One People, One Law

There were two shootings in the Baltimore Metro yesterday. One involved two lovers in a downtown hotel and was thankfully non-fatal. The other took place in Anne Arundel County and ended in the death of a dog.

The details of the two shootings are very different and while neither ended in the death of a human I guess we should be happy. Unfortunately the two shootings were resonded to by local police in very different ways. So different that it seems there must be two different sets of laws governing the people of the state. One law for you and I, and another for those of us who carry a badge.

In an Anne Arundel dog park Monday evening, a Siberian Husky, Bear Bear, leaping and playing with other dogs as dogs in a dog park will, came into contact with a German Sheppard. The Husky engaged in rough play with the Sheppard. The Sheppard's owner yelled for Bear Bear's owner to restrain the dog. The Sheppard was leashed and presumably tethered to his owner. Almost immeadiately, according to eye witnesses, the German Sheppard's owner drew his hand gun and shot and killed the Husky. Anne Arundel police who responded to the shooting said there would be no investigation into the shooting, as it appeared to have been justified. The shooter was a federal police officer.

At the Hilton near the Baltimore Convention Center, two guests of the hotel, who had checked in together several days before got into a fight which ended when the woman shot her apparent lover. The man was taken to a local hospital and is recovering. The woman had minor bruises and scraps. The interesting thing about the shooting was how Baltimore City Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefield III responded. "It keeps coming back to one common thing … this insipid fascination with handguns in Baltimore and the willingness to use them to sort out conflict," he said.

"The willingness to use [handguns] to sort out conflict." It sounds like a statement a beleaguered police officer would make. A statement that is backed by years of seeing simple arguments escalate into violent situations that end with gun violence. A statement that any urban resident can agree with and see the intelligence of it. It is a statement that has merit and common sense and speaks volumes to how police have to come in and clean up after what could be a minor incident became a homicide. Unfortunately the statement is directed only at the non police officers of the city.

Following a summer that has included a fatal shooting by an off duty police officer leaving a Mt Vernon nightclub, a shooting that Mr Bealefield publicly excused as possibly justified, and a decision by a jury to convict a transit police officer in Oakland of the relatively minor charge of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting of an unarmed and subdued suspect on New Years Eve, one might think that something in our countries police forces has gone wrong. In both instances there was a definate "willingness to use [handguns] to sort out conflicts."

While Anne Arundel County Police have done an about face after pressure from citizens and politicians, their intial reaction to the shooting speaks volumes to how police view their position in society. Years of hero worship and media glorification of police officers as super men who "fight the bad guys", has lead to a climate of justification of violence used by officers under any circumstances.

America is a country that was founded on the idea of one people who all live under one law. There is still a strong feeling that all people rich or poor are subject to the same laws. Why then are police suddenly now exempt, given a pass to act like Wild West vigilantes meting out their own justice and judgments whenever they see fit.