by Wina Sturgeon
Once again, a cop with a gun has overreacted, fatally shooting an unarmed and innocent civilian.
Jonathan Ferrell, a former football player for Florida A&M University, was possibly in a clinical state of shock as he ran towards officers for help after crashing his car in Charlotte, North Carolina, in mid-September. One officer tased the oncoming athlete. The other pulled his gun and shot Ferrell ten times. He died immediately.
On the same day, New York City police shot two passing women while aiming at a nearby unarmed man who had merely mimed shooting a gun at them with his bare hand.
Ten days earlier in Texas, an off duty cop shot and killed an unarmed man sitting in his car during an incident that looks suspiciously like a case of cop road rage. A week earlier, also in Texas, a police officer was caught on video brutally beating an entire unarmed family; the mother, father and their son, during a routine traffic stop.
There’s more. In Salt Lake City last November, 21-year-old Danielle Willard, unarmed, was shot to death through the window of her locked car as she tried to back out of a parking stall. Police stonewalled Willard’s mother, refusing to provide details about the killing until finally, the case got national attention. Only then did the Salt Lake District Attorney investigate. In August, he revealed that ballistics tests showed the officers lied about what had happened.
Two months after Willard’s death, in nearby Ogden, police broke down Matthew Stewart’s door with a battering ram and entered on a ‘Knock and Announce’ search warrant. Stewart said he never heard the police announce themselves. One officer was wearing a Cheech and Chong T-shirt and jeans. Stewart said he thought the intruders were robbers who were after his small marijuana grow and he feared his life was in danger, so he shot at them from behind a hallway. He killed one police officer and wounded five others. There was dispute about whether police had in fact lied to obtain the search warrant.
There’s an increasing amount of violence by officers of the law against mostly unarmed citizens. It’s a situation that has not been addressed on any national level. Yet the cause of these growing numbers of tragic incidents may be drug abuse—drugs for which police are never tested.
The drugs are steroids, or anabolics. They can create a condition known as ‘‘roid rage,‘ which causes a literal hair trigger temper, a flash point of easy anger.
These illegal substances are also known as PED’s, Performance Enhancing Drugs. They increase testosterone, which often causes an increase in aggression, especially in those who already have a tendency towards angry, aggressive and authoritative behavior. Studies have proven a clear link between testosterone and increased aggression or hostility.
Anabolic steroids were first created by the Germans , who fed them to the Nazi SS police to fuel a culture of machismo, support of authority and lack of empathy for their victims. We all know how that played out.
A number of horrific murders have been committed by athletes, specifically NFL players and body builders, who were later found to have been taking anabolic steroids. Most athletes who compete today are scrupulously tested for PEDs. But police officers, who must deal with the public daily on a supposedly lawful basis, are never tested for these drugs.
Even well known physical signs of steroid use are ignored. PEDs cause hair loss, thus many users shave their heads to hide bald spots. An law officer with a newly shaved head and a more abrupt and hostile attitude is never suspected of taking illegal drugs. Such officers are not tested even after killing or brutalizing an unarmed and innocent citizen.
Most news junkies know that police divisions throughout America are quickly becoming more militaristic; trading shotguns for semiautomatic assault weapons, obtaining and operating their own drones. Yet users of this increased firepower and surveillance, who may be tested for recreational drugs like pot or cocaine, are never tested for illegal anabolics which can actually make them a danger to the public.
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