The Fearbiters

There used to be a classification of dogs known as fearbiters. In short, these dogs had been abused or improperly trained, they feared strangers and they snapped at kids. They were dangerous to ordinary people and children, like some police officers today. I'm thinking of Andy Lopez, Michael Brown, and the many other unarmed children and young adults who have been shot a half dozen times by a public servant fearing for his life. But are these panicking shooters the central villains in street executions? What about the Sonoma County sheriff who trained the killer of Andy Lopez and then gave the man back his gun and sent him out to shoot again? What about the district attorney who let the killer off without a trial? Or the police chief in Ferguson and the county district attorney there who tacitly endorsed the shooting of unarmed Michael Brown? They could join together and produce a manual in  how to sweep government-sanctioned manslaughter under the rug.

It's not just that government officials thwarted justice. We're used to that. They also ended any hope of finding out what really happened, information that only a trial could have produced. So there is no closure. And the penalty for covering up? None.