justice?

Let me start by saying that I feel for former police officer Ian Birk, I really do. He is now persona non grata #1in Seattle (with the possible exceptions of the prosecutor, the sheriff and the mayor) and likely will never work as a police officer in Washington State again - and possibly not in the rest of the country. And it has been a hideous couple of years for police officers in the Pacific Northwest. At least 5 have been killed execution style when not in an active incident, and several others killed in the line of duty. I am sure that there is a very heightened sense of danger. I would never want to be a police office and I commend those who are. The literally place their lives at risk every day.

Ian Birk is the officer who shot a Native American wood carver (I have heard that it is disrespectful to use the name of a person after he is deceased in this person's culture, so I am not using his name). The wood carver had a knife - as a wood carver it is rather an essential tool - and Birk stopped when he thought the wood carver's behavior was somewhat suspicious. Within 4 seconds (that is right - seconds) of warning the wood carver to drop the knife, Birk shot the man 4 times, killing him. Later it was discovered that the wood carver was very hard of hearing. Why were the shots to kill instead of disable?

Yesterday the King County prosecutors office announced, after a lengthy inquest, that charges would not be filed against Birk. In announcing the decision, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg cited the portion of the Washington State law that states that the officer is justified if he is acting without malice and in good faith and believing that his life - or others lives - are in danger. Since malice is very difficult to prove, the prosecutor's office will not be making charges against Birk. The Seattle Police Department issued a scathing report declaring that Birk did not follow procedure and that the shooting was not justified. Birk resigned before being fired.

Was there malice? I would contend that there was not intentional malice, but that there is an underlying insidious malice that pervades the entire event. In the past year, there have been three highly publicized events in which police officers used what appeared to be excessive force - the incident described above, one in which an officer punched a girl after stopping several people for jay walking, and one in which a police officer kicked and stomped on a person, later determined to be completely innocent of anything other that being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In all three of these instances, the police officers were white males and the others were people of color - an African-American woman, a Hispanic man and the Native American wood carver. In all 3 cases the police officers have been cleared - the first 2 by the police department and the 3rd by the prosecutor's office.

The malice comes from the underlying racism inherent in the system. I have to question if any of those events would have happened to me - a white male. I highly doubt it. The Seattle Police Department claims to have good diversity training and that they are not racist. Sorry. We are all racist. It is important to recognize our racism and the resulting behaviors. This is especially difficult for the dominant culture by which everyone else and their behaviors are judged. We have a very limited perception of of our privilege. (My friend Diane has done a great deal of study on this and her blog whitematters.wordpress.com is an essential read.) We have become so used to seeing inebriated Native Americans on our city's streets, that we fail to even notice any more. And we do not even begin to examine the long history of oppression that has robbed the Native peoples of their land, language and culture and has created the reservation system that is rife with poverty and lack of opportunity.

We must examine our privilege, our racism and the myriad of ways they play out in our country. Two lives were ruined that day. Ian Birk still has the chance to change his. The talented and troubled wood carver does not - and maybe never did.