When Cops “Go All Barney Fife” on Good Citizens

Another week, another deadly police shooting. Only this time, the unexpected and unwanted “death by cop” didn’t happen at a traffic stop. It happened after a concerned citizen called 911.

When Justine Damond (AKA Justine Ruszczyk) approached the squad car that responded to her call, she got shot in the stomach. The officer seated on the passenger side shot her through the open window on the driver’s side. She died at the scene.

As former Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau announced (at her press conference before she “resigned”), “Justine didn’t have to die.” Well, duh. Like so many other innocent citizens of late, though, she did die because of the MPD. But why? No one seems to really know, no one can explain what really happened.

An entire week has gone by, and still no plausible explanations have been given. A guy who was riding a bike did see the police performing CPR on Justine. The police officer driving the squad car did cough up his version of events. That’s about it. So many unanswered questions! So many questionable circumstances! All we really have here is a puzzling, disingenuous mess of more and more questions.

By all accounts, Justine Damond was an angel who fell from Heaven and left the Earth plane too soon. She could give you a hug, make you laugh, then fearlessly rescue cute little ducklings trapped in a drain. (There’s actually an online video of her duckling rescue, but I couldn’t bear to watch. I knew seeing it would only have made me terribly, terribly sad…) This former veterinarian from Australia who had moved to Minneapolis to be with her fiance was undoubtedly respected and beloved. Although she became involved in animal rescue, she had devoted most of her time to teaching yoga, meditation, empowered spirituality, and healing at the Lake Harriet Spiritual Community Center.

So it was not surprising that this compassionate shining soul called 911 late last Saturday night —on July 15th — for help when she heard cries of distress in her neighborhood.

According to the 911 transcripts, Justine told the dispatcher she heard what sounded like an assault. She couldn’t tell if this crying woman was being raped or having sex. But she believed she heard some muffled cries that sounded like “help.” She was even concerned enough to call 911 again, when the police didn’t immediately show up.

(Note: Whether it’s rape or just loud, raucous sex, laws and city ordinances prohibit outdoor sex on both private and public property. So Justine Damond had every right to contact the police in this case. Whether the sex was forced or consensual truly is a moot point now.)

When the police did show up, they were terrified, more terrified than Justine. According to Officer Harrity, the cop driving the squad car, both he and his partner Officer Noor — the shooter — were terrified that this 911 call was a set-up. A SET-UP? As in “police ambush?”

But wait. If these two police officers were so terrified of being in a bloody ambush, they WOULD HAVE turned on their body and dash cams. Even the most incompetent cops would have wanted their ambushers identified and brought to justice — especially if they were killed in the line of duty.

After all the time, training, and big money that the City of Minneapolis invested in these body and dash cameras, Officers Harrity and Noor SHOULD HAVE turned them on. They didn’t. Why?

Police procedure, protocol, and directives all demand officers turn on these expensive cameras so that certain interactions between the police and the public get recorded. In this case, however, the body and dash cams were not on. So the shooting of Justine Damond didn’t get recorded. Hmmm. What does that mean?

There are two possibilities.
#1.Either these officers defied the rules but didn’t get any suspensions or penalties.
#2.Or else, they DID TURN ON their body and dash cams, then “lost” or erased the audio and video records.

I’m going with possibility #2. If Russians can somehow hack into our elections, there’s got to be a way to expunge video and audio files. There’s got to be some way a couple of youngbloods with the MPD can eliminate incriminating proof of a bad shooting. Or somehow, make sure their evidence is missing in action and gone forevermore. I don’t exactly know what they could do, I only know it’s possible for them to do it.

It’s not that I want to be cynical and believe our city’s finest would actually destroy police evidence. It’s just that, in the face of mounting perplexities, Officer Noor — the cop who shot Justine — invoked his right to remain silent. Maybe that IS his legal right, but he wouldn’t have had to invoke it if he’d been involved in a good shooting. His silence only raises more disturbing questions.

It’s one thing to shut off headlights as your car creep-creeps along the alley because you’re terrified of being ambushed. But it’s quite another thing altogether when the 911 call reported a possible assault around this alley.

Why weren’t Officer Noor and his partner concerned that their vehicle might inadvertently hit a rape victim? Or run over a badly traumatized victim going into shock? Or fail to see an unconscious victim who desperately needed medical assistance?

