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I recently spent some time with an LAPD officer, who went over a variety of potentially lethal situations he and his fellows face while on the job, trying to protect and serve. He was surprisingly convincing, had me on the edge of my seat, and I was close to renouncing some of my religious views—the main one with relevance being the Sixth Commandment of the Jewish Torah:
Thou shalt not kill.
The officer was convincing with the set of conditions in front of him, as a lethally trained cop, but… After a few days to meditate, I recalled the big picture. Stolen Native American land… Guns and more guns rationalized by bibles, then the forced industrialization and development of this once thriving wilderness turn New Europe.
In the insanity civilization has created, the normalization of fast cars, planes, and even the loud war machine helicopters above us claiming law enforcement: one could argue that indeed some people need killing. An insane notion made almost palatable on the concrete and asphalt of this city: law officers speeding around in fancy cars burning earth, flying around over our homes burning more earth—
Showing up mid-conflict… someone draws a knife, or a gun, or a machete… and now? The police officer called in with few facts and limited knowledge of a crime scene shows up to make a life or death decision with his or her lethal firearm. They trained to kill, trained to shoot for the largest mass on the human body—the torso, the chest, the heart… to kill.
And given all of that, all that touring around in fire-burning vehicles across this once natural area turned polluted metropolis: they are out of touch. Their boots are not on the ground. They don’t know the suspect nor the suspect’s family. They often know only a little about the community they enforce, and what they do know they know driving at high speeds or worse yet, flying loud metal choppers from above us.
Lethal force in policing is always wrong, I still assert. Even after an LAPD officer’s impassioned plea to me and set of scenario explanations… Why? Because the concept of “America,” land theft and the forced industrialization of this land has created the insane situations they experience that only seem to justify the taking of human life on the job.
I reject lethal force. I reject lethal force training. But well before that, I reject “Los Angeles,” the “United States of America” and any other concepts deriving from a racist, criminal theft of land some like to call a romantic conquest so they can keep benefitting from sin. Putting down our guns may not be the first step toward proper amends, but it is one.
It’s time to question the founding of this New Europe on stolen Native American land, where gun use is too often justified in the loud, polluted insanity industrialization has created here.
Bill Watkins, Traveling Poet 