Last week in some God-forsaken armpit of the US, a police officer shot and killed a woman who had called the police. She reported hearing what sounded like a rape taking place near her house. I have seen absolutely nothing regarding the prosecution of that complaint. Justine Damond, the caller, was not a suspect or anything, and we're hearing about how wonderful she was and all that, and neither cop in the car had activated their bodycam, and the shooter, sitting in the passenger seat, reached across his partner, the driver, to shoot the woman outside the car.

-- The dead woman had it coming to a certain degree. The Golden Rule of human interaction and decency is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The whole reason for this encounter was SHE called the police, not out of any fear for or danger to her own person or property, but because of a noise she claimed to have heard. Since no one is calling for tolerance for Miss Damond's group identity (and there isn't a lot of history of intolerance of, or bigotry toward, Australians, or middle class white women or dipshit fake doctors, it's pretty safe to assume it wasn't prejudice on the part of the cop), it seems to be a consensus that it was simply some fault of said cop, whether poor training, a bad temperament, a psychotic break, a propensity for violence, or a general nervousness & trigger-happy attitude at that particular time. But why was this dangerous individual in the area? Why, because Damond CALLED HIM THERE! He would not have been anywhere near her, had she not called the police to rat someone out! What happened to her, could have happened to someone else, as a direct result of her actions! The fate Justine Damond suffered was basically what she unwittingly attempted to bring on another person.

If this isn't karma or poetic justice, I don't know what is.

-- Of course, you have the usual array of ninnies yammering about how she did not deserve to die, and how she was a yoga teacher or whatever nonsense she tricked people into paying her for (not a criticism - suckers don't deserve money)...but these are a lot of the same people who would have said that Michael Brown didn't deserve to die for shoplifting and that Eric Garner didn't deserve to die for selling loosies, and that their criminal backgrounds were irrelevant to the justification for their shootings...as is the case with Damond. Good or bad, this stuff doesn't matter. What WAS relevant in all of the shootings, is their behavior at the time, and whether or not they presented a threat in the eyes of the cops. Eric Garner, for instance, in close contact with cops, and no guns out or requests to put his hands up, raised his arms over his head, when a cop attempted to put cuffs on him. He was grabbed by another cop who was behind him, and could only see Garner lifting up his arms, with no need. It could have been the wind-up for a blow against the guy he was facing, hence the takedown.

Now, what did the cops see when Damond was shot? Some woman running up to their car with something in her hand, maybe even shouting to them. Why? Did she think the cops, who drove to her address when she requested, were not going to go the few yards to her front door? IIRC, this was in the evening, so there are visibility issues as well. One of the things you generally need to prove a murder is motivation. What was the motivation for this one? Usually racism works in these shootings, but how could that be the case here? Fear of his safety is the only reasonable explanation, unless something more sinister comes up in the cop's background.

Furthermore, this is a country where many cops in the last couple of years have been murdered without provocation, simply for being cops. If stories of people like themselves being victimized are something we are supposed to keep in mind regarding the intemperate behavior of black people in contact with cops, we have to do the same for cops, who have seen officers getting murdered at random. The motivations of the killers of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and the rest are at least points of contention. There is no argument about the motivation of the BLM murders. Black people hear nebulous stories to make themselves think they are wearing a target "just by being black", which turn into self-fulfilling prophecies, but cops have explicit examples. No one ever tries to claim that cops in Detroit gun down a black kid because of something that happened in NY or LA, but people on opposite ends of the country freely admit to murdering cops because they heard about something in another city.

At least Damond is white, so we won't have black people tearing up their neighborhoods or hunting cops to avenge her, regardless of how the facts in this case turn out.

-- All other things aside, this, more than any similar incident I've read about, is clearly a screw-up on the part of the cops. There was no call to be shooting past his partner, even if there was a threat. If he felt the need to shoot, he should have been unassing from his own side of the car, both for his own safety and to facilitate the shot. Let's be frank, cops are mostly a bunch of whiny unionized leeches. These young cops who do the shootings, tend to be guys who REALLY CARE, because that's the sort of person who jumps right to extreme actions. You don't see overzealous reactions from guys with ten or fifteen years on the job, who are sick of having to drive to the homes of middle-aged yoga ladies with hyperactive imaginations and by now just want to keep collecting their checks and collect their pensions safely, while secretly hoping for a minor injury at their maximum rank to enable them to retire early with an additional 1% of their salary. People like that, in general, look to avoid trouble situations right from the get-go, rather than trying to "win" the scenario, which is probably what was going on with this cop.

Of course, the avoiding trouble priority can lead to situations where they are less interested in separating the sheep from the goats, and shoot quick to save their own hides, but they also know what a pain in the ass that will be for them, far better than any member of the general public who only knows nonsense from Hollywood. Last April there was an incident in my hometown where a cop was lauded for saving a suicidal man from jumping off an overpass. The dash camera shows him pulling up on the overpass where an obviously disturbed or confused individual is out of his car. At the approach of the officer, the man moves to the edge of the overpass, at which point you hear the cop shout "Don't you fucking do it!" and run to tackle the guy. He became a minor hero and widely praised and celebrated in the area, and the spread of the video on social media netted him congratulations from even people in other countries. I know the cop. He's an asshole. When he was passed over for chief (because he lacked the statutorily necessary time on the job), I heard him telling another cops while they were eating that since he was going to be a sergeant for the rest of his career, the town wasn't going to get more than one ticket a month out of him. He can often be seen on duty in a car parked on a vacant lot, pretending to be watching the traffic on the street, but actually on his phone, and only responding to calls he absolutely has to take. He's an admitted steroid user, dumped his wife for having an "emotional affair," used dirty tricks to get around the custody stuff and tried to avoid paying what he was supposed to, and then used his divorce expenses for refusing to support a renegotiation of the department's contract that would have delayed, not cancelled, his raise of $2,000 (as a sergeant, he was already making over $100,000 a year), but saved the jobs of a couple of his brothers in blue. Maybe he was thinking, when he ran towards that guy on the bridge "life is too precious to throw away in such a cavalier fashion, my brother human!" but it is just as likely he was thinking "Do you know how much WORK I will have to do if you make a street pizza on the road below us? That's the major through street in this town, and leads right to our main business district - as ranking officer, I will have all the headaches of both a major road closure AND a death investigation, plus as the cop on the scene, my conduct will be called into question." Logically, either motivation is just as likely, and given the personality of the individual in question, I am morally certain which is the reality. This shining beacon of altruism promptly began selling tee-shirts with "Don't you f@%&ing do it!" on them. Hero.

Every story has two sides, but most people don't even imagine the other side when it comes to such a tribal group like cops.

-- Both the shooter and the victim were immigrants, her from a prison colony island and him from a failed state whose primary export is piracy. WTF, Trump? Shouldn't you be getting on this shit? Why are we letting people like this in nearly six months into your administration?