Crimes and criminal behavior are a way of thinking that can have a lasting impact on a community. Yes, people can make mistakes that were not intended to be criminal (i.e. misunderstanding something) but these are not the behaviors we are talking about here. Just becomes someone is caught in one crime doesn't mean they haven't engaged in other crimes. Hate and criminality are a way of thinking that impacts multiple facets of life. When there are legitimate open questions it might be helpful to investigate the full scope of the problem to find better solutions.
Let me give you an example of how this plays out in the real world. Someone has an untreated mental health disorder (i.e. people often don't know they have them.) and finds an opportunity to exploit racial and religious differences for personal gain (On the surface it looks like a one time event.). Because the behavior moves beyond misunderstanding and into a mental schema (See Mental Schema Research History) there are likely other associated behaviors that fall in line with this pattern of thinking.
What are the chances these are an isolated incident? Not much. While the perpetrators might have engaged in the crime that finally got them caught, there were other issues that were not fully addressed and may rear their ugly head again. Its important to take a look at these associated behaviors to ensure that we are effectively understanding and dealing with mental health from a law enforcement training perspective (See Mental Health Enforcement Schema).
There are some other aspects that line of thinking and behavior exhibited at different times. Ponder....
1.) Social Context: They engaged in these behaviors in a social context that was accepting to such behaviors (See Social Psychology Criminal Justice). This means there is a high probability that similar exploitive behaviors occurred at different times as it relates to this person and their "blind" supporters. The group is heavily involved in the local sporting community and its important to ensure we are teaching the right values (youth and adults) to create resilience to protect against the acceptance of future inappropriate behaviors.
2.) Damaging Black Genius: The Black community needs stronger leaders and when a Black Genius that was intentionally targeted for manipulation, exploited, damaged and discarded (classic sociopath type behaviors) we have to wonder what the legal ramifications should be and how to help the person they damaged (We are making a commitment to our best and brightest for national development or we have other issues that take precedence. Either we are struggling with subconscious value in race/religion or we are struggling with better mechanism to help trauma victims? ). In this case two Black geniuses (one diagnosed the other unevaluated) were hurt (one directly and the other indirectly) but the perpetrators and their associated family/friends didn't care much because its unimportant collateral damage to their goals.
3.) Questions of Fraud and Embezzlement: Its not just about race and religion as these are hate tools to be used in a larger cleansing campaign that puts seeks to "gas light" the community to blame the victim thereby making discovery much less likely (We really don't believe stuff like this happens?). As with many such conflicts there is often a financial root that contributes to the decision making (i.e. exploitation of the elderly). We should ask ourselves from a strategic standpoint why someone engages in such behavior to this extent and the other contributing motivating factors. When race and religion influence legacies, opportunities and last rites that is a serious issue to contend with (I've heard other minority communities say the same.).
4.) Behaviors of Associates: Some of the members of the group (i.e. the law enforcement officer who dishonored his badge and the sacrifices of other officers did so for his personal gain. Some would call this selfish and members of the group might call it "cool".) maybe engaged in other criminal acts throughout the community (An independent investigation determines plausibility.). Not taking a hard look at these behaviors doesn't make a lot of sense and would appear negligent in protecting the community from future crimes. While an investigation may determine the end result (affirmative, negative, too hard to prosecute, legal immunity, politically dicey, unpopular, not appropriate, etc...) its important to look at what happens when we don't take these behaviors seriously. The integrity of the system is more important than the individual actors in this situation (See Impact Social Media Hate).
5.) History of Bulling "Others" in the Community: This is not the first time such behavior occurred and I doubt this is the first time they put in false police complaints/witness against people they want to "remove from their presence". It was just way too easy to do with almost no checks and balances in the local system (A couple of officers had a good internal compass and made a difference. These are the people we should promote. Some may need to be trained. A few may need to be removed.) There appears to have been other places and times when the group picked "fights" with others and manipulated their close connections to "solve" the problem (The difference being that the targets in this case had more self control and awareness of corrupt tactics.).
While no one can say whether these are 100% true what we can say is that they should be of concern. It is an opportunity to draw clear boundaries between what is and what is not acceptable behaviors in our society. It is also an opportunity to give the perpetrators an opportunity to help themselves through mental health intervention to ensure that they do not do these behaviors again (Blind eye encourages more of these behaviors). We can't run from these issues and we can't afford to ignore them anymore (If we care about our nation and the next generation.).
I'm a big believer in forgiveness of bad behavior (not forget) simply because hate and pain is a drain on the beauty of life. Much better to forgive other's weaknesses (Forgiveness is not the same thing as not acting.). While such behaviors are inappropriate and fly in the face of good moral judgement they are also highly illegal and highly manipulative. Accountability, forgiveness, reform, and mental health can all come in to play here in a positive way. We just have to be a little more wise of how criminal thinking impacts not only the perpetrators (criminal logic) but also the victims and our perceptions of good moral conscious (societal standards of virtue and law. See Socrates, Ethics and Law).
Crime and criminals should not have the last word or the benefits of their actions. While these people (and "party") may have scorched the landscape it is possible to turn intentional destructiveness into an opportunity to build something much better and much more enlightening in origin from the ashes left behind (A pretty good lesson for a nation that had it capital sacked by similar extremism behaviors). In Michigan we have opportunities to better understand, code and intervene the mental health issues that lead to extremism and its associated behaviors (See Michigan Coding and Solution).
As a side note. There may be people (likely close friends, associates, and those who struggle with their own identities) that might disagree with the high potential of other associated crimes. Its kind of old study 2007 but seems to fit in this situation. The researchers found while investigating 435 offenders a three-factor model of dysfunctional thinking. They interpret these three factors as Control, Cognitive Immaturity, and Egocentrism. (See
Inmate Thinking Patterns). If you knew the perpetrators it would seem a fairly accurate description of root beliefs.
“If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.”― Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle 🤓
