I have seen the news about an off-duty Los Angeles Police Department Officer firing a shot from his firearm while confronting a group of teenagers near his home. I watched 2 different versions of a video that documented; one that ended as the officer pulls out his firearm and fires, and one that continues after the shot and shows the scattering of the crowd; they both appear to be from the same source though one is edited to achieve a particular reaction. I observed a couple of things about this event, some from the video itself, but mostly from the reactions of the people who watched the video on social media.
Both of the videos I saw started after the altercation started. I noticed that the officer was seemingly surrounded by hostile teens and what seemed to be a large number of watching bystanders. Neither version shows how the altercation started. When the videos start they both show a teenager being manhandled by an adult male.
I am unaware of there being any sound attached to the video. I remember only the video of what happened. An obviously exasperated adult, surrounded by hostile teens, is trying to gain control of a situation that he clearly has no control over. His actions are predictable. He is reacting to hostility with hostility.
The actions of the surrounding teens, seeing one of their own being assaulted by an adult, are also predictable. Several teens tried to pull the teen being manhandled away from the adult. I saw the adult punched solidly at least once. They too were reacting to hostility with hostility.
What I was unable to tell from the video was whether the adult was a police officer. There was nothing I could see that showed whether the teens knew this was a police officer or not. I wouldn’t be surprised if he were announcing that fact to the teens. However, given the circumstances, seeing their peer being manhandled by an adult, I will not pretend that the teens were obligated to believe a man who has his hands on one of them.
I suppose the reactions were what shocked me the most. I presumably watched the same video that others were watching, but I did not react the same way. I saw people assigning blame to one party or another. Ascribing guilt and motive to either side from the same basis of information. The kids must have been doing something wrong. The cop is a monster who can only communicate with his gun.
I don’t know how it started. I don’t know who started it. I saw bad behavior on both sides. That teenagers lack impulse control hardly needs to be stated; this does lead to bad behavior. Without the full context, however, it is hard to blame the teenagers for the way they acted.
The police officer could also be held blameless for feeling the hostility being hurled at him. However, I would expect that the police officer should have some tools to help him deescalate these situations. His manhandling of a teenager is what caused the problem. I cannot say that he was not within his rights as a citizen and a peace officer because I do not know what really happened. What I did see was someone who looked like a civilian pull out a gun and fire it to scare off a bunch of teenagers.
As a specialist in conflict resolution I am not trying to assign blame. What happened was the result of poor decision making on both sides of the confrontation. It does not surprise me that a large group of teenagers might lack the skills necessary to deal with conflict, though it is saddening. What shocks me is that a police officer, a person who presumably deals with people and conflicts on a daily basis, also lacked those skills.
The Conflict Authority 