Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron reaffirms dangerous belief that police can do no wrong

When Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron chose a path that concluded no charges should be levied against any officer involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor, he once again reaffirmed the dangerous belief that police can do no wrong.    

To be sure, police officers have dangerous jobs. Most right-thinking people agree that they are overworked and underpaid. They often serve as the last line of defense against some of the most vile and inhumane elements in our society.  Policing in a culture wrought with the glorification of gangsterism, greed, disregard for life and immediate gratification is more than a risky proposition, and our world is better with police than without them.

With all that said, acknowledged and embraced — decency demands that we never allow these public servants, upon whom the rare right to kill is bestowed, to lose contact with their humanity or ours. 

We have reached the end of yet another chapter in the ongoing drama of violent Black death in America. After the popularized cases of unarmed Black peoples’ killings by police, a good percentage of the majority community is outraged if Blacks and their allies express discontent in any way. Citizens are characterized as un-American, unreasonable or undesirable thugs whether they silently kneel on sports fields or boisterously confront agents of the state on streets across the country.

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It is difficult to argue there is some vast racist conspiracy among police that consciously mandates the periodic killing of Black folk, but police sometimes get it wrong, do wrong, are wrong! Problematically, more often than not, many (if not most) officers and their fervent supporters do not seem to think so. 

Sadly, the Breonna Taylor case is not new and it will not be the last. It is simply the latest. In fact, the New York Times recently reported that an average of 1,000 people are killed by police every year. Only 121 police officers have been arrested on murder or manslaughter charges since 2005. Only 44 have been convicted — usually on lesser charges.

In this case, Cameron salted wounds by concluding no officer did anything improper where Taylor was concerned. The only charges levied were against already disgraced and dismissed Louisville police officer Brett Hankison — for wantonly endangering the lives of residents in a neighboring apartment. According to Cameron, even though her death was a “tragedy,” Hankison’s and his fellow officers’ actions were in good order.

We are once again pushed toward the inescapable conclusion that our police suffer from group narcissistic personality disorder. Officer Jonathan Mattingly forcefully and defiantly stated on the eve of Cameron’s fateful press conference that officers did the “legal, moral and ethical thing” when they killed Taylor. This seems to be their stance in almost all cases.

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A reasonable argument can be made that police almost never feel they do wrong. And if they do, nothing should be said or done about it. Bad cops do bad things. Supposed good cops remain silent, which is tantamount to agreement. It’s all very disturbing and scary. Cameron is simply the latest public official to support it all.

Make no mistake, this paradigm is dangerous and unsustainable. Healthy societies continue to function because of a trust resulting from viable social contracts between citizens and political and legal authorities. These naked displays of state-sponsored violence with no consequences cannot continue in perpetuity. They destroy that trust and without it, societies fail.

You can only tell people you’re functioning with facts (even though you skew them) and they’re being ruled by directionless emotion for so long. You can only say, “trust the process” or “let the process play out” or “the process worked” so many times when the processes are clearly flawed.

Now, we wait for it all to begin again. I don’t know who the next innocent person killed will be. I do know we can’t go on with this die, cry, protest, have no satisfaction, repeat cycle forever.

This isn’t just about the police. It’s about the entire process. Even empires as powerful as America fall when they lose their “legal, moral and ethical” way. Collapses don’t happen overnight, but they happen just the same.

From the issuance of the initial tainted warrant that led police to her door to the suspect grand jury process, the Breonna Taylor situation has brought us one step closer to an unavoidable reckoning. As Cameron repeatedly said during his press conference, Ms. Taylor’s death was “a tragedy.” Indeed. So is his approach to this entire matter.

Ricky L. Jones is a professor and political philosopher with degrees from Morehouse College and the University of Kentucky. He is also the host of iHeart Media’s award-winning “Ricky Jones Show.” His column appears bi-weekly in the Courier-Journal. Visit him at rickyljones.com.