(Last updated: June 10, 2015)
This is going to be a long essay. I apologize for its length.
You are going to read an essay written by an American attorney who specializes in the issue of self-defense. He has his own blog, called, lawofselfdefense .com. He's also written about or commented on a number of high-profile police incidents in the US that involve the death of minority individuals, including Freddie Gray, Trayvon Martin and others. In this essay below, he writes about a brawl incident in McKinney,Texas involving black youth and, apparently, white police officers in late May, 2015.
As you read his essay, I am going to interrupt his narrative to talk about Gaza, Israel and the accusations made against Israel by reporters and human rights activists. I think that, by seeing the McKinney, Texas and Gaza incidents juxtaposed together, you'll get a better sense of how a Leftist anti-Israel industry distorts reality in order to demonize Israel--much as Leftists in America distort police incidents to demonize white police officers.
This doesn't mean to argue that all police actions (or all Israeli actions) are squeaky-clean. It does, however, mean to suggest that, in McKinney and Gaza, Leftists have distorted reality for ideological reasons.
Here we go:
Video Analysis: McKinney Brawl Another Rush to Misjudgment?
Initial political-media narrative does not withstand scrutiny.
If you hadn’t already heard the internet roar, there is outrage brewing at the use-of-force by police in McKinney, Texas.
The biggest driver of outrage appears to be a ~13 minute cell phone video.
Here’s that video in its entirety, but I call out specific relevant portions below if you don’t want to sit through the whole thing:
I watched the video expectantly for the claimed police misconduct.
[In the 2014 Gaza-Israel war, pictures played a major role in demonizing Israel. Human Rights activists were outraged by 'civilian deaths'. Much of that outrage was driven by pictures and by biased reporting from Gaza. As with this McKinney incident, no one in what has become a Leftist mainstream media took time to examine critically the Gazan civilian deaths. Here, attorney Branca does for the McKinney incident what few in the mainstream media did for Israel.]
One would think from Twitter comments regarding McKinney that the police dropped uninvited onto a placid pool party of little children to wreak havoc on the festivities.
Is that what really happened? Is that even vaguely credible?
Nah.
[In the Gaza-Israel war, one would believe from anti-Israel reporting that Israel simply dropped tons upon tons of bombs on Gazan civilians simply to wreak havoc on innocent Gazans--and did so 'without regard for human life'.
Is that what happened? Is such an accusation even vaguely credible?
No.]
So what DID happen [in McKinney]?
Much insight can be found from the reporting of Breitbart reporter Bob Price in his post Video Emerges Of Violence At ‘Innocent Pool Party’ In Mckinney, Texas. I encourage you to read the whole thing, as they say, and I’ll just touch on some key points here that shed considerable context on the events in McKinney. (Then I’ll come back to the video above.)
[Much insight into how reporters reported the 2014 Gaza-Israel war can be found in Matti Friedman, "What the Media Gets Wrong About Israel", The Atlantic, November 30, 2014; Ryan Jones, "Hamas Caught Fudging the Numbers in Gaza" Israel Today, August 10, 2014; Richard Behar, "The Media Intifada: Bad Math, Ugly Truths about New York Times in Israel-Hamas War", Forbes, August 21, 2014; Neo-Neocon, "The press, the Israelis, and Gaza", July 30, 2014; Tuvia Brodie, "If there’s genocide in Gaza, there’s genocide in South Africa", tuviabrodieblog, August 31, 2014; Geoffrey Dickens, "Journalists Restricted By Hamas Rules and It's Reflected in Their Coverage", mrcNewsBusters, August 8, 2014; and David Bernstein, "Some Israel-Gaza notes...", Washington Post, July 26, 2014) .These essays, each in its own way, identified what was wrong with Western reporting in that 2014 war: western media in Gaza didn't work as objective reporters uncovering facts--even as they claim they did. Instead, they reported what Hamas wanted them to report: they became part of the Hamas war machine (surf through these essays above; you'll discover how--and why--journalists in Gaza committed gross professional malpractice, with the result that Israel was demonized on steroids).
