RAYSHARD BROOKS KILLED BY POLICE IN ATLANTA, DID EVERYTHING WRONG.

ICHEOKU says unfortunately he has now become a statistic in the number of black people killed by the police in the United States of America, but he somewhat actively courted his cruel fate. Unlike George Floyd who did nothing to instigate his death, the reason his killing resonated throughout the world, Rayshard Brooks precipitated his own demise. But his actions should not in anyway excuse the police use of excessive lethal force. He should not have been killed regardless, but he is now dead and all anyone can do now is to engage in the proverbial Monday Night Quarterbacking, but hindsight is always too late. 

Rayshard Brooks went against the grain of every teachings which black people are given, mostly by their parents, on how to ensure that they stay alive each time they have an encounter with the police. He ignored them and it cost him dearly. He did exactly the opposite of the things he should not have done and it ended tragically in the loss of his life, the same thing which the teachings were meant to avoid. Black people are taught to be respectful to the police, to listen to their commands as attentively as they give them,  obey the the police, not to resist police arrest, not to fight with the police, not to go for police weapons and not run from the police. They are asked to see their behavior as the only thing that will determine whether they live or die each time the police makes contact with them. 

But Rayshard Brooks, either because he was disorientated or under the influence, forgot the guide of staying alive and with it threw away his life. He was disrespectful to the police, he did not listen to their command, he did not obey the police, he resisted arrest, he fought with the police, he took their weapon and he ran from the police. To make matters worse, he pointed the very weapon which he took from them at them and he discharged it. It does not matter that the weapon was a taser gun and could not have killed the police as his deductible intention was to disable and incapacitate the pursuing officer in order to enable him get away from their pursuit. Yes indeed, had the taser struck the policeman, it would have incapacitated him momentarily and Brooks would have escaped. Rayshard Brooks would have still fired the weapon were it a real gun as firing of the taser supplied such intent and his preoccupation was to avoid capture. 

Further, Rayshard Brooks was driving drunk and/or operating a vehicle under the influence and the fact that he was at a stop when the confrontation began does not negate this fact. The operative test is whether the vehicle was under his control while inebriated wit intention to move it from one place to another. The answer is yes because a drive through at a Wendy's restaurant is not his garage nor driveway or any other parking lot or spot.  Therefore he was actively engaged in the driving and operation of a motor vehicle while drunk or under the influence of some habituates or other intoxicants which incommoded his safe operation of the vehicle. It is a criminal behavior and a vehicle is a deadly weapon for purposes of grounding liability, although one of his lawyers appears not to know this consequential fact when he disputed on CNN that his client's dead father had no deadly weapon. 

So, in addition to driving or operating a vehicle under the influence, Rayshard Brooks also resisted arrest, fought with the police, stole police weapon, ran from the police and then discharged the weapon at the police in hot pursuit. As a black man in America, he would be alive today if only he had listened to all the teachings on what to do when in contact with the police. But he did all the things which he should not do, any of which would have still been sufficient for the police to shoot him as they often do to black people. He triggered the police and contributed to his being shot because he should have known better and behaved as if his life depended on it. It is unfortunate that another black person has to die in the hands of the police for no rational reason at all; admitted the victim facilitated it through bad behavior. 

But that be that as it may, it is a shame that two policemen could not hold just one black man down on the ground and long enough to subdue and handcuff him. It is also pitiful that one of the policeman was so careless to allow his taser gun to be taken by the now deceased Rayshard Brooks. Also, the policeman should not have discharged his gun three times at a fleeing Rayshard Brooks, but should have remained in pursuit while help arrived to help apprehend the fleeing suspect. He acted recklessly and was too quick to discharge his gun at the back of a fleeing suspect, aware that the suspect is fatigued and will not run very far before being caught. As a trained police officer, he also knows the limited lethality of a taser gun and that his life was not overly in danger, so he cannot say that he was afraid for his life and fired in self defense. 

ICHEOKU says although it is quite obvious that Rayshard Brooks fired the taser at the policeman because he wanted to incapacitate the officer in order to facilitate his escape from the hot pursuit. But what is within the knowledge of the officer that taser has a very limited impact, is what is paramount here; so he should not have used bullets to counter a man who was firing taser at him. He was too quick to pull his gun and it has now cost him his job and possibly soon his freedom when convicted. It has also cost the Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields her job, who was forced to resign as a result. It also cost Wendy's a store which was burnt down by angry black people who were mad that another black person was killed by the police at a Wendy's lot, although ICHEOKU is still wondering what Wendy's culpability in the shooting was all about? 

ICHEOKU says does not think the police chief should have resigned, afterall the police chief in Minneapolis is still on his job despite all the killings by the police, including George Floyd, in that Minnesota State city. Also, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was too quick in firing the officer and would have ordered his suspension from active duty pending further investigation. But the urgency she displayed is understandable as she wanted to placate a restive Atlanta majority black crowd who would have destroyed more things in a riot demanding for action. It was the delay by Minneapolis authorities over the George Floyd's murder that actually triggered the protests and riots that followed, after the people waited endlessly for the arrest of the involved policemen without any movement by the authorities. This was what the Atlanta Mayor sought to avoid and she succeeded. 

Anyway, the main problem with policing in America is that ex military people do a job which civilians should be doing. Most of the people usually hired as policemen and women are former battle tested soldiers who are trained to kill. Soldiers are trained to kill but not to amicably resolve disputes and conflicts. They only know how to escalate but not deescalate situations, hence their killer instinct usually goes into overdrive whenever they are faced with situations. Many of them do not know about conflict resolution or how to patiently lower down the charged tense atmosphere. Their training equip them to neutralize the subject as quickly as possible and such a habit is hard to get rid of. It is all in their reflexes and the short police academy training is not sufficient to override the killer instinct in them, which they learnt at various military forts and which they used for most of their life before rejoining civilian life. 

So as the nation continues to explore ways of reforming the police, they should seriously consider hiring only civilians as police to do the civilian job of policing. If they must hire ex military, to ensure that they are trained sufficiently well to inculcate in them the right, proper and correct way of defusing tensions, instead of just shooting the trouble away by quickly neutralizing the subject. 

Hopefully other black people in America will learn a bitter lesson from his death and recommit themselves today to be more proactive in protecting their lives whenever the police make contact with them. By listening to the police as commanded, not fighting the police, obeying their instructions, not seizing police weapons, not resisting arrest and not running from the police, they will live until the next episode. Even if they did nothing wrong, they should learn to just suck it up and can always sue the city later for a wrongful police arrest and detention. First things first, black people must learn to stay alive in any police encounter as a dead person has no more rights whatsoever. Please black people, reassure yourselves that you will not let the police kill you by memorizing the rules of engagement and recite them each time the police confronts you and immediately put them into use. May the soul of Rayshard Brooks now rest.