Angelo West had his own idea how he was going to stay out of the can. He held his .357 Magnum at the ready as Boston Police Officer, John Moynihan, approached his silver Nissan Murano SUV to question him.
The Boston Police had received reports of gun shots in the neighborhood. They were there to follow-up. It didn’t matter to West that Moynihan had served honorably in combat as a lieutenant in the Army Rangers in Iraq; nor did it matter what Boston police officer intent on protecting his neighborhood from hoodlums like him was coming upon him. All that he was thinking of was how to get out of the mess he put himself in.
The police officer might search his vehicle and find he was in possession of that weapon. A convicted felon possessing a .357 Magnum could face big time. He thought: “Here I am with this gun. I spent enough time behind the walls the last time I was caught with a gun and shot at the cops. I’m not going back. I got a wife and a little kid now. I’ve got to make a run for it.”
When Moynihan closed in on his vehicle he figured: “Here he comes. I’ll hit him quickly and take off. It’s my only chance.” He jumped out. With unfailing accuracy, he wasn’t going to miss like the last time he shot at a cop, he fired a bullet right into Moynihan’s face.
Moynihan is extremely lucky he has survived to this point. What the long term effects on this brave man will be are yet to be determined. We can only hope and pray for a full recovery.
Suppose however in his panicky flight West missed; suppose that Moynihan seeing the flash of the Magnum as West flew out of the car and with instincts born from his combat experience was able to duck so that the shot missed. Then, assume everything else that happened after that remained the same. That West fled and was gunned down by other officers acting to protect one of their own.
Boston, like Ferguson, would have exploded. Moynihan and the other officers involved in the shooting would immediately come under suspicion and suspension. Their story at having been fired at would be rejected out of hand. There’d even be suggestions West was unarmed, or the .357 was planted, or he had his hands up trying to surrender.
Remember in Ferguson, that police officer too let off a shot as the victim Michael Brown tried to take his gun. That didn’t matter. The assailant, a black man like West, was shot and killed. Thus began those horrible days when riots were sanctioned, the police who kept control without seriously injuring anyone condemned; and a city and parts of the nation upended.
We’d be assailed with the “hands up don’t shoot” gang that formulated the falsehood that the young black man in Ferguson was surrendering. We’d be told by groups such as “Black Lives Matter!” that the cops were out to murder young black men. We’d have seen crowds on the edge of rioting assembling to protest the police actions.
It’s true that black lives matter. The police officers who are protecting the people from the thugs and criminals who prey on them know that. They show it by their courage being out in those high crime areas night after night attempting to maintain a modicum of security for those innocent people living there. They take great risk trying to make it so that they can enjoy a somewhat peaceful existence like those out in suburbia.
It is their presence in those neighborhoods that shout out much louder than any mob or group that black lives matter. It’s about time that those people who are being protected by them understand that. It is time that they start realizing it and they gather and march to show that they understand the truth that: “police officer lives matter”
Wa-llahi! The acronym is unduly ponderous. Just call it, “The Institute.”
Wallahi! In-sha-Allah, there shall be a blog called, “The International Institute for The Investigation of Anarcho-Capitalist Illegalism.” I’m utterly certain no one has yet cornered that domain.
Correction: Should read, rot in prison. There’s also an extra comma after “causes.”
As Marcuse has pointed out, black culture brings the dialectic straight to the “man.” No holds barred. The “over culture” must explain itself to history.
The issue of “over policing” in minority neighborhoods is worth talking about.
Hank:
No argument, but, how can recruiters get to kids before the gangs? If you get one out of ten, what happens to the other nine? And, of the discards, which one will advance to shot-caller in the hood? Which ones will rot prison? Complex socio-economic, causes have fashioned the garrison mentality in minority neighborhoods, they defy simple explanation. I look forward to discussing them in depth.
Hi Declan: Your problem seems to be leaden sarcasm. You need to work on that.
I see from your other comments you have trouble with subtlety Dan…come right out and say it…officer Wilson murdered an innocent unarmed youth, right?
Actually, lots of excuses are being made for trigger – happy officer Wilson, no?
Are we voting here? I agree with Hank. What happened in Ferguson had to do with a criminal attempting to assault a police officer shortly after assaulting a store owner. We have to stop making excuses for criminal behavior based on class/disadvantage/race. If we continue to make it easy for people to fail, they will continue to fail.
It’s not about Michael Brown. It’s about a racist, and, corrupt, system that victimizes the poor of all races. Look at the maze of petty regulations that were enforced to fill the coffers of local governments in the St’Louis area. Institutionalized racism keeps Dixie jails, and, prisons, full. In the face of “full-court press” racism on the the part of the cops, it is not surprising that violence erupts with increasing regularity.
Khalid,
All persons are responsible for themselves. To claim racism is to make excuses for ones failure. When I served as an officer in the USMC some of the very best men I ever served with were black NCO’s. They were aghast at the actions of others in the black community. These kids need to pull up there pants, stay in school, stop smoking/selling weed, and get a job. I don’t buy this crap that there are no jobs. If someone is willing to show up and work there are people that will hire them. They might have to do dirty jobs that they don’t want to do, but there lives will be much more fulfilling that spending there lives in prison for crimes that they committed. The vast majority of incarcerated people ARE guilty. Also almost invariably they failed to take advantage of opportunities that were available to them and made a choice to try to take what they viewed as an easier cooler way. There a countless examples of black men who made it through hard work and selfless dedication. Many are military officers/NCO’s and police officers. They make huge sacrifices to protect our citizens even the ones who are criminals.