[In his Breitbart essay on the McKinney incident,] Price (above) reports that far from the police dropping onto a placid children’s pool party, the neighborhood pool in the McKinney subdivision was the scene of violence before the police were ever on the scene–indeed, that violence was why the police were called in the first place.
Here’s a brief video clip of one such violent event (note: at one point the camera is turned 90 degrees–I used video software to re-rotate it):
Indeed, the situation at the McKinney pool had grown completely out of control. Vast numbers of the mob trying to gain access to the pool were not invitees of the neighborhood residents, but rather were responding to postings made on various social media outlets.
Those who were not invited guests were rightfully denied access by the pool management, and many of these refused to comply with this lawful denial of access.
Of those denied access, some number began to scale the fence surrounding the pool, thus affirmatively becoming illegal trespassers subject to arrest.
Combine that existing violent environment with scores of trespassers who refused to comply with even the simplest police orders, such as to disperse or sit down, and the potential for a tragic loss of innocent live becomes evident.
[Before the 2014 Gaza-Israel war broke out , there had been ongoing shelling of Israel by Hamas. The shelling went on for weeks. It became almost non-stop. All Israeli attempts to stop the rockets had failed. The potential for tragic loss of Israeli life from those rockets became evident.]
[In McKinney,] Bryan Gestner, quoted extensively in the Breitbart piece (my source for this quote) was a witness of the events. He posted this to Facebook:
So, that’s some of the context into which the police found themselves immersed when they were dispatched to the scene in response to resident 911 calls.
Doesn’t much sound like simply some children having a pool party, does it?
[The same cam be said for Hamas. The anti-Israel narrative in early July 2014 (the day after Israel began to defend itself) was that Israel was an aggressor who had attacked Gaza ("EU calls on Israel to immediately stop its aggression against the Gaza Strip", Middle East Monitor, July 10, 2014). Israel was killing civilians in the 'Palestinian Occupied Territories (ibid). That was the context for reporting that emanated from Gaza. It was the context used by all Human Rights activists as they responsed to what happened in Gaza.]
In any case, let’s begin taking peeks at the [McKinney] video and see what we can see.
Note that already at the start of the video the mob has been ordered to disperse and leave the area. This is, of course, a perfectly lawful order by the handful of police on scene who are having to deal with crowd–at least some of whom are reportedly violent, drunk and/or stoned. The first thing they need to do is establish the security of the scene, and that’s best done by dispersing the mob that has led to the disorder in the first place.
The video noted above begins with the police in pursuit of some unseen person, beginning with Officer Eric Casebolt, who appears to trip. Officer Casebolt will soon become the central focus of the video.
Knowing that patrol officers typically are carrying as much as 30 pounds of gear on their belts, I can assure you that they do not engage in a high-speed foot pursuit unless there’s a darned good reason. In any case, a foot pursuit is not unlawful police conduct.
You’ll notice that despite having been lawfully ordered to disperse, much of the ground has refused to do so, and are still milling about the area. With verbal orders to disperse having failed to achieve the goal of improving the safety of the scene, the police next escalate to the next step of the force continuum, which is to simply order the crowd members to sit in place.
Some members of the crowd comply with this order to take a seat. Others again refuse to comply, thus authorizing the police to escalate to the next step of the force continuum, which is to use non-deadly physical force to compel compliance. Casebolt also uses stern language.
None of this is unlawful police conduct.
Casebolt then again tells a group of girls standing on the sidewalk to disperse. Again, they refuse to comply with this lawful order. In fact, they’ll remain pretty much right there throughout the entirety of the video.
Notably, one of those girls is Dajerria Becton, wearing a bright orange/yellow bathing suit. She’ll become the center of interest for those claiming police misconduct.
Bectom actually casually steps away from her group, stands in the midst of the crowd members just ordered to sit on the ground by police, shouts to friends across the street, and then wanders off the left side of the screen, apparently towards those friends.
She essentially acts no differently than would a person who is not in the midsts of a police action.
Regardless, at this point she’s doing fine. Her group had been ordered to disperse, and it looks like she’s doing just that.
Unfortunately, less than one minute later Bectom’s back with her group, and still non-compliant with lawful police orders to disperse, as you can see in the background here.
