Beat His A** - What would you do

[Professor]

Washingtonpost.com

Justification or Poor Judgment?

By Jabari Asim

Monday, December 8, 2003; 2:16 PM

WASHINGTON -- Let me tell you what I'd do if a very large intoxicated man lunged at me in the semidarkness of a fast-food restaurant parking lot at 6 a.m.: run.

If high-tailing it in my high-tops proved unfeasible, I might -- might -- try flailing at him with something heavy. That neither of those options is particularly brave or brilliant doesn't matter much because I'm just a dweeb behind a desk, not an authority figure whose responsibility is to serve and protect. I think most of us expect people who've been entrusted with such noble tasks -- police officers and paramedics, for instance -- to exhibit superior decision-making skills. It doesn't seem unreasonable to demand a higher standard of performance from those whose mistakes can lead to serious injury or death.

Such as the death of Nathaniel Jones. The 41-year-old father of two met his end Nov. 30 during a violent confrontation with baton-wielding police outside a White Castle restaurant in Cincinnati. Jones had an enlarged heart, was obese (342 pounds) and had intoxicating levels of cocaine, PCP and methanol in his blood -- all factors that contributed to his demise. The drugs may explain why Jones would do something so foolhardy as lunge at a policeman -- a move captured on videotape. But the narcotics didn't kill him; the fight did. After conducting an autopsy, Hamilton County Coroner Carl L. Parrott ruled Jones' death a homicide. He concluded, "Absent the struggle, however, Mr. Jones would not have died at that precise moment in time, and the struggle therefore is the primary cause of death."

A police videotape of the incident has aired repeatedly across the country, bringing sustained national attention to a long-festering local issue. Activists and concerned citizens in Cincinnati have been on edge since April 2001, when the fatal police shooting of 19-year-old Timothy Thomas, a black man, led to three days of riots. I don't believe that the six policemen involved in the Jones incident deliberately set out to kill him. After all, it would have been so much easier just to shoot him. I do believe they used faulty judgment, however, and their poor decision-making was exacerbated by the paramedics on the scene, who inexplicably left while the encounter was still taking place.

In some municipalities, Jones' death could be considered a tragic, isolated incident. But because it occurred in Cincinnati, it must be looked at more closely. Jones was the 18th black man to die during a confrontation with police in that city since 1995. If you're thinking of writing me and pointing out that black men in Cincinnati have killed far more than 18 black men during that same period, let me spare you the trouble. I have often condemned the proclivity of black men for destroying each other as a wretched phenomenon that requires equally extensive examination. The small minority of black men who kill tend to be career criminals. It seems disingenuous to compare their behavior with that of police officers, who are presumed to be among our finest and most responsible citizens.

But back to the issue at hand. To avoid the violence and destruction that followed Timothy Thomas' death, city officials would do well to heed the concerns of such constructive critics as the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati -- formed two years ago in response to police-related deaths -- and the Baptist Ministers Conference of Cincinnati.

The latter group includes Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, whom I consider one of the finest black leaders alive. It was he who invited Martin Luther King Jr. to bring his campaign for justice and equality to Birmingham, where Shuttlesworth had long been a daring and creative opponent of Jim Crow.

At a recent news conference, the 81-year-old Shuttlesworth compared Jones' beating to those he had endured and witnessed during the civil rights movement. That's a comparison I would never have made, as I'm hesitant to associate the heroes of that epic battle with a drug addict who was half out of his mind on PCP. But Shuttlesworth's doing so reminded me that no life, no matter how virtuous, is worth more than another. Jones didn't die marching for freedom or justice, but he died needlessly and under circumstances that require further investigation, not hasty conclusions. It makes sense to find out, in Shuttlesworth's words, "what the public safety officers and the leadership of Cincinnati consider the value of black life to be."

Quite likely the answer to that question will involve widespread incompetence and poor training rather than a systematic conspiracy to destroy black men. But it is still a question that needs to be asked.

Jabari Asim's e-mail address is asimj(at symbol)washpost.com.