Like Pravda from decades ago, sometimes the most interesting stories in the Register are squibs of barely a few lines. The July 17th issue has a story like that, on page three of the paper.
There, correspondent Vicky Wedig France has a brief account of an Elkhorn man charged with battery to officers, among other offenses.
A story like this is so brief, it’s impossible to know what happened in any detail, let alone with certainty. A squib like this often relies on the criminal complaint alone, without any other reporting, interviews, or investigation. That’s true, apparently, in this story from the July 17th issue.
Wholly apart from the brief account in the Register, there are two things that one can say, with certainty. First, ordinary police work is occasionally dangerous, often unpredictably so. Situations in which a suspect may confront an officer are removed from public relations, flowery prose, uniform allowances, and grandstanding leaders.
Second, once an officer draws a gun, calculations of risk become far more serious, but more difficult, too. It’s in society’s interest that no one be injured, neither officer nor suspect. The ideal outcome is one in which no violence ensues. A suspect confronted with a handgun may relent quickly, but one cannot be certain — a different man may conclude that any opportunity to react aggressively to an officer (as with the moment between reholstering a gun and drawing a taser) is worth taking.
There’s no way to be certain, as the odds one might recall from a lecture or study apply only generally, and not in any specific case.
A suspect who has the opportunity to strike an officer, or push him to the ground, not once but twice, might easily have caused far more serious injury than the criminal complaint alleges.
There’s nothing good or pleasant in a story like this, but only the uncertain and unsettling. It’s not as happy as an end-of-summer party or Maxwell Street days, but it is, I am sure, more important than either of those events.