Casebolt, who had previously ordered the girls to disperse, repeats his orders. A portion of the group does disperse off to the left. Bectom appears to be dispersing off to the right, but in fact never moves more than 10 or so feet away, stopping at that point to continue engaging with other members of the non-compliant crowd.
At this point Casebolt notes that Bectom has refused to comply with multiple lawful orders to disperse. These multiple efforts to encourage compliance with verbal commands having proven ineffective, he appropriately increases his use of force to physically compel compliance.
It is this portion of the video that the Progressive left appears to find most mind-blowing.
The only explanation for this is that they are so entirely ignorant of the role of police in society that they don’t understand that the police are authorized by that society to use force to compel compliance with lawful orders.
[During the Gaza-Israel war, Human Rights activists found Israel's bombing to be mind-blowingly outrageous. They called Israel's attacks war crimes. They said Israel's infliction of casualties in Gaza was 'disproportionate' when compared to Israeli casualties, and therefore a war crime. Their statements left one with the impression that they were either entirely ignorant of the laws of war, or that they were deliberately distorting the laws of war in order to criminalize Israel.
Here's why: the laws of war allow Israel to defend itself. The laws of war allow--within a specific framework--for civilian homes to be destroyed and for civilians themselves to be killed. There is abundant evidence that Israel understood the rules and the framework--and used them properly. Furthermore, the rule of 'disproportionality' has, in the laws of war, absolutely nothing to do with comparing the number of casualties on both sides.]
[In McKinney,] while many, even those who typically support the police, may find observing a uniformed officer use physical force on a non-compliant bikini girl, the fact that a use of force may appear distasteful does not make that use of force unlawful.
[The same is true with Israeli bombing in Gaza. Israel's method of force may appear distasteful, but that distaste doesn't make Israel's actions illegal.]
In [McKinney, officer] Casebolt is entirely within the law in his use of non-deadly force to compel compliance with lawful commands.
[In Gaza, Israel was entirely within the law in its use of bombs to compel Hamas to stop its shelling of Israel].
And Bectom is entirely outside the law in her immediate and sustained physical resistance to the officer’s lawful use of force. She is, literally, committing a crime in doing so [as was Hamas in Gaza in 2014].
At this point the members of the Bectom’s crowd that had dispersed rushes back to the scene. Indeed several actually lean over the officer as he is attempting to lawfully subdue Bectom.
It is not a good idea to lean over an officer when he’s trying to subdue your friend. He’s likely to perceive it as a threat and urge you to stop. And, indeed, in this case Casebolt shoves the encroaching girls back. [The same is true with Hamas. It is not a good idea to attack a sovereign state. That sovereign state is likely to take those attacks as an act of war--and respond accordingly, within the rights held by a sovereign state].
Now THIS is where things get interesting. A girl in a bathing suit can perhaps be dealt with by a physical push. But what if others escalate the threat to the officer?
[The same is true with Hamas. A single terrorist firing a rocket as Israel almost always receives a specific Israeli response. But what if others escalate the threat with multiple rockets?]
At this point in the video, however, while Casebolt is still trying to lawfully subdue the still resisting Bectom he is rushed by two males who are at least the officer’s size. The video shows no other officers in the immediate vicinity. The two males can be seen first on the right side of the screen, one wearing an aqua-colored ball cap, the other holding an aqua-colored shirt.
Even absent the remaining crowd (which is, of course, relevant, as mobs are dangerous), the mere fact that Casebolt is being charged by two males his size creates a disparity of force situation that justifies him in escalating his use of force to the deadly force level.
[The same is true for Israel. It has the legal right to escalate its response to a 'deadly force level' (all-out war) when attacks against it reach untenable heights].
Indeed, [in McKinney], the deliberate conduct of these two males in placing Casebolt in reasonable fear of death or grave bodily harm constitutes an aggravated assault on a police officer. This is a felony in all states, and in most is punishable by as much as 15 years in prison.
[In Gaza, the deliberate conduct of firing hundreds of rockets into Israel every day places Israel in reasonable fear of death or grave bodily harm to its citizens. Hamas' rocket-fire constitutes double war crimes (firing from a civilian environment and, second, firing at civilians). Israel has the legal right to defend itself against such assault].
