As humans, living within time and space along a thin line that only progresses in one direction at only one speed, we think in linear terms. Cause/Effect is limited to the contents of the various videos going wild on the internet. In that context, the dead guy in Tulsa ran from the Deputy who made a horrible mistake. Two apparent tragedies resulted. The guy running was killed - without being convicted of a crime, afforded due process or given the opportunity to defend himself or reform. The Deputy, by all accounts a pretty good guy with a record of community service and support, is charged with manslaughter, and may (should IMO) go to jail for years.
Both of these outcomes are tragic. Neither should have happened. If either the dead guy or the deputy had exercised anything other than stupidity, both tragedies would have been avoided completely, and nobody would have heard of either person. All kinds of police encounters happen without this level of stupidity every single day. My contention is that the stupid factor kicked in, one guy died, the others life is changed forever. My exhortation is, let's don't be so stupid.
But our linear, time sensitive and limited perspective doesn't see everything.
Maybe the deputy had some karma bills to pay off, and the running criminal just presented the opportunity for "comes around" to collect from "goes around". Maybe the dead guy didn't deserve to die last weekend. But maybe he had a bill to pay too. We all know that there is a justice that supersedes and overrules legal or even moral justice. Faith teaches us that a whole bunch of events in life that seem senseless or cruel do actually make sense in a broader or higher paradigm.
I am not satisfied with that answer in a general sense, or saying that we can't do better as a civilized society. We need a police force with the power and authority to stop crime. And we need to keep our law enforcement officers from becoming terrorists. We need and value civil rights, due process, presumption of innocence and a justice system based on truth. We also need to aggressively and intentionally confront those who undermine the safety and security of society at large.
But in situations that happen, that we can't change or reconcile, sometimes the Karma Cop Out all we have to work with.
So my exhortation today is as it was a few days back. We need to be kind to each other. Karma will do what it does without our help. We don't know what others are going through or have endured in the past. So we need to treat each person with respect, with kindness and dignity. Or Karma may indeed ask us to walk a mile in their shoes.