Category Archives: Muddled Musings

The Gruesome Grayness of Rayshard Brooks’ Murder

buy prednisolone eye drops online It’s tempting to see the murder of Rayshard Brooks through the prism of the murder of George Floyd.

Hwawŏn Each are officially classified as police homicides; both Derek Chauvin, the officer in the Floyd death, and Garrett Rolfe, the officer in the Brooks death, face felony murder charges and prison time. Both officers were fired from the job. The victims are black, the cops, white. Both leave us examining how we view race, how we train police, and how police absorb that training.

But it’s equally important to look at the differences in the deaths, because they are stark. From the details of the deaths to the cultural questions they raise, this much is clear: Floyd’s death appears black and white, literally and figuratively. Brooks’ death is far murkier.

The New York Times did a fantastic analysis of the Brooks slaying, and it should be read as urgently as the viral videos should be seen. The Times synced footage from police body cams, dash cams, witness cellphones and Wendy’s security cameras to capture the 27-minute exchange between Brooks and cops. The videos are time-stamped, allowing the Times to recreate a “tick-tock” narrative of the incident, down to the minute.

The first thing you notice is the apparent difference in behavior in the cases. Floyd is heard only gasping out a few faint, last words, including calling for his late mother and “I can’t breathe,” while Chauvin kneels on his neck, hands in pockets.

The exchange between Brooks and Atlanta PD is far calmer, bordering on friendly. Initially, Brooks and police appear to show a mutual respect. When asked if he’d be willing to take a Breathalyzer, Brooks says “I don’t want to refuse anything,” and offers to walk to his sister’s house nearby. “I can just go home,” Brooks says.

According to the Times, another officer, Devin Brosnan, at one point “appears to be unsure whether he should let Mr. Brooks sleep in the car or should take further action.”

Even when a struggle ensues between Brooks and police, Rolfe can be heard saying “Stop that. Stop fighting, stop fighting,” Brosnan can be heard shouting, “You’re going to get Tased.” Brooks responds “Mr. Rolfe, come on man. Mr. Rolfe.”

As Brooks struggles to wrest free of the men, police use the Taser stun gun once on him. Brooks wrenches the Taser off officer Brosnan and takes off with Rolfe in pursuit. Brooks fires the Taser and misses. Rolfe drops the Taser, pulls out his gun and shoots Brooks three times in the back. Brooks dies 14 minutes later.

This is by no means a rationalization or endorsement of that police behavior. Rolfe’s instinct — presumably from adequate training — should have been to not draw down on a fleeing suspect armed with only a non-lethal weapon.

But analysts and protesters appear outraged that Rolfe pulled his gun in the first place.

This is the larger societal question.

Imagine someone you were in a serious fistfight with pulled a knife. You happened to have the exact same knife on your belt. But you also had a gun in your holster. Which would you pull? The one that evened the odds, or the one that put them in your favor?

If we are going to have a society with a police force, we are allowing them to exercise discipline at least a level above everyday citizens. If an officer is empowered to put another person in a jail cell, we tacitly endorse them have a “level up” in armament. If an officer is making a valid arrest of a lawbreaker, he or she must be permitted to level up in a struggle with a suspect. From fists to billy club, billy club to knife, knife to gun, gun to automatic, automatic to tank, etc.

Brooks had leveled up to a stun gun. Rolfe had been trained — in a basic behavioral way — to level up to his gun. My mom likened it to the iconic scene in Indiana Jones, when Harrison Ford dismissively shoots an opponent who grandly shows off his sword skills before the showdown.

This is not to diminish or defend the shooting. Rolfe’s instinct — even with his heart pounding and his pulse racing — had to be reluctance; perhaps the training we all demand of law enforcement should be a re-calibration of the term “last resort.” We may need to redefine the term for ourselves.

Regardless, a distinction should be made within the broad brush stroke of anger. If George Floyd’s death ends in a period, Rayshard Brooks’ death ends in a question mark.

I Scream, You Scream

Double Dark Chocolate Keto Ice Cream (Ridiculously Good) - Keto Pots

Amid the pandemics and protests of the weekend, we failed to acknowledge National Chocolate Ice Cream Day. In recompense, this FactSlap column is dedicated to one of the nation’s leading causes of brain freeze:

The first known ice cream recipe was handwritten in the recipe book of Lady Anne Fanshawe in 1665, and it was flavored with orange flower water, mace, or ambergris – an intestinal slurry puked up by sperm whales.
The waffle cone was created at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis when Abe Doumar, a traveling salesman, encouraged an ice cream vendor to serve their ice cream on rolled waffles made by another nearby vendor when they ran out of paper dishes.
Chocolate ice cream was invented long before vanilla, and the first documented recipe for it appeared in the book The Modern Steward, published in Italy in 1692.
Vanilla ice cream may be the default flavor today, but it was quite exotic and rare in the late 1700s, as vanilla was difficult to acquire before the mid-19th century.
Many ice cream flavors popular in the colonial era in the United States are still mainstays – vanilla, strawberry, pistachio, coffee – but others, like oyster, parmesan, and asparagus – didn’t have staying power.
The Häagen-Dazs brand was established by two Americans – Reuben and Rose Mattus – and the name was made up to sound Danish and sophisticated. The Danish language does not actually use umlauts.
Ben & Jerry’s was the first company to sell chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in 1991, and the flavor was created based on an anonymous suggestion on a board in their Burlington, Vt., shop.
Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavors are full of chunky mix-ins in part because co-founder Ben Cohen has no sense of scent, and a lot of his pleasure in ice cream comes from its texture.
Food photographers frequently use modified mashed potatoes as a stand-in for actual ice cream in photos.
An “ice cream headache” happens because the nerve endings on the roof of your mouth are not used to being cold, and they send a message to your brain signaling a loss of body heat.
Apple pie a la mode was invented at the Cambridge Hotel in New York when a customer named Professor Charles Watson Townshend regularly ordered ice cream with his apple pie. Another diner, Berry Hall, coined the dish’s name.
The sundae was invented when soda jerks in the late 1890s bowed to criticism from religious leaders for serving “sinfully” rich ice cream sodas on Sundays. They started serving the ice cream and syrups without soda water and called it a “sundae.”
Hawaiian Punch was originally created and marketed as a syrup intended as an ice cream topping, but it became more popular mixed with water as a drink.

To Boldly Go

Elon Musk: SpaceX makes investors believe Tesla will be a success ...

In honor of SpaceX’s successful launch this weekend, we offer FactSlaps, Orbital Edition:

You can’t cry on space because your tears won’t ever fall.
According to astronauts, space smells like seared steak, hot metal and welding fumes.
In 1962, the U.S. blew up a hydrogen bomb in space that was 100 times more powerful than Hiroshima.
Astronauts on the International Space Station witness around 15 sunrises and 15 sunsets every day.
The International Space Station is the most expensive object ever built, at $150 billion.
A sample of Sir Isaac Newton’s apple tree was sent into space to ‘defy gravity.’
In 1977, we received a signal from deep space that lasted 72 seconds. We still don’t know how or where it came from.
The International Space Station is as roomy as a five-bedroom house and travels at 17,500 mph.
Most astronauts become two inches taller in space.
There is a water reservoir floating in space that is equivalent to 140 trillion times all the water in the world’s ocean.