Open letter to Pettis County sheriff: Identify the deputy who shot unarmed Sedalia woman
Sheriff Kevin Bond, your open letter to the citizens of Pettis County, Missouri, answers some questions about your department. Not the big one, about how your deputy wound up killing an unarmed Sedalia woman during a traffic stop. But your priorities could not have been laid out more clearly.
If it’s true that one of your deputies who had nothing to do with shooting 25-year-old Hannah Fizer is being blamed and threatened on social media, there’s something you can do about this “dangerous situation for our community.” Release the name of the real shooter.
Whenever there’s a shooting involving police, the public deserves to know who was responsible. Not so that person can be targeted, but so we know that officer’s history with the use of force and with the person on whom he used force.
Officers who take lives have to be held accountable in a process that’s transparent.
You wrote, “Are you willing to allow Pettis County to become the test project for some Social Justice experiment for Rural America? I certainly hope not. Our nation is facing difficult times, and we are facing a difficult issue right here in our hometown. But it is important to remember that we must have faith in the American Way, and not allow this type of Social Injustice to establish a stronghold here.”
Social justice is a concept that goes back to Augustine, and in this country, to Thomas Paine. The term “social justice” was first used by the Italian Jesuit philosopher Luigi Taparelli d’Azeglio in 1843. And though reviled on the right, pursuing social justice is a really close synonym to “seeking the common good.” To the first of the three things God asks of man in Micah: “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
So no, this would not be a maiden voyage for social justice in rural America were it to break out in Pettis County. And faith in the American way in no way means giving up on legal justice; on the contrary, it means demanding it.
You write that, “Last night, the criminal element among us ramped up its efforts to begin its own version of ‘Social Justice.’ One of my deputies, not involved whatsoever with the shooting or its investigation, has been singled out and targeted for harassment, stalking, and has been threatened with serious assault. His name and photograph is posted on social media, and calls for his child to be harmed are rampant. There are lies circulating about both him and Hannah with this. The truth does not matter to the instigators, and unsuspecting people are being sucked into the hatred. We are beginning to see people who are willing to resort to criminal behavior and taking advantage of this situation to turn it into social chaos.”
Such threats are wrong. Again, so is your view of what social justice looks like. Were you on a first-name basis with the woman your deputy killed, as this post suggests? If so, please explain. If not, please refer to her more respectfully.
The criminal behavior on the minds of those who are looking for answers is the unexplained shooting death of a woman who supposedly threatened to shoot Officer X. But as it turns out, she had no gun.
“It does not stop there,” you write. “Deputies’ addresses are being circulated, there are calls for both me and the Chief of Police to resign or be thrown out of office, and last night I received an extortion email to release my name and home address on social media if I do not comply with unreasonable demands. Your Pettis County Prosecutor is also receiving pressure and threats from fringe elements to take actions based on people’s feelings, not the truth.”
Doxing is wrong. It’s also a little silly in this case. In a small town, doesn’t everyone already know where you and others live? You can’t be forced to resign or “thrown out of office” except by voters. You can, however, address valid concerns by telling the truth, whatever that is, instead of leaving people guessing and then complaining when they guess wrong.
You write, “I need you to think rationally and not just with emotion. We are all hurting and we need time to heal.” If all are hurting, not all are hurting equally, and no one should have to tell you that. Time is what you do not have because it’s past time that you told the people who elected you what they need to know.
This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
