Police officers should be held to high standards and punished where they fall short. But theirs is an immensely stressful, challenging, and emotionally draining job. And police officers do far more than most other Americans to keep their fellow citizens safe. They are far more important to the protection of black lives, for example, than the Black Lives Matter group.
But the difficulty of policing and the professionalism of many police officers is newly evidenced this week by the release of video showing a Feb. 10 police shooting in Greenville, S.C. Tragically, that shooting took the life of one Willie Robinson.
The incident transpired when an apparently disturbed Robinson called police to complain that he had been poisoned. When officers responded, they heard a gunshot from inside the residence where Robinson was located. Later, officers found that Robinson had shot a woman in that residence. She survived.
But after officers took cover outside, Robinson emerged from the residence and confronted them. Wielding a handgun and firing shots into the air, Robinson screamed at officers to “kill” him. What followed was a desperate effort to persuade Robinson to surrender his gun. He did not. Instead, Robinson eventually turned and pointed his weapon toward the officers, who shot and killed him.
While this is obviously a tragedy, video of the incident makes clear something we too often take for granted or ignore. Namely, the choice of officers to avoid the use of lethal force until it became absolutely necessary. They did what they could to save Robinson, but in the end, they had to use force. This is hard and morally draining work. We should be grateful for those who choose, as here, to do it every day and do it well.
The footage is graphic and may be upsetting, but you can watch the incident below.
