MISINTERPRETED TERMS: HOMICIDE, UNARMED AND TEENAGER

The misinterpretation of terms has led to the condemnation of righteous cops

The death of Eric Garner in the NYPD chokehold arrest was ruled a homicide by the coroner’s office. Rabble rouser Al Sharpton and other black ‘community’ leaders immediately seized on the term ‘homicide’ to mean that Garner had been murdered by the cops. And many Americans, not just the black community, misinterpreted the term, thus leading to shock and outrage when a grand jury failed to return any indictments in that case.

Much has been made of the fact that Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown were unarmed when they were killed by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman and Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson respectively. The term ‘unarmed’ can easily be misinterpreted to mean that in a confrontation with the police, an unarmed man is harmless.

News headlines often read “Cops Kill Teenager” or something like it. And what do people think of when they see the term ‘teenager’? They immediately conjure up the image of a 12, 13, or 14-year old boy.

The American public is totally ignorant about the meaning of the term ‘homicide’. They have no idea that the term is a legal one, meaning that the death of a person was caused by another person, not that the person was murdered. The difference between the two terms – homicide and murder – is as different as the difference between day and night. But in their ignorance about the meaning of ‘homicide’, the public is shocked and outraged when a grand jury refuses to indict cops for murder.

In the Trayvon Martin case, Trayvon was shot to death when Zimmerman feared for his life as the unarmed teenager was pounding his head into the concrete pavement. And Wilson shot Brown, who had already injured him, as the unarmed giant charged at the officer. What the public doesn’t seem to understand, and the black community refuses to understand, is that an unarmed person can pose a deadly threat to another person.

There are teenagers and there are teenagers. In most instances, when cops kill a teenager they are not killing a 12, 13, or 14-year-old kid, they ar e killing a 17, 18, or 19-year-old youth who can be just as dangerous as a person in his 20s, 30s, 40s, etc.

Eric Garner and unarmed teenagers Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown all died as the result of a homicide, but they were not murdered. And the unarmed teenagers presented an imminent threat to the lives of George Zimmerman and Darren Wilson.

It is the misinterpretation of these terms by an ignorant public that has led to much civil unrest and given righteous cops an undeserved black eye.