Two videos. Two traffic stops. Two very different outcomes. And a lesson that the armchair quarterbacks in their comfortable dens will never understand.
The first video shows a Black Army lieutenant stopped in southern Virginia. The police give contradictory commands. Put your hands outside the vehicle. Now exit the vehicle. You cannot do both. He hesitates, confused by the impossible instructions. They pepper spray him. It looks bad. It is bad. The officers lost control of the situation and their cool. The lieutenant, whatever his rank or race, deserved better.
The second video shows a traffic stop in New Mexico. A fraction of a second. The suspect emerges from the truck. The officer is shot and killed. There is no time to think. No time to de-escalate. No time to sort out contradictory commands. Just a gun and a trigger and a dead cop on the pavement.
These two videos, watched together, explain why police are nervous about traffic stops.
Every time a officer approaches a vehicle, he does not know what is inside. He does not know if the driver is a confused lieutenant or a killer waiting for the right moment. He does not know if the hands reaching for the seat belt are reaching for a weapon. He does not know if the next second will be his last.
The contradictory commands in the first video are not malice. They are fear. The officers are trying to control a situation that could turn deadly at any moment. They do it badly. They escalate when they should de-escalate. They make a bad situation worse. That is a failure of training, of judgment, of temperament. It should be criticized. It should be corrected.
But it should also be understood in the context of the second video. The officer in New Mexico did everything right, presumably. He followed procedure. He approached with caution. He gave commands. And he is dead anyway, shot by a man who had no intention of being arrested.
It is very easy to play armchair quarterback from the safety of your den. Very easy to watch a video and pronounce judgment on every decision. Very easy to ignore the fact that the officers making those decisions do so with the knowledge that they might be murdered in the next five seconds.
Most people, including trained police officers, are incapable of reacting quickly enough to defend themselves. The New Mexico video proves that. The officer never had a chance. His killer was faster, more determined, more prepared for violence.
The lieutenant in Virginia had every right to be angry. The officers who pepper sprayed him had every reason to be nervous. Both are true. Both matter. And anyone who cannot hold both truths in their head at the same time has not understood the problem.