It is at this point [in the McKinney video], struggling to subdue a non-compliant suspect, facing two younger males rushing at him from the flank, that Casebolt reasonably perceives a potentially deadly force attack and goes to his pistol.
The two male attackers see the gun, and turn and flee. Casebolt neither shoots nor pursues, but other officers responding to the scene do initiate a pursuit and capture at least one of the attackers.
All of this is perfectly lawful conduct by Casebolt under the totality of the circumstances, and well within both his training and the law.
[Israel's response to Hamas is totally legal according to laws of war--and in those instances where 'judgment' is required to decide if an Israeli action was legal, you should understand that the law does not require a zero-error result for a commander's decision to be legal. The law requires 'reasonable' decision-making; and Israel has in place that 'reasonable' decision-making paradigm. It's command decisions may not always be correct; but the legal standard is 'reasonableness', not zero-error result.
Note: this topic of legality in war is a far more complex discussion than Human Rights professionals have led you to believe. This discussion is also far more complex than this space allows. But, again, there is abundant evidence to suggest that Israel's behaviour towards Gazan civilians was legal. Human Rights activists absolutely reject that evidence--because civilians were killed. You see, their sole criteria for legality is, did civilians die. If civilians died, Israel is guilty of something. If 'many' died, Israel is guilty of war crimes. That's a fallacy. (I'll have more to say about this in future essays)].
[Regarding McKinney, Branca asks,] My advice? If you don’t want a cop to point his pistol at you, don’t rush him while he’s subduing a suspect.
Period.
[My advice? If Arabs don't want Israel to bomb them, they shouldn't initiate attacks, kidnappings and terror acts against Jews and Israel.]
There's more to the Branca essay. But I think you get the picture. In both cases, Israel and white police officers, Leftists seek to demonize. For Israel, I would suggest that the Left's goal is to destroy Israel--even as they deny that. But with police officers in America, what's their goal?
In both instances, if the Left succeeds in demonizing and criminalizing either/or Israel/the police, the result will be chaos.
Destroying Israel will not bring peace to the Middle East. It will bring utter chaos. Destroying police credibility in America will not bring calm. It will bring chaos and destruction.
If you won't stand up for both Israel in the Middle East and police in America, you will suffer. You will be engulfed in flames.
The biggest driver of outrage appears to be a ~13 minute cell phone video.
Here’s that video in its entirety, but I call out specific relevant portions below if you don’t want to sit through the whole thing:
I watched the video expectantly for the claimed police misconduct.
[In the 2014 Gaza-Israel war, pictures played a major role in demonizing Israel. Human Rights activists were outraged by 'civilian deaths'. Much of that outrage was driven by pictures and by biased reporting from Gaza. As with this McKinney incident, no one in what has become a Leftist mainstream media took time to examine critically the Gazan civilian deaths. Here, attorney Branca does for the McKinney incident what few in the mainstream media did for Israel.]
One would think from Twitter comments regarding McKinney that the police dropped uninvited onto a placid pool party of little children to wreak havoc on the festivities.
Is that what really happened? Is that even vaguely credible?
Nah.
[In the Gaza-Israel war, one would believe from anti-Israel reporting that Israel simply dropped tons upon tons of bombs on Gazan civilians simply to wreak havoc on innocent Gazans--and did so 'without regard for human life'.
Is that what happened? Is such an accusation even vaguely credible?
No.]
So what DID happen [in McKinney]?
Much insight can be found from the reporting of Breitbart reporter Bob Price in his post Video Emerges Of Violence At ‘Innocent Pool Party’ In Mckinney, Texas. I encourage you to read the whole thing, as they say, and I’ll just touch on some key points here that shed considerable context on the events in McKinney. (Then I’ll come back to the video above.)
