Tin Man in the Emerald City

The Emerald City -- Seattle, in Washington State -- prides itself on
being a compassionate place. Filled with big-spending liberals, a pair of
newspapers joined at the hip and singing the same politically correct
editorial solo, a thriving minority community catered to by a diverse
crowd of politicians and bureaucrats -- the Emerald City oozes compassion
from its rain-soaked pores.

Why, then, did Seattle's police stand by and do nothing while Kristopher
Kime was beaten to death in front of their eyes? Three hundred
riot-suited police officers -- to a man -- followed the orders of police
chief Gil Kerlikowske: Don't break up the city's fun on Fat Tuesday.

Young Mr. Kime's "crime," you see, was trying to rescue a woman from a
crowd of reveling criminals just trying to have their fun with her. In
short, Kristopher Kime was trying to do what most of us imagine police
are supposed to do -- protect ordinary citizens from criminals and thugs.

Fast forward to