The Kind of Coward Who Only Punches Someone Who’s Already in Handcuffs
May 31, 2020
Back in the 1970s & ‘80s in Philadelphia, we had our own version of Arizona’s Sheriff Arpaio—a law enforcement/political strongman who was tough on “crime” (i.e., minorities). A few years ago, I heard a third-hand description of him from an officer who worked under him while he was Philly’s police commissioner. “I never saw him punch a guy who wasn’t already in handcuffs,” he said derisively. The former officer scoffed at the cowardice of hitting a defenseless person—as he should have. And yet a big chunk of our country intentionally chooses to see courage in the abuse of power that preys on the defenseless.
The cold-blooded murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week is a horrific example of criminal cowardice attempting to masquerade as strength. Officer Derek Chauvin, surrounded by his police brothers/enablers, was captured on video cavalierly snuffing out the life out of a defenseless handcuffed man over the course of nine agonizing minutes. George Floyd, begging to be able to breathe, posed no threat to Officer Chauvin. And yet Chauvin smugly looked around at the gathering crowd, apparently proud of the power he wielded over a man who had already been rendered defenseless. As if that made him look tough.
Derek Chauvin wasn’t the only coward responsible for George Floyd’s murder. The other officers who let him get away with it were either enjoying the power trip of murdering a defenseless man, or they were afraid of breaking the thin cowardly line and evoking Chauvin’s displeasure. Either way, their cowardice was criminal.
The list of men, women and children who were victims of this kind of cowardly brutality at the hands of officers and self-appointed vigilantes keeps growing. People whose main “crime” was being born with darker skin continue to be killed by racists who presume they are above facing any consequences—the kind of spineless sociopaths who would never hit a man who wasn’t already in handcuffs. In 2016, Freddie Gray’s back was broken while he was handcuffed and shackled in the custody of six Baltimore officers, none of whom were convicted of his murder. Since a healthy 25-year-old’s back doesn’t spontaneously break, the only explanation is that one or all of the six officers intentionally and maliciously caused Gray’s death. At least one actively killed a defenseless man who was already in handcuffs. And the others took part in the cover-up, maintaining the thin cowardly line and caving to the crippling peer pressure instead of doing the right thing.
The nonchalant way Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd with his hands in his pockets, showing his defiance toward the people filming and begging for him to not commit murder is chilling. The way Chauvin just assumed he could get away with this crime—and the fact that the three other officers there let him—indicates that he had probably gotten away with significant but non-lethal cruelty throughout his police career. He was exhibiting the cowardice of someone not even brave enough to think that they’re ever going to face any consequences. It’s the cold-blooded cowardice of Nazi prison guards and lynch mobs throughout the past century, up to and including Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers, Gregory and Travis McMichael—men who thought that their whiteness and connection to law enforcement meant that they were entitled to get away with murder.
How has murdering a defenseless person become some kind of badge of American manhood? Eddie Gallagher is a celebrated hero of Fox propaganda viewers not because they actually think that he was wrongfully accused and then vindicated, but because they believe that he did what he was accused of doing, and they admire him for it. They revel in his ability to get away with stabbing an injured, sedated teenage ISIS prisoner to death. They admire him for allegedly shooting at unarmed Muslim civilians trying to go about their daily routines, including adolescent girls and old men. They get a vicarious thrill from his ability to get away with murdering defenseless people with darker skin and a “scary” religion. Gallagher’s supporters seem to think they’re being “pro-military” and “pro-American” by supporting Gallagher, as opposed to supporting the seven other Navy SEALS who bravely did the right thing and risked their careers to testify against him. His supporters—including the President of the United States—celebrate Eddie Gallagher, who is nothing more than the type of guy who would never punch a person who wasn’t already in handcuffs. They celebrate sociopathic cowardice as valor.
Whether the ISIS teenager was an ordinary young soldier scooped up into a war beyond his control, like soldiers throughout the thousands of years of history, or if he was poised to become a bloodthirsty ISIS war criminal is not knowable. What we do know is that—according to at least seven Navy SEALS—at the moment when Eddie Gallagher killed him, he was a frail, injured teenager in U.S. custody.
And whether or not the defenseless person “deserved” to be murdered while in handcuffs misses the point. If Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old white supremacist who murdered nine African Americans at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston were to suffer a violent, painful death in prison, he would deserve it. But that doesn’t mean that our officers or our justice system should allow that to happen. If Roof died at the hands of a black prison guard while he was handcuffed in a secluded cell, that prison guard wouldn’t be showing courage. Similarly, I’m sure I’m not alone in fantasizing about medieval-type punishments for Derek Chauvin right now. It’s a gratifying fantasy, but not one that I would actually want or expect our justice system to carry out. And if Chauvin met this kind of fate while defenseless in prison, the person who executed those punishment would not be brave, and a system that allowed it would not be just.
I hope that there is some real justice for George Floyd, and that Derek Chauvin and his cowardly comrades spend the rest of their lives in jail for their roles in callously murdering him in broad daylight. I also hope that we as a country can stop mistaking cowardly violence against the defenseless as bravery. I hope we can start describing violent bullies as the cowards they are, using the insult leveraged against a long-dead Philly politician: “He’s the kind of person who never punches a guy who isn’t already in handcuffs.” And I hope that we begin to celebrate the actual courage that it takes to stand up to violent cowards in positions of power.
