Washington Post Tries to Make an Anti-Police Scandal of a Perfectly Reasonable Decision – Opinion

America’s police forces have been under the gun for the past couple of years. In some jurisdictions, like Minneapolis, it is positively dangerous (SPOILER ALERT: the cause of George Floyd’s death was mostly George Floyd and the conviction of the police officers was a grotesque travesty of justice perpetrated to appease a media-acceptable lynch mob). For ever instance of , though, you can find cases of cops raiding the wrong homes, seizing money and property for sh**s and grins, acting like neighborhood bullies and as stormtroopers for the regime by arresting people who were without face masks, breaking up funerals and gunning down unarmed protesters whose politics are not shared by the regime.

Many times, the attention paid to police inaction was accompanied with commentary about a Supreme Court case. Gonzales vs. Town of Castle RockThe Court decided that the police are not under any obligation to safeguard citizens. This decision may have helped explain the actions taken by police in two school shootings: Parkland (FL) and Uvalde (TX). The first officers to arrive on the scene were told not to intervene.

Not all cases of police “inaction,” though, are equal. The Washington Post wants controversy to arise from the drowning death of Sean Bickings, 34 years old in Tempe, AZ. The article is headlined Man drowns as Arizona police watch: ‘I’m not jumping in after you.’

Around 5 a.m., two Tempe police officers approached what looked like the aftermath of a domestic violence incident (my interpretation, not the Post’s) near Tempe’s reservoir. After receiving assurances from the victim, the officers checked for any outstanding warrants and conducted a search of the area. The scene was changed.

That’s when Bickings slowly climbed over a short fence dividing the boardwalk and the water. When one of the officers asked what Bickings was doing, Bickings replied that he was going “for a swim.”

“I’m free to go, right?” Bickings asked.

Bickings, however, waded into the lake and took a freestyle swim toward a bridge. According to footage from the body-camera, the officers told him he could not swim in it.

“How far do you think he’s going to be able to swim?” one of the officers asked, according to the footage.

Two of the officers then walked onto the bridge Bickings had swum under and watched him, according to the body-camera footage, which at that point ends “due to the sensitive nature of the remaining portion of the recording,” officials wrote at the end of the video.

Instead of providing a transcript, the city offered a transcription that showed Bickings becoming increasingly anxious as he continued to swim in the river. Bickings told the officers he was going to “drown,” according to the transcript.

“No, you’re not,” an officer, identified as Officer 2, replied.

Officer 1 then directed Bickings to “go to the pylon and hold on.”

“I’m drowning,” Bickings said.

“Come back over to the pylon,” Officer 2 said.

“I can’t,” Bickings said. “I can’t.”

“Okay, I’m not jumping in after you,” Officer 1 said.

Bickings then begged for help and said moments later, “I can’t touch. O God! Your help is needed. Help me.”

Bickings’s partner then joined the officers and begged them to help Bickings, according to the transcript. They told Bickings’s partner to get to the bridge and swim to it. After trying, she got more and more frustrated. At one point, according to the transcript, Bickings’s partner tried to jump over the railing to help Bickings but did not end up doing so.

“I’m just distraught because he’s drowning right in front of you and you won’t help,” Bickings’s partner said.

She was told by the officers to be calm and that another officer was going to get a boat.

“No, no, no. Swim,” the woman replied, using an expletive.

“You’re not helping,” Officer 2 said.

Moments later, Officer 1 said that Bickings “went underneath and hasn’t come up since about 30 seconds ago.”

The officers didn’t address Bickings for the rest of the transcript. Bickings’s partner continued to tell the officers that she loved Bickings.

“He’s everything I got,” she said. “I can’t lose him, he’s going to die.”

Officials said Bickings swam no more than 40 yards before he became distressed and “soon went under and did not resurface.”

The investigation into the incident resulted in the suspension of three officers. According to the police union, the officers weren’t properly trained or equipped to rescue people in water.

I’ve got to say, I have no issue with the actions of these two officers. Although the outcome was tragic, it is impossible that anyone of sanity would jump in the water to save an adult-sized male unless they can swim well. The evidence is incontestable that the diving of either one or both officers would have led to more bodies being recovered.

A statement was released Monday by Texas officials confirming that they have found the remains of a National Guard soldier drowned last week in Rio Grande trying to help migrants who tried to cross at the Rio Grande border. https://t.co/RxepywoRyO

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 25, 2022

Only one person is to be held responsible: the man who, after being warned not to swim in the reservoir, climbed in and ended up drowning.

It is not inconsistent to say that Parkland officers and Uvalde police officers who stood aside while children were being shot at should be fired and given a clean slate. Officers at school were taught how to handle a situation like this. They were well-trained and had all the tools necessary to handle any situation. They were more than the shooter. Although there was always risk involved in these cases, the officers were able to defeat the shooters and save lives regardless of whether one or more had been injured or killed. Tempe was an example of officers lacking the necessary training and gear. In Tempe, they were unable to rescue Bickings and would risk their lives to do so.

Cops are people; they aren’t superheroes. In fact, most aren’t even regular heroes. What Kipling said about soldiers applies equally to police officers, “We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too.” They want to go home, alive, at the end of their watch and not face life in prison for making high-stakes decisions under stress with incomplete information. When police officers, like at Parkland and Uvalde, fail–or refuse–to do what they are trained to do, they deserve public censure and more. However, when police officers refuse to accept a low-percentage, stupid risk, it is a matter of respect.