An Execution By Any Other Name

Have you heard about Peyton Ham? I’m guessing you probably haven’t. There hasn’t been much national media coverage on him until the last week or so. Let me tell you a bit about him.

Let’s go back to April 13th of this year. Peyton, a 16-year-old white kid from Leonardtown, Maryland, was shot a number of times by police officer Joseph Azzari. The police were responding to a pair of calls about a man acting “suspicious”, which can mean anything. Within moments of arriving on the scene, Azzari fires his weapon at Ham 10 times within 5 seconds. The officer then moves a few feet closer to Ham and fires another shot. A minute later, as emergency sirens can be heard approaching, Azzari shoots at Ham 4 more times. That’s 15 bullets in just over a minute.

Police have yet to provide much information about this case. With good reason. The public doesn’t know how many of those 15 rounds struck Peyton. Since he is dead, it’s safe to assume it’s probably more than a couple. The official story from the cops right now is that Ham was holding a realistic-looking toy gun and that he pointed it at the officer. The shots fired after the initial salvo were necessitated by Ham pulling out a knife and trying to use it on the cops. It was a tiny knife with a 3-inch blade.

Want to see a pic of the dangerous kid who needed to be shot up to 15 times?

From cnn.com

Whoa, what a dangerous lunatic.

I’m being facetious, of course. He looks like just about every other teenage boy I’ve seen. And yet, if we’re to believe the official statement from police, he was a bloodthirsty, Terminator-like killing machine, capable of rising to his feet after being shot by police a number of times.

I, for one, do not believe what the police say after incidents like this. They have lied and misconstrued facts far too many times to have the benefit of the doubt. Remember, when George Floyd died, this is how the police initially reported it:

Two officers arrived and located the suspect, a male believed to be in his 40s, in his car. He was ordered to step from his car. After he got out, he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress. Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance where he died a short time later.

Hmmm, I wonder if they left anything out? Like a murder, perhaps?

Or remember when Walter Scott was shot in the back? (Graphic Footage Warning)

In the initial police report, the officer who murdered Scott claimed that he’d gotten his Taser from him. (Maury Povich voice) That was a lie. In the video, you can clearly see the officer plant the weapon near Scott’s body. They also claimed to have attempted CPR. But again, the video shows absolutely no evidence of this. They did not try to save his life. They watched him die.

These are far from the only incidents where police have tried to paint a rosier picture of themselves. Why wouldn’t they? When something happens, they are often the only ones who know what really happened. They have access to all the evidence. They control what witness statements are released. They can even prevent bodycam footage from being viewed until months, sometimes years, after the fact. They are the ones who set the narrative whenever something like this happens. It’s only natural to try and paint your fellow officers in the best light possible.

In Peyton’s case, there does not seem to be any bodycam footage. It was only recently that Maryland passed a law to require cameras to be worn by officers by 2023. The only reason we know about the number and timing of the shots fired is that a resident’s surveillance camera picked up the audio of the shots.

Azzari has been placed on paid leave while the investigation is ongoing.

It should be noted that the audio recording is somewhat out of context. There isn’t any video of the shooting that we know of so far. We don’t know what interaction took place between Ham and the officer. Other than what the officers have said, of course. It would seem that at least four of the bullets missed Ham, as a neighbor reported finding them in her own garage. Good thing nobody was in there at the time or there could be another victim. The police have yet to give Ham’s family the results of the autopsy report which was completed months ago.

At a rally back in July, Peyton’s family wanted answers. Like why haven’t they received the autopsy report? Why can’t the police say how many bullets ripped through their son? They also wanted to keep his name and case fresh in the minds of people. He was an honor student at the local high school. He was really into conservative politics. His family compared him to Alex P. Keaton from the TV show Family Ties.

Think about this rationally for a few moments. Why would a teenager, with no reported signs of mental health distress, confront police in such a manner? With a fake gun no less. The officer claimed that Ham was in a “shooting stance” when he arrived on the scene. After shooting him and wounding him, Ham supposedly tried to get up while armed with a knife. Again, the knife was a tiny 3-inch blade. If this kid was so into conservative politics and presumably “backed the blue” it makes no sense for him to be that aggressive with cops.

There are always exceptions and odd circumstances. But I am a believer in Occam’s Razor. The simplest answer is usually the right one. I think this cop showed up, saw a person with what looked like a gun, jumped out of his car, and shot him multiple times. I don’t think there were any warnings or de-escalation techniques used. Clearly not, since he’s dead. And the notion that after being shot and wounded, he somehow managed to pull out a knife and presented himself as a threat to the offices is ludicrous. I think they didn’t know he was a teenager and I think they thought they could get away with it.

There’s a reason the police are being so tight-lipped and reluctant to release information to the public, and I doubt that reason is that it paints the officers in a good light. They can use the “ongoing investigation” line of BS all they want. I’m not sure how releasing the autopsy to the family will hurt the investigation. What, is there a second suspected shooting they’re looking for? The case is pretty cut and dry. They’re just following the usual playbook after an officer kills someone. Deny everything, release nothing, drag it out, wait for the media to move on, then quietly settle the case.

But this killing is about a lot more than one officer and one victim.

A major focus of the Black Lives Matter movement and Defunding the Police is that we need to provide police officers with training that goes beyond “everyone is dangerous, they want to kill you, your gun is all you have”. This starts with de-escalation training. After the death of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore Police Department instituted this kind of training. It works.

In a lot of other countries around the world, police officers don’t even carry guns. This forces them to use alternate methods of dealing with the public outside of shooting them. Does this make their jobs more dangerous? Absolutely. Only a fool would argue against that. But that’s the price of being a cop. They aren’t lauded as heroes because their job is supposed to be easy or risk-free. They are tasked with putting their own lives on the line in the face of danger. But at some point, we allowed this notion of the police being above the law and the public being there to serve them to creep into our consciousness. Cops need to serve and protect everyone, and yes, that includes the criminals they are apprehending. The Constitution exists explicitly to protect their rights.

Look, there are a number of factors involved here. The insane number of guns available to people in this country is a major contributor to violence. Poverty and mental health also play a part. Police officers not being a part of the communities they serve also doesn’t help. There are a number of fixes that are required. But at a certain point, we have to hold officers accountable for their actions.

Did Peyton Ham have to die? No. Absolutely not. He was a teenager with a toy gun. Firing 15 rounds at him should never be acceptable. He did not commit any crimes. He was not guilty of anything. Even if this was a “suicide by cop” situation (which I highly doubt) then there was still no reason for him to be killed. A properly trained policeman should have been able to assess the situation and find a non-lethal way of stopping the situation.

Remember, the only reason the cops were there was to investigate a report of a man being suspicious. That’s it. Think about your own children. I remember being a kid playing “guns” with my friends in the neighborhood. Some of our toys looked fake, some real. Imagine if a police officer had been called to investigate us? What could have happened? Teenagers are not known for rational thinking or obeying authority figures. They rarely understand the long-term ramifications of their actions. Is this how you’d want police to deal with your kids? I think not.

Things are not going to change until police officers, the alleged “good apples”, stop covering for and obfuscating for their fellow boys in blue. Be transparent. Release all the info you have. Stop hiding behind BS claims about investigations. There is a family out there who lost their son and a community wounded by a senseless killing. Show some empathy, some honesty, and work to regain the public trust.

In other words, act like human beings who care.