Monday, February 01, 2016

Suicide Sainthood

The man who said he preferred to die rather than face incarceration did just that.  Clever man that he was, LaVoy Finicum used his death to purchase a martyrhood that his fellow sagebrush rebels can use as both justification and inspiration for continuing their disruption of life in Burns, Oregon.  I can't say that he willingly planned his death but I don't put it past him.  He presented himself as a principled man, a grandfather, risking his life for his beliefs.  I won't gainsay his belief, however dubious, nor do I question his calculation so, yeah, he could have decided to take a bullet for the cause.  After all, Jesus did the same and look what that started.

Getting killed by police is pretty easy, even for a white person.  Brandishing firearms and making threats for weeks on end will make police edgy.  Trying to run a roadblock, and then dropping your hands toward a weapon that you've bragged about to the entire nation  is guaranteed to elicit an armed response.  A man who wanted to live would have raised his hands well into the air and frozen in place as soon as he exited the truck.  Instead, he taunted the beast and died.

Maybe Finicum wasn't that clever but he got what he said he wanted.  His fellows have another grievance to stoke their anger and challenge the government.  I don't doubt that Finicum would approve.



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4 Comments:

Blogger BadTux said...

I think you meant "even for whites". But yeah, I saw his hand drop towards his gun, and that Oregon state trooper did exactly what he was trained to do -- shoot first before himself being shot. Anybody who has a complaint with that hasn't been paying attention.

8:56 PM  
Blogger Rez Dog said...

You are right, Bad Tux. I meant "even for a white person" and corrected the text.

6:00 AM  
Blogger lungta said...

now it is "even for for " ....sorry
why they always center shoot
and not just bring them down via a leg gets me
death and martyrdom go together
winged, prosecuted and jailed
would be a much better outcome
but hey
nobody ever phones to ask me
about official policy

8:27 AM  
Blogger BadTux said...

Lungta, the reality is that if you're shooting at a person, if you don't shoot for the center of mass you don't hit him. Real life isn't like TV or movies, 75%+ of the shots fired by police officers never hit the person they're aiming at because of adrenalin, lack of practice with service weapon, the fact that human beings that you're shooting at don't just stand still ike paper targets, etc.

Plus the law is that the only time it's valid to shoot someone is if he's a threat to your life. If he's a threat to your life, you end the threat. Period. If he's not a threat to your life -- which is what aiming for a leg or etc. implies -- then why the crap are you shooting at him? Shooting at a leg implies that he wasn't a threat to your life, and basically makes you a criminal.

So police training is "shoot for center of mass." Period. That Hollywood bullshit where the hero shoots a gun out of the bad guy's hand is just that -- bullshit.

10:17 AM  

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