Long Beach Sting Was a Stunt and a Smear

If you’ve been following the controversy over the police incident that was videotaped in Long Beach, you’ve already heard plenty from many commentators, including a law professor at Harvard. And you’ve heard from Don Jackson, the self-appointed sting operator who is a police sergeant on stress-disability leave from the city of Hawthorne.

For legal reasons you won’t hear the involved Long Beach officer’s version for some time. And for legal reasons you will probably never see the unbroadcast footage; NBC can be expected to stand on established case law that says the First Amendment allows it to keep its unused footage secret from you.

I can’t speak for all cops, but from my perspective of 13 years’ experience I’d say that there certainly were some unusual aspects to this incident. Unfortunately, there was nothing unusual about Jackson’s actions. Cops routinely have to deal with passively resisting suspects who flex their muscles and their mouths and want to split hairs over probable-cause issues that are better decided in courtrooms, not in the street.

Many people have already judged the involved officer’s escalating verbal attempts to control Jackson as inappropriate; others support the officer--even his use of obscenities. Toward the end of the conversation, just before the officer threatened Jackson with a baton, rough language was appropriate as a last-ditch effort to avoid using physical force. Talking doesn’t always work, but most cops would prefer trying a little verbal intimidation before we start swinging the club. When you, the people, took away the chokehold a few years ago, words and sticks were about all that you left us for this type of situation. There are plenty of seriously injured officers around whose only mistake was to let a verbal provocation get out of control.

As for the racism that Jackson, a black man, said he was trying to prove, it simply isn’t on the tape. Professional officers leave their personal prejudices at home. Those who cannot should be retrained, disciplined and fired if nothing else works. Not one word that TV viewers heard the officer speak could be construed as racial in nature.

Was the officer “brutal”? The footage of the shattered plate glass window was undeniably dramatic, shocking and regrettable. Whether the officer shoved Jackson too hard is a definite maybe. Whether Jackson intentionally broke the window with his right elbow for the benefit of NBC’s cameras probably cannot be proved. I submit that the officer (who received six stitches in his hand) was as shocked as the rest of us when the glass broke.

Consider this: During the 35-second verbal exchange the officer made 12 different statements in his effort to get Jackson to submit to a lawful search. The officer finally raised his baton (but at no time used it), and Jackson finally put his hands on his head. Twelve verbal attempts is a lot of effort to control a recalcitrant, belligerent, unsearched man who intentionally placed the officer at a tactical disadvantage in the middle of the night on a Long Beach street. The Long Beach city attorney should file a charge against Jackson under Section 148 of the Penal Code--a misdemeanor known as “interfering with or delaying an officer in the performance of his duties.”

As for the loud “thump” and moans and groans as the officer pushed Jackson down on the car hood, the videotape is not very helpful in arriving at a conclusion. Was it an act of vengeance by the officer because his hand got badly cut? Was Jackson still passively resisting the officer, thus requiring a shove? Or was Jackson just play-acting for NBC? These aspects will be examined by many investigations over the next several months.

By the way, that Jackson must be one tough fellow. All that “brutality” and wailing and moaning, and still not a mark on him. Try putting your head through a plate-glass window, and then smashing your head face-first into the hood of a car. Then go look in the mirror. They say that the camera never blinks. Neither is it always in a position to adequately document what human beings must later interpret. Things like police brutality. And probable cause to stop a car.

Jackson’s publicity stunts would not work if the press had not anointed him as a “media darling” about a year ago when he had some guys dress up like gang members. They walked in a wolf pack near the scene of an unsolved gang murder of an innocent woman to see if the cops would stop them. Brilliant. As the Hawthorne police chief said the other night, Jackson has proved that if you go looking for trouble you’ll probably find some.

If the independent investigations that are being done by the district attorney and the FBI show that the officer’s actions were brutal or racist, the system will eat him alive and then spit him out. If he was overreacting to Jackson’s set-up confrontation, he’ll be disciplined and counseled and watched. If his actions are found to have been mainly reasonable, he’ll still have to live with the damage that NBC has done to him while chasing an Emmy.