[Much insight into how reporters reported the 2014 Gaza-Israel war can be found in Matti Friedman, "What the Media Gets Wrong About Israel", The Atlantic, November 30, 2014; Ryan Jones, "Hamas Caught Fudging the Numbers in Gaza" Israel Today, August 10, 2014; Richard Behar, "The Media Intifada: Bad Math, Ugly Truths about New York Times in Israel-Hamas War", Forbes, August 21, 2014; Neo-Neocon, "The press, the Israelis, and Gaza", July 30, 2014; Tuvia Brodie, "If there’s genocide in Gaza, there’s genocide in South Africa", tuviabrodieblog, August 31, 2014; Geoffrey Dickens, "Journalists Restricted By Hamas Rules and It's Reflected in Their Coverage", mrcNewsBusters, August 8, 2014; and David Bernstein, "Some Israel-Gaza notes...", Washington Post, July 26, 2014) .These essays, each in its own way, identified what was wrong with Western reporting in that 2014 war: western media in Gaza didn't work as objective reporters uncovering facts--even as they claim they did. Instead, they reported what Hamas wanted them to report: they became part of the Hamas war machine (surf through these essays above; you'll discover how--and why--journalists in Gaza committed gross professional malpractice, with the result that Israel was demonized on steroids).
[In his Breitbart essay on the McKinney incident,] Price (above) reports that far from the police dropping onto a placid children’s pool party, the neighborhood pool in the McKinney subdivision was the scene of violence before the police were ever on the scene–indeed, that violence was why the police were called in the first place.
Here’s a brief video clip of one such violent event (note: at one point the camera is turned 90 degrees–I used video software to re-rotate it):
Indeed, the situation at the McKinney pool had grown completely out of control. Vast numbers of the mob trying to gain access to the pool were not invitees of the neighborhood residents, but rather were responding to postings made on various social media outlets.
Those who were not invited guests were rightfully denied access by the pool management, and many of these refused to comply with this lawful denial of access.
Of those denied access, some number began to scale the fence surrounding the pool, thus affirmatively becoming illegal trespassers subject to arrest.
Combine that existing violent environment with scores of trespassers who refused to comply with even the simplest police orders, such as to disperse or sit down, and the potential for a tragic loss of innocent live becomes evident.
[Before the 2014 Gaza-Israel war broke out , there had been ongoing shelling of Israel by Hamas. The shelling went on for weeks. It became almost non-stop. All Israeli attempts to stop the rockets had failed. The potential for tragic loss of Israeli life from those rockets became evident.]
[In McKinney,] Bryan Gestner, quoted extensively in the Breitbart piece (my source for this quote) was a witness of the events. He posted this to Facebook:
This was a Twitter party that turned into a mob event. Jumping pool fence. Assaulting 2 security guards, attacking a mother with three little girls. The video doesn’t show everything. This isn’t about race. This is about outside kids invading our neighborhood and had no respect for authority or the residents here. I have a target on my back now and I have been threatened by these punks that they are gonna shoot up my house when all I did was try to control the mob and actually tended to the girl and the boy that had a bloody lip. Yall don’t know the whole story. I commend the officer for handling this situation.Gestner also reports that the the purported children at the purported pool party were drinking alcohol and “smoking weed,” and also that some of the mob returned to McKinney the following night (Saturday), at which time they were “kicking in people’s front door, stole a truck and crashed it into many vehicles. They vandalized dozens of cars and were stealing things.”
So, that’s some of the context into which the police found themselves immersed when they were dispatched to the scene in response to resident 911 calls.
Doesn’t much sound like simply some children having a pool party, does it?
[The same cam be said for Hamas. The anti-Israel narrative in early July 2014 (the day after Israel began to defend itself) was that Israel was an aggressor who had attacked Gaza ("EU calls on Israel to immediately stop its aggression against the Gaza Strip", Middle East Monitor, July 10, 2014). Israel was killing civilians in the 'Palestinian Occupied Territories (ibid). That was the context for reporting that emanated from Gaza. It was the context used by all Human Rights activists as they responsed to what happened in Gaza.]
In any case, let’s begin taking peeks at the [McKinney] video and see what we can see.
Note that already at the start of the video the mob has been ordered to disperse and leave the area. This is, of course, a perfectly lawful order by the handful of police on scene who are having to deal with crowd–at least some of whom are reportedly violent, drunk and/or stoned. The first thing they need to do is establish the security of the scene, and that’s best done by dispersing the mob that has led to the disorder in the first place.
