An Arrogant Hawk, Derek Chauvin, Christian and Amy Cooper, and the Lost Cause

A long time ago I was sitting in a cigar store puffing away on a stogie when I heard a loud, "THWUP." I looked out the window and there in the parking lot a large hawk had nailed a pigeon. When I first saw them a few feathers were still drifting downward. As I rose and stepped to the plate glass, the hawk turned its head and stared at me as his talons gripped the still struggling prey. For the next minute or so, while its claws dug in deeper and deeper that hawk kept gazing at me with unnerving arrogance. It was if he was saying, "Just try to stop me."

The other day, when I first watched the video of George Floyd being murdered I saw the same look in the eyes of a Minneapolis cop named Derek Chauvin. Chauvin's knee was crushing into Floyd's neck. Floyd was gasping, saying he couldn't breath, yet Chauvin was staring steadily at a bystander filming the nightmare. He didn't say a word. He didn't need to. His eyes said it all. "Just try to stop me."

On the same day, half way across the country in New York City Amy Cooper was walking through the Ramble portion of Central Park. It is a wooded area where dogs are required to be on a leash. Her's wasn't. When bird watcher and former Marvel Comics editor Christian Cooper, pointed out the rules to her, Amy went into what can best be called a tizzy. Chris Cooper, who is black, apparently sensed what was coming so he turned on his camera.

Ms. Cooper--no relation--began threatening Chris in a way only African Americans can really relate to. She told him that if he didn't shut up she would call the police and tell them a black man was threatening her in the park. He didn't, so she did.

Given what has transpired just this year alone--can you say, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, not to mention Eric Garner six years ago--one can reasonably interpret Amy Cooper's action as attempted murder by cop.

Luckily, at least in this instance, cooler heads prevailed. Christian Cooper became a hero of sorts, the voice of calm sanity, and intelligence. Amy Cooper's employer fired her the day after the video hit social media. A little later she had to give up her dog to a shelter because the video also showed her nearly choking out the poor beast when she continually lifted it off the ground by the collar during her racist tirade.

Both Christian Cooper and the dog caught a break. Too many others haven't and won't.

It is time to admit this vile shit isn't going to end, at least not during our lives. We can teach, preach, protest, and yell, but racism, in all its subtle and violent forms, is going to remain a part of us for as long as we exist as a nation.

Obviously some will struggle on in the vain hope to eradicate this mental disease. Indeed, noble lost causes are the most alluring in the hearts of many idealistic souls.

As for me, I say fuck it. We're hopeless. The only thing we can do is punish racism as harshly as we can when confronted by it--smash the Derek Chauvins of the world with the biggest legal hammer we can find.

Just don't ever tell me we will someday be rid of despicable rubes like him. Because, if this year has proven anything, that ain't gonna happen.




sic vita est

5-28-20