Jamar Clark – a victim of police racism, brutality, or something else?

For some reason I don’t feel as smug as Mike Freeman about this case. Yup; an open-and-shut case. A 24-year-old guy, drunk (over 0.09) with THC (marijuana) in his system, hand on the policeman’s gun, previous trouble with the police. Case closed.

Something’s fishy. Think about it. Two police arrive. Jamar is unarmed, has his hands in his pockets, staring off with a “1000-yard stare” (not exactly a threatening position). Then 61 seconds later he’s dead – shot in the head by the police. What did he do to cause this? He was previously knocking on the back window of the ambulance and the two paramedics in the presence of the EMS supervisor (a marine veteran) were afraid to come out … even though Jamar moved a few steps away when he was asked to. County Attorney Report. 

What happened? Ringgenberg takes his gun out and holds it at his side. Later he puts it back and then he and Schwarze engage in a tug of war, with Ringgenberg pulling on one of Jamar’s arms and Schwarze pulling on the other. If it wasn’t so tragic we could call it a Keystone Cop routine. Then Schwarze totally botches a take-down move, falls down backwards on top of Jamar with his gun belt twisted to the back. Of course Jamar is resisting because Schwarze had him in a choke hold trying render him unconscious (or break his neck). Jamar is probably just pushing on Schwarze’s back getting his DNA all over the gun belt and gun, trying to get this huge cop off of him. Then he’s shot and killed by Ringgenberg – all within 61 seconds of the cops arriving at the scene.

Why didn’t they just squirt him with some pepper spray to get his hands out of his pockets, or smack him in the back of the head with a police baton or flashlight? They didn’t have to kill him. I feel so sad for Jamar Clark’s friends and loved ones. He did not deserve to die for knocking on the back of an ambulance window.

Some have called this police racism or police brutality. I think it’s something else. I hesitate to call it “police incompetence” because I don’t want to demean the fine men and women who risk their lives serving us every day. But I will point the finger at their bosses and at the system and say that these men should have been better trained. Our mayor and governor ought to be lobbying our state representatives to allocate a meaningful portion of our budget surplus to an ongoing professional development program for Minnesota police officers.