The video noted above begins with the police in pursuit of some unseen person, beginning with Officer Eric Casebolt, who appears to trip. Officer Casebolt will soon become the central focus of the video.
Knowing that patrol officers typically are carrying as much as 30 pounds of gear on their belts, I can assure you that they do not engage in a high-speed foot pursuit unless there’s a darned good reason. In any case, a foot pursuit is not unlawful police conduct.
You’ll notice that despite having been lawfully ordered to disperse, much of the ground has refused to do so, and are still milling about the area. With verbal orders to disperse having failed to achieve the goal of improving the safety of the scene, the police next escalate to the next step of the force continuum, which is to simply order the crowd members to sit in place.
Some members of the crowd comply with this order to take a seat. Others again refuse to comply, thus authorizing the police to escalate to the next step of the force continuum, which is to use non-deadly physical force to compel compliance. Casebolt also uses stern language.
None of this is unlawful police conduct.
Casebolt then again tells a group of girls standing on the sidewalk to disperse. Again, they refuse to comply with this lawful order. In fact, they’ll remain pretty much right there throughout the entirety of the video.
Notably, one of those girls is Dajerria Becton, wearing a bright orange/yellow bathing suit. She’ll become the center of interest for those claiming police misconduct.
Bectom actually casually steps away from her group, stands in the midst of the crowd members just ordered to sit on the ground by police, shouts to friends across the street, and then wanders off the left side of the screen, apparently towards those friends.
She essentially acts no differently than would a person who is not in the midsts of a police action.
Unfortunately, less than one minute later Bectom’s back with her group, and still non-compliant with lawful police orders to disperse, as you can see in the background here.
Casebolt, who had previously ordered the girls to disperse, repeats his orders. A portion of the group does disperse off to the left. Bectom appears to be dispersing off to the right, but in fact never moves more than 10 or so feet away, stopping at that point to continue engaging with other members of the non-compliant crowd.
At this point Casebolt notes that Bectom has refused to comply with multiple lawful orders to disperse. These multiple efforts to encourage compliance with verbal commands having proven ineffective, he appropriately increases his use of force to physically compel compliance.
It is this portion of the video that the Progressive left appears to find most mind-blowing.
The only explanation for this is that they are so entirely ignorant of the role of police in society that they don’t understand that the police are authorized by that society to use force to compel compliance with lawful orders.
[During the Gaza-Israel war, Human Rights activists found Israel's bombing to be mind-blowingly outrageous. They called Israel's attacks war crimes. They said Israel's infliction of casualties in Gaza was 'disproportionate' when compared to Israeli casualties, and therefore a war crime. Their statements left one with the impression that they were either entirely ignorant of the laws of war, or that they were deliberately distorting the laws of war in order to criminalize Israel.
Here's why: the laws of war allow Israel to defend itself. The laws of war allow--within a specific framework--for civilian homes to be destroyed and for civilians themselves to be killed. There is abundant evidence that Israel understood the rules and the framework--and used them properly. Furthermore, the rule of 'disproportionality' has, in the laws of war, absolutely nothing to do with comparing the number of casualties on both sides.]
[In McKinney,] while many, even those who typically support the police, may find observing a uniformed officer use physical force on a non-compliant bikini girl, the fact that a use of force may appear distasteful does not make that use of force unlawful.
[The same is true with Israeli bombing in Gaza. Israel's method of force may appear distasteful, but that distaste doesn't make Israel's actions illegal.]
In [McKinney, officer] Casebolt is entirely within the law in his use of non-deadly force to compel compliance with lawful commands.
[In Gaza, Israel was entirely within the law in its use of bombs to compel Hamas to stop its shelling of Israel].
And Bectom is entirely outside the law in her immediate and sustained physical resistance to the officer’s lawful use of force. She is, literally, committing a crime in doing so [as was Hamas in Gaza in 2014].
At this point the members of the Bectom’s crowd that had dispersed rushes back to the scene. Indeed several actually lean over the officer as he is attempting to lawfully subdue Bectom.
