So When IS It Over, Yogi?

The venerated baseball figure Yogi Berra graced us with  many pithy sayings, perhaps his most famous being  “It ain’t over till it’s over,” to describe a Major League pennant race in the 1970s.

2020 has presented challenges for journalists and news consumers alike. We have become accustomed to the familiar arc of easy-to-chew stories, or bits of stories, that align with our ever-shortening attention spans. Most have neat endings for the conclusion of a workday or week. But then, along comes a COVID-19, with no respect for our news cycles. And who could have anticipated THAT being eclipsed by the  fallout from the shocking death of George Floyd at the hands of, or more precisely, the knee of, a Minneapolis police officer?

The final chapter of both of these is nowhere in sight. Sometimes it takes an extended stretch of pain to make us pay attention. Perhaps it’s God hitting us over the head with a 2x4 (or is it a 4x8?) to teach us perspective.

Is it finally time for a new attitude toward policing? Law enforcement officers are not quite like the rest of us. As has been pointed out, they have a license to kill under certain circumstances. They also  have one to deprive us of our liberty if we break the law. We need them. But what kinds of people are we allowing into this profession? Once they put on the uniform, are they too protected by special procedures, union contracts, and a pervasive company culture, from consequences when they cross the line?

Then there are our baked-in attitudes about race. It’s said that the incarcerated population of black people is five times that of whites. Why? We have to dig really deep on this one. Can racism really be overcome, or is it part of the human condition that we just have to work around? We tried Reconstruction once, but it didn’t stick. Are we being prodded to try it again?

That knee has been on the necks of African-Americans for way more than eight-plus minutes, and plagues like the coronavirus have been around for thousands of years. You’d think we would have learned our lesson about these things by now.

While we can’t see the end yet. we can set goals and figure out the best steps we can take now to meet them. We have the opportunity to take one of those steps in November. Let’s try to get it right this time.

Crime and Punishment: The New Normal

It took us more than 10 years to catch up to the top perpetrators of 9/11. It took less than a week to catch up to the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing. Do we need any more proof that a new day has arrived?

It’s largely about cameras. To paraphrase Allen Funt, we should be smiling all the time. Chances are we’re in somebody’s viewfinder or on a screen. Not a pleasant prospect for many of us who prize our privacy – but then there are times when we need those cameras. The FBI reviewed security camera recordings of two suspicious characters in the bombing. They put out press releases with the best shots, and within hours, they had crystal-clear pictures of the suspects, supplied by the public, because everybody has a camera now, either in their smartphones or as compact standalone equipment. Looks like the days of those police artist sketches are numbered. Funny how the suspects in all those sketches seemed to look exactly alike anyway.

The two suspects in the Boston case knew in short order they had nowhere to hide. Their pictures were everywhere. A convenience market security camera caught them in the process of a carjacking. Confrontations with law enforcement followed; one suspect was killed, the other one was captured alive, hiding in a boat in the backyard of a home. The public were on high alert. In the case of Suspect Two, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a homeowner noticed blood coming from the boat. A police helicopter with a thermal imaging camera determined that Mr. White Hat was in there, and that he was alive, though wounded. Police finally were able to capture him, and when the news got out, citizens lined the streets wildly applauding every law enforcement vehicle leaving the scene.

But it wasn’t simply about good police work. It couldn’t have been done without cameras, the media – social as well as traditional – and alert citizens. We should borrow one of the hands we’re clapping with, and pat ourselves on the back.

As well as the folks who invented smartphones.