, top” 1 percent of misconduct.
As I watched the news story, I was shocked, shocked, that Tom Ryan would say such a thing about Phoenix police officers.
The images tell a violent tale
The video doesn’t lie. The cops are rough on the guy.
He’s on his stomach on the floor of a QuikTrip near 59th Avenue and Buckeye Road late Thursday night. Two policemen are shoving the barrels of their presumably loaded guns into his back and head.
They’re also kicking him in the head and back. Most of the kicks are more like shoves with the soles of their shoes. But one officer does wind up and kick him when the suspect later tries to turn over in handcuffs.
Here’s how 3 TV/CBS 5 reported the story:
“Phoenix Police say the incident began when this man fired shots at near distance of a patrol car with the officers inside, one bullet hitting the car. Then the man went into the convenience store with customers inside.”
Arizona Republic journalist Jose R. Gonzalez reported that “a bullet struck the car’s spotlight, piercing through the driver’s side at head level, while the other bullet hit the ground.”
He fired at officers, then ran, armed, toward others
To sum up, the alleged assailant shot at Phoenix police officers at close range, then created an active-shooter situation by running into a store with people inside.
Of all the crimes I can think of in this Valley, that’s got to be in the top, top – say, 10% – of most calloused and brazen.
Another view: DOJ investigation could make Phoenix a misgoverned city
If you shoot at police officers and then take your gun into a store where people are inside, count yourself lucky if at day’s end you’re still breathing.
I probably don’t have to explain the potential destructiveness of a bullet fired at police officers. A bullet can tear through an officer's skull and brain and kill him. It can shatter his spinal column and paralyze him for life. It can also miss and hit someone else.
Regardless, it’s apt to provoke a strong reaction. As does someone running into a store with the same gun they’ve just proved they’re willing to aim and fire at human beings.
No, their reaction wasn't 'by the book'
When the 3 TV/CBS 5 reporter introduces the video, she says, “The Phoenix Police chief says what you’re about to see in this video is not how they train their officers and does not align with their values as a department. Now the chief has not only opened an administrative investigation but a criminal one, too.”
I’m certain that’s not how they train Phoenix police officers, unless the academy is now firing live rounds at trainees' heads.
As U.S. soldiers well know, you can train for combat, but there's no way to know how you’ll perform under fire until you’re under fire.
At the start of the QuikTrip video one cop is yelling, “Where’s the f---ing gun?” So presumably at that point, when they’re first kicking and prodding the suspect, they’re concerned he still has the gun concealed on his person.
But after handcuffing the man, they cannot turn off their fear and anxiety quickly. The adrenalin flows. The emotions are razor edged. The rough stuff continues.
What happens when logic can't override emotion?
That’s not by the book. And it’s wrong.
The man appears to be bloodied. There is blood splattered on the floor. He was later treated at a hospital before taken to jail.
The book isn’t just there to protect the public; it’s also there to protect officers from committing acts that can put them and the department in legal peril.
But the book never has to duck bullets. It never bleeds. It’s all nice in theory but can’t calm the nerves of an officer who has come within inches of losing his life.
What should we do when police officers get caught in that moment when logic and training cannot quickly override adrenaline and emotion?
Do we put them in jail? Do we drum them out of the department? Do we put them permanently behind a desk?
Let's reserve judgment, maintain perspective
A couple of things we can do is reserve judgment and maintain perspective.
Police officers are not like you and me. In most of our jobs we interact with words and numbers, customers and clients. We don’t confront the most vicious and mentally deranged people in our society.
We give that job to police officers.
We pay them to make split-second decisions that if made poorly could cost them their lives, careers and freedom.
Knowing that their jobs involve managing the chaos of our meanest streets, we also cut them some slack. Citizens who sit on juries in judgment of cops often understand that police will make mistakes in high-stress situations.
Some of those mistakes are unforgiveable. George Floyd comes to mind. But many are understandable given the nature of the threat that opposed them.
The lines of misconduct aren't always easy to draw
We understand as citizens because we too are imperfect. We know that our own capacity to make mistakes would be sorely tested under the stress in which police officers operate.
Today there is political pressure to tolerate no mistakes by police officers. To draw the hardest of lines on misconduct.
In a perfect world that sounds great. But we live in a world that is broken and filled with peril. An inch closer and this could be a story about a fallen officer and a folded flag.
Demand perfection with no understanding for the mental trauma police officers endure and we’ll soon wonder where all the cops went.
Because we will have invented a job that no one can do.
Phil Boas is an editorial columnist with The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix police officers did something wrong. But don't rush judgment
