PRL Serials

Druinte Encounter With Race on Earth continued

Eakran, also know as Dr. Thomas Eakran – Druinte Representative to the Interstellar Panel and Institute for Brain Function Liaison to the US Center for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration, and Central Intelligence Agency on Earth – completed the exam to show fitness for travel to Earth. He completed the essay from the perspective of a wealthy African American with liberal political leanings. The following excerpts his original essay that was over 100,000 words in its entirety. He completed the exam in English to demonstrate competency with the language.

…Andrew is most likely a fan of the Showtime original series Shameless that he discovered on Netflix after a recommendation from a close friend. Having recently started the show, he is very interested in seeing the show’s antagonist, Frank, die because of his selfishness and inability to care for his family despite their obvious need for care… 

…As such, it is safe to assume that Andrew is a man of modest income who experienced a childhood similar to the characters of the show Shameless which is why he has become so invested in the show. Andrew has his last $5 in his pocket and he is hoping that he will not need to spend it before he receives his paycheck at the end of the week…

…Andrew has learned to manage in his day to day on little sleep and even when he struggles to sleep because of worries about paying bills on time, he never misses a day of work and he is always courteous to customers at his job where he works in customer service. His ability to sublimate his own hardships is integral to maintaining his income and he never takes out his personal frustrations on customers. His lack of sleep has very little bearing on his interaction with others…

…Andrew’s encounter with Theodore reveals that the two are not of the same race; a black police officer would have been more likely to show patience at Black Andrew’s dissatisfaction because of his ability to sympathize with any perceived bias, but a white officer would have been perceived by Black Andrew as making his life more difficult because of past instances where his encounters with white people had resulted in difficulties. It is possible that both Theodore and Andrew are white, though it is highly unlikely that this encounter would have unfolded between two white people given the prevalence of stories in the media about black men killed by white police officers. Therefore, Andrew is black and Theodore is white…

…Were Andrew a white man, and the race of Theodore any of the variety present on Earth, it would stand to reason that members of his community should be concerned that a routine traffic stop could end in death. It is a matter of self preservation; every member of the community should desire the assurance that one bad encounter with police won’t result in death. White Andrew’s community should make grievances known to the police to ensure that these types of disputes do not end similarly in the future… 

…If the officer in the incident, Theodore, is a black man, it is irrelevant to the black community because his race is insignificant to a discussion of abuse of power afforded to members of a police force. Power has a way of changing human beings and they tend to shirk labels of lower stature as they move into more powerful circles. Simply put, Black Theodore would not be labeled as such by his community, he would be Officer Theodore once putting on his badge. Even if Theodore faces racism within his department, he has alienated himself from the black civilian community at large and would most likely only find support among other black officers and officers of other races sympathetic to his plight. As a result, the civilian black community has no obligation to defend the actions of a black police officer if he commits an act that is viewed as an abuse of power…

…Regardless of Andrew’s race or ethnicity, the black civilian community has a responsibility to show outrage at incidences of abuse of power by police because black civilians are more likely to be victims and have a vested interest in stamping it out when it becomes apparent in their local police department… 

…If Andrew has a lack of skin pigmentation, the incident would serve as proof that Theodore was either improperly trained to deescalate conflicts or had been trained to defend himself with his gun first even if he does not encounter a gun; both incidences would be indictments of his training as a police officer…

…I would like to assume that Theodore has no other weapon, but it is more likely that White Theodore is intimidated by Black Andrew and draws his gun on instinct because of latent fear of the black man, even though he has other weapons at his disposal…

…Andrew is obviously more physically imposing than Theodore, Andrew is taller, and this is why Theodore pulls his weapon rather than approach the situation with other nonlethal means. Theodore is not justified in his use of the gun regardless of the physicality of Andrew because it is obvious from the details that Theodore could have deescalated the situation in the moment by listening to Andrew’s grievances and addressing them…

…Both Andrew and Theodore make mistakes in this encounter and it is very possible that both were having a bad morning. There is no way to make assessments about their character or fitness for police service based on this one incident; though as a supporter of movements that seek to hold police accountable for their actions that lead to unnecessary death, I will say that Theodore should lose his job as a result of this incident…

…The most important interpretation of events to a criminal prosecution would be the correct one; whichever side is truthful and can be corroborated with eye witness accounts or video if available. If the story from either side can be discounted by video and eyewitness, then that side is immediately ineffective and should be dismissed…