Texas police runover suspect
Written by Michael Vass
So did you see the news earlier today? Down in Houston, Texas there was a car chase, which lasted some 45 minutes. Local police and county officers were all involved in the chase – which at times was well over the speed limit when on the interstate, and almost obeying the law in community areas. But in the end the driver hit a car and jumped out to run away.
It was at that moment on live television that the man was hit by a county police car. Let me correct that, he was run over. The man flipped over, his head smashing into the windsheild and a shoe flying some 30 feet into the air from the impact.
The police then swarmed on top of the criminal. The man was then stood up and walked away – obviously dazed at the least. No ambulance was called, nor any first aid done.
When I described this to a friend of mine at 6pm, The conversation went like this:
“Was the guy Black or White? Why did they move him?”
I responded with “What do yuou think. And they had to move him, there were cameras all over the place. They just ran him over and had to show that he was ok. You know one of them had to know that there were news cameras above them.”
And my friend then went on to say
“Well you know that the on-board camera won’t be working. They’ll come up with a piece of paper that says the think was broken a week ago. ‘Why does it look like a billyclub smashed it?’ Dunno but the CD player doesn’t work either’”
“Yeah, and the dog pissed on the camera. Yeah that’s the ticket.”
“No it was the fuse that burned out. The officer was trying to put out the flames from the fuses with his foot, which is why he ran the guy over.”
Now all levity aside, one thing seems obvious to me. The man, who was Black, was visible to me watching the television that had the feed from a helicopter above and partially obscurred by overhanging trees. The county police officer that ran the guy down at around 30 miles per hour had a full unobstructed view. He hit the guy on purpose.
I may not be familiar with police procedures in Houston, but I imagine that running over suspects is not in the manual. I also doubt that failing to provide medical aide for someone they have run over is also outside the books.
Is this going to be a lawsuit? Oh yeah. This guy will gop to jail, he is a criminal after all, but he’s going to get paid for his time. And deservedly so. There were about a half dozen or more officers a couple of seconds behind this guy, with a police helicopter among others above him. He wasn’t going anywhere. And a 1 ½ ton vehicle at 30 miles an hour is excessive in virtually any circumstance.
But the question I want to pose to you is this. When you were reading this post, at what point were you sure the man was Black – before I mentioned it. Was it because of the crime, or the punishment?
If it was the crime, why did you assume he had to be Black? And if it was the punishment why would such excessive force make you sure? Doesn’t that mean that the police are racially biased, and therefore the legal system in America is screwed up? And if that is true as well, why aren’t we fixing it?