It is not a good idea to lean over an officer when he’s trying to subdue your friend. He’s likely to perceive it as a threat and urge you to stop. And, indeed, in this case Casebolt shoves the encroaching girls back. [The same is true with Hamas. It is not a good idea to attack a sovereign state. That sovereign state is likely to take those attacks as an act of war--and respond accordingly, within the rights held by a sovereign state].
Now THIS is where things get interesting. A girl in a bathing suit can perhaps be dealt with by a physical push. But what if others escalate the threat to the officer?
[The same is true with Hamas. A single terrorist firing a rocket as Israel almost always receives a specific Israeli response. But what if others escalate the threat with multiple rockets?]
At this point in the video, however, while Casebolt is still trying to lawfully subdue the still resisting Bectom he is rushed by two males who are at least the officer’s size. The video shows no other officers in the immediate vicinity. The two males can be seen first on the right side of the screen, one wearing an aqua-colored ball cap, the other holding an aqua-colored shirt.
Even absent the remaining crowd (which is, of course, relevant, as mobs are dangerous), the mere fact that Casebolt is being charged by two males his size creates a disparity of force situation that justifies him in escalating his use of force to the deadly force level.
[The same is true for Israel. It has the legal right to escalate its response to a 'deadly force level' (all-out war) when attacks against it reach untenable heights].
Indeed, [in McKinney], the deliberate conduct of these two males in placing Casebolt in reasonable fear of death or grave bodily harm constitutes an aggravated assault on a police officer. This is a felony in all states, and in most is punishable by as much as 15 years in prison.
[In Gaza, the deliberate conduct of firing hundreds of rockets into Israel every day places Israel in reasonable fear of death or grave bodily harm to its citizens. Hamas' rocket-fire constitutes double war crimes (firing from a civilian environment and, second, firing at civilians). Israel has the legal right to defend itself against such assault].
It is at this point [in the McKinney video], struggling to subdue a non-compliant suspect, facing two younger males rushing at him from the flank, that Casebolt reasonably perceives a potentially deadly force attack and goes to his pistol.
The two male attackers see the gun, and turn and flee. Casebolt neither shoots nor pursues, but other officers responding to the scene do initiate a pursuit and capture at least one of the attackers.
All of this is perfectly lawful conduct by Casebolt under the totality of the circumstances, and well within both his training and the law.
[Israel's response to Hamas is totally legal according to laws of war--and in those instances where 'judgment' is required to decide if an Israeli action was legal, you should understand that the law does not require a zero-error result for a commander's decision to be legal. The law requires 'reasonable' decision-making; and Israel has in place that 'reasonable' decision-making paradigm. It's command decisions may not always be correct; but the legal standard is 'reasonableness', not zero-error result.
Note: this topic of legality in war is a far more complex discussion than Human Rights professionals have led you to believe. This discussion is also far more complex than this space allows. But, again, there is abundant evidence to suggest that Israel's behaviour towards Gazan civilians was legal. Human Rights activists absolutely reject that evidence--because civilians were killed. You see, their sole criteria for legality is, did civilians die. If civilians died, Israel is guilty of something. If 'many' died, Israel is guilty of war crimes. That's a fallacy. (I'll have more to say about this in future essays)].
[Regarding McKinney, Branca asks,] My advice? If you don’t want a cop to point his pistol at you, don’t rush him while he’s subduing a suspect.
Period.
[My advice? If Arabs don't want Israel to bomb them, they shouldn't initiate attacks, kidnappings and terror acts against Jews and Israel.]
There's more to the Branca essay. But I think you get the picture. In both cases, Israel and white police officers, Leftists seek to demonize. For Israel, I would suggest that the Left's goal is to destroy Israel--even as they deny that. But with police officers in America, what's their goal?
In both instances, if the Left succeeds in demonizing and criminalizing either/or Israel/the police, the result will be chaos.
Destroying Israel will not bring peace to the Middle East. It will bring utter chaos. Destroying police credibility in America will not bring calm. It will bring chaos and destruction.
If you won't stand up for both Israel in the Middle East and police in America, you will suffer. You will be engulfed in flames.
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