So, when a group of police chiefs says “my bad” after decades of brutalizing black and brown people and wonder why we’re not dancing in the streets and celebrating like it’s Emancipation Day, here’s why.
It’s because just a day after the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the nation’s largest police group, issues the world’s weakest apology, Deborah Danner, 66, an elderly woman in the Bronx, is shot to death by a cop who decides — against everything he is trained to do — to use his gun instead of the Taser on his hip when she threatens officers with a baseball bat.
Obviously, no lessons were learned in the 32 years since another elderly Bronx woman, Eleanor Bumpurs, was shot to death by cops over a measly $417.10 in rent.
In that tragic incident, Bumpurs, who was also 66, was killed by a shoot-first cop who gunned her down with two shotgun blasts, the first of which shattered the hand with which she held a knife.
A month later, relatives back in the apartment for the first time since the shooting found a finger on the floor.
The officer who shot Bumpurs was indicted on manslaughter charges and suspended from the force.
He was found not guilty, reinstated and later promoted to detective.
Sorry? Is that all you got?
Those of us old enough to remember the promises of reform after Bumpurs was rushed to a hospital where she died couldn’t help but think they were trapped in a recurring nightmare after Danner was killed in an eerily similar manner.
Mayor de Blasio said Sgt. Hugh Barry, who fired the fatal shot, did manage to de-escalate the situation when he convinced her to put down a pair of scissors.
But then she picked up a bat and his training went out the window.
Barry had a Taser, but for some reason decided not to use it.
“He had the training. He had the tools to deal with this in a different manner,” de Blasio said.
“We need to know why this officer did not follow his training and did not follow those protocols.”
Barry was placed on modified duty, surrendering his gun and badge as the investigation proceeds.
“It’s a very, very painful moment,” de Blasio said. “But I think the people of the city can see that there is accountability.”
The mayor must be talking about some other city.
Barry is not the first cop in New York to get a paid vacation for killing a person of color. Until reckless cops pay the true price for the lives they steal, mayors and police chiefs should cut back on the accountability talk and just stick to the platitudes.
“Something went horribly wrong here,” de Blasio said. “This didn’t have to happen. There were obviously other options. Deborah Danner should be alive right now. Period.”
And sorry isn’t going to bring her back.
