Easy Sunday: The Renee Good and Ashli Babbitt cases have similarities.

Seeing the other person's point of view is less fun than being secure in one's partisanship.

For an "Easy Sunday" post, today I am going to avoid the hard work of showing why I think a fair-minded person would view the cases of Renee Nicole Good and Ashli Babbitt differently. There are distinctions between them, both moral and legal. I will do that another day.

The cases of Ashli Babbitt and Renee Good are enough alike that readers can learn something about bias, yours and mine. Seeing is not believing. Believing is seeing. 

--  In both instances a White woman in young middle age was shot and killed by a law enforcement office doing his job. 

-- In both instances the woman was not armed in the traditional sense, although cars can be weapons and Babbitt was carrying a knife and was surrounded by people using hard objects to break through doors and windows.

-- In both instances the woman was participating in a rowdy political protest.

-- In both instances the woman was in a space open to the public under normal circumstances.

-- In both instances the woman was told by police to leave an area while doing disruptive acts of the kind they were doing.

-- In both instances each woman was intentionally impeding law enforcement for a political cause with broad public support. In each instance a political faction believed sincerely that the laws that were being enforced -- certification of an election or immigration arrests -- were unjust and wrong.

-- In both instances there was shouting and pushing and harsh language directed at law enforcement by people surrounding the woman. The police reasonably felt themselves to be in a perilous position.

-- In both instances law enforcement people were there doing the jobs they were hired to do: protect Congressmen and carry out deportation arrests. 

-- In both instances law enforcement had a positive duty to protect themselves and others. Failure to do that duty (like the Ulvalde, Texas school security guard who failed to try to stop the school shooter) would subject the law enforcement officer to sanctions.

-- In both instances the protesters were breaking the law: breaking through a Capitol door and window in one case and parking a car sideways in a street in the other. 

-- In both instances the officers gave repeated warnings to leave.

-- In both instances there was videotape showing the circumstances of the shooting.

-- In both instance, the public response falls along partisan lines. People who thought the 2020 election was stolen from Trump argue that the protesters were unruly, sure, but basically doing legal patriotic protest, and therefore Ashli Babbitt should not have been shot while doing nothing seriously wrong. People who consider ICE's actions illegitimate consider protests like the one in Minneapolis to be unruly, sure, but basically legal patriotic protest, and therefore Renee Good should not have been shot while doing nothing seriously wrong.

-- In both instances, public opinion divided over culpability. If people thought the woman was impeding a good law, they think the shooter to be fully justified in defending himself and others. She had it coming. FAFO.  People who think the law to be unjust think the woman was not a danger to anyone, and the shooting to be unjustified. It was murder.

My guest post on Friday shared advice from Raz Mason about staying alive in a police encounter. I will repeat it;

Civilians rarely experience an immediate, conscious realization of mortal danger. Initial responses often include denial, followed by automatic fight, flight, or freeze behaviors. Recognize your peril.

Civilian bottom line: In tense law-enforcement encounters, your safety depends on minimizing motion and maximizing clarity. Keep hands visible. Stop the vehicle completely. Ask calmly and clearly: “What do you want me to do -- stay still or exit?” Do not creep, turn wheels, or move unless instructions are unambiguous and the path clear.

Recognize that the protest is not all about you and your cause. Police officers on the scene have a point of view, too, and they are armed. They may be afraid of you and people around you. They may have hostile feelings toward you and your point of view, not improbably if people are shouting hostile insults at them. Don't give them a reason to shoot you. Do not let your sense of righteousness persuade you that other people surely see events as you do. Many will not.

Be polite. Protest legally and carefully. 

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