I agree with Khalid. Class and race are very important factors in figuring out what happened at Ferguson.
I think Angelo West got what he deserved. But I don’t think Boston would have “exploded.” The Boston-Ferguson comparison is way off. Let’s suppose West did miss. He’s still a 41-year-old career criminal who opened fire without warning on Boston police officers. In Ferguson, Michael Brown was 18 and unarmed. He tried to grab Darren Wilson’s gun. There’s a struggle. Wilson shoots him and, after exiting his patrol car, Wilson empties his service revolver into Brown.
And if I read the Globe correctly, some of the same people you’re complaining about offered prayers for the wounded Boston officer, no?
There’s also a video that clearly confirms the police version of events. But if I’m reading your post correctly, this would have been ignored as well, right?
Dan,
Michael Brown was attempting to arm himself with Officer Wilson service weapon (which was a Semi-automatic pistol, not a revolver). If you can’t see threat that the officer perceived you are either intellectually dishonest or perhaps have never been in a situation where someone was trying to kill you and are simply quite naive. MANY officers have lost there lives when felons succeeded in disarming them. Mr. Brown had minutes before committed a felony. He caused his own demise. Please try to live free and safe. Hank
Hank: Officer Wilson fired 12 shots. Who’s being intellectually dishonest?
Police officers are taught to shot center mass until the threat is neutralized. That is what he did and that is why the grand jury did not indict him.
The grand jury didn’t indict Wilson because the prosecutor in the case didn’t want an indictment. I don’t understand the point of your “center mass” remark, which would suggest to me that he should have needed fewer than 12 shots.
So many people seem to forget the basic tenets of good citizenship are honesty and integrity. One also needs to be intellectually honest with oneself. It is also very important to not rush to judgement and great care not to be influenced by false narratives. If these very basic concepts had been followed we would never have had a the chaos related to Furguson. We can not stand idly by and watch the Rule of Law disintegrate. Those who fail to do so, do it at their own peril and the peril of others. Darren Wilson was a young police officer simply trying to protect himself. John Moynihan is a courageous office doing his best to protect society. Angelo West and Michael Brown are criminals who were responsible for their own demise. All it took me was a smidgen of intellectual honesty to come to these realizations.
In the United States there are on average three people per day killed by police. All races.
The total number of deaths by police for 2014 was 1,089
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/another-much-higher-count-of-police-homicides/
People in Ferguson went nuts about the system. Michael Brown was just the excuse.
Have you read, recently, of the “off the books” interrogation center run by Chicago PD, former long-time employers of Jon “phone call” Burges? Things must be different out East.
I also apologize for my lengthy rant in an earlier post. Something about our Middle East wars makes my blood boil.
Dave:
It does the same to me. It’s not our fight.
Matt,
Alot of that grand jury testimony regarding the Ferguson case was very strange. Multiple witnesses with varying stories as to what happened. I believe they even found out that one of the grand jury witnesses deliberately inserted herself in the case by lying that she was in fact even near the scene. I haven’t read every detail of that case, but is it truly incontrovertible that the officer was being attacked by Michael Brown?
Especially considering the DOJs report regarding the rampant racism in that Dept. It seemed like Ferguson Missouri was kind of doing a Caswell Motel situation on the macro level, trying to turn profits at the expense of its citizens. Not trying to be a contrarian, I know I sometimes seem like it, but can you point to clear, incontravertible grand jury testimony regarding the Brown killing? I remember seeing an article pointing the # of witnesses with varying stories and different versions of who was the aggressor. I know you are on the level and not blindly pro law enforcement, so what’s your take on that issue in the case?
Dave:
I think the Department of Justice reviewed all the grand jury minutes and other evidence. It was clearly looking for something to allow it to go forward with its prosecution. It found nothing. That gives credence to the story that Michael Brown was the aggressor. I think its report also made clear that the evidence ruled out that he had his hands up.
Don’t mind being a contrarian – after all we’re on a trek toward the truth and if I’m wrong I want to be called on it. It was clear that Ferguson was running its town off the arrests of the poor people which a lot of town do. Actually, Massachusetts does the same thing because you have to pay a fee if you are put on probation and lots of people get assessed “court costs” that don’t go to the towns but to the state even if their case is dismissed. And, usually it is the people who are down and out who are crowded into our courts so we too oppress those most vulnerable.
Here’s something on the aggressor in Brown’s case: “as the left-wing New York Times found out, Brown’s blood was on the gun, as well as on the interior door panel and on Officer Wilson’s uniform.” Read more: http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/breaking-new-forensic-evidence-game-changer-mike-brown-officer-darren-wilson-case/#ixzz3W07tXflT Here’s another: “Experts told the newspaper that Brown was first shot at close range and may have been reaching for Wilson’s weapon while the officer was still in his vehicle and Brown was standing at the driver’s side window. The autopsy found material “consistent with products that are discharged from the barrel of a firearm” in a wound on Brown’s thumb, the autopsy says.
Judy Melinek, a forensic pathologist in San Francisco who reviewed the report for the Post-Dispatch, said it “supports the fact that this guy is reaching for the gun, if he has gunpowder particulate material in the wound.”