Why did these cops show such little regard for a helpless citizen (or citizens) they might have encountered in the alley that night?

Why wasn’t a more thorough search — with headlights on — done of the area that night? Did they(or any other officers)even plan to return the next day to canvas the area and talk with neighbors? (I think the answer to that one is probably NO.)

And why didn’t it dawn on Officer Noor that the person in pajamas who approached the squad car might be the victim Justine had heard crying for help? Shooting a victim of sexual assault would have been just as bad as shooting this Good Samaritan who called 911. Besides, the alley and vicinity surrounding 51st and Washburn WERE well-lit — and not as dark and as foreboding as Officer Harrity’s later statements might have led us to believe…

Something’s really wrong with this picture.

If Harrity and Noor were really THAT frightened of an ambush, they would have had their headlights and searchlights on. But they didn’t.

If they were really THAT terrified of being killed — so terrified that they couldn’t act appropriately or professionally — then they had no business being policemen in the first place.

Let’s get real. Being surprised by a loud noise might scare you, but it doesn’t give you the right to shoot first and ask questions later. It also doesn’t give you the right to gun down an innocent citizen in cold blood, then get away with it because you’re a law enforcement official. That, unfortunately, is what’s happening now in Minneapolis whenever any cop shoots and kills any citizen.

Let’s face facts: law enforcement officials have a free pass to kill in the line of duty. Regardless of the situation or circumstance, they can get away with murder because our legal system has granted them such a generous, all-encompassing benefit-of-the-doubt. Trial or no trial, if a cop says the magic words the bad shooting always gets excused. Words like “I feared for my life” and “I thought he had a gun” and “I thought he was going to kill me” magically erase any fatal mistakes. Even a BANG! BANG! OOPS! miscalculation arising from PTSD or lousy judgement gets excused now. How disturbing and absurd that a cop can conveniently transform his unreasonable fears and poor judgements into a foolproof get-out-of-jail-free-card.

The real tragedy here is not that law enforcement officials gunned down another citizen with extreme and unnecessary force. No, it’s that we all know it’s going to keep happening again and again.

And we all know it’s going to keep happening — again and again — because cops keep “going all Barney Fife” on the public.

Remember Barney Fife?

Remember that tough-talkin’ deputy sheriff who was so hypervigilant that he always seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown? Check out re-runs of “The Andy Griffith Show” on MeTV (or other cable networks) to refresh your memory.

During his stint on that CBS sitcom, comic actor Don Knotts received five(!) Emmy Awards for his portrayal of the quintessential law and order martinet. His Deputy Fife was often endearing but always exasperating.

Deputy Fife hovered hilariously between no-nonsense authority figure and scaredy-cat. He might have sounded like a fearless know-it-all but in the face of danger, he froze in fear. Or freaked-out. And yet, his complex need for both love and respect from the small-town folk he tried to protect and serve provided endless story lines for the show’s writers.

TV viewers of the 1960’s didn’t need a background in psychology to understand why Barney Fife pursued a career in law enforcement. It seemed pretty obvious that Barney’s own fears and insecurities led him to that career path… well, that, and the fact that his cousin Sheriff Andy Taylor gave him the job because he felt sorry for him. Barney really wanted to be a deputy. He really tried to do his best. But without the sheriff’s interventions or rescues, nothing ever worked out right for Barney. That’s what fueled the comedy: his own incompetence.

Barney Fife was simply temperamentally and psychologically unsuited to work in law enforcement. And his training also left much to be desired.

He not only choked when his job required a cool head and steady hand, he repeatedly put himself and others in danger. Sheriff Andy Taylor took Barney’s gun away numerous times because he couldn’t stop misfiring it. Or misplacing it. Or getting it stuck someplace.

Of course people watching these antics some fifty years ago laughed because they knew Barney Fife was a comic exaggeration. They knew there was no way anyone as frightened and nervy as Fife could ever become a deputy sheriff. Or a highway patrolman or FBI agent…Or a police officer.

But that was back in the Sixties. Now that we’re in the 21st Century, we not only know it’s possible, but we see the children of Barney Fife on a daily basis working in The Minneapolis Police Department.

Q. What does this city really need?
A. Fewer Barney Fifes and more Andy Taylors in law enforcement, that’s what.