In the wake of the shooting of Terence Crutcher, thousands of people are coming together to protest his death at the hands of police, most of which are people in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. One unlikely person voiced his opinion on the matter as well, and even gave some insight on how police should have proceeded.
That person is Rodney Muterspaw, police chief in Middletown, Ohio outside of Cincinnati, who took to Twitter to speak out against the shooting and show his disgust with the incident. As many have heard already, Crutcher was a 40-year-old father studying music and headed home from a local college when his car stalled. Police encountered him on the road and, despite complying with their orders to keep his hands up, Officer Betty Shelby shot and killed him. Though police claim Crutcher was reaching into his car to retrieve what appeared to be a gun, his window was closed the entire time and he was unarmed.
Muterspaw crossed the Blue Line and sent out a tweet to explain that this is not how all cops operate, and he doesn’t believe in their approach. He said,
“As an officer I am so sick and drained of some cops doing things like this. You are making us all look bad. STOP. #TerenceCrutcher“
He even implied that the officers involved in the shooting did not think that life is precious. He implored his fellow officers to instead utilize “compassion and empathy” rather than employing “death and hate” to solve sticky situations.
“Life is precious man. Sorry we don’t all agree. Compassion and empathy is eternally important. Just sick of seeing death & hate.#Life“
Dozens of responses poured in and Muterspaw successfully addressed some of the more pressing and accusational ones. Most of the responses were critical and spewed pro-police, anti-victim arguments that, it turns out, don’t actually work on someone that has been an officer for 25 years. He didn’t back down and responded to several people:
“@godisgood1961 Been on that type of call/situation over 100x. You don’t shoot for non-compliance. You shoot when UOF escalates. Not hard.”
UOF stands for use of force, and since absolutely no force was used by Terence Crutcher, the situation should not have escalated so quickly and lethally. He directed another reply at two users, saying,
“@EASTBAYDFRESH@askarsismygod been in that situation 100x….communication, taser, pepper spray…whatever it takes to protect life first.”
Crutcher’s death has caused outrage and pain throughout the nation, especially because the entire incident was caught on video and released this week. His senseless death is among many at the hands of police, and it would come as no surprise if the officer charged with manslaughter were to be acquitted because cops so often get away with these murders.
Muterspaw said that what happened in Tulsa has motivated his station to more effectively train his officers in de-escalation tactics. He told the Journal-News,
“It’s a chance to learn from it. We are not robots. We have an opinion too. If it makes our department better and keeps our officers safer, if it makes the city better, we should speak out about it.”
What are your thoughts on Muterspaw’s tweets? Please share, like, and comment on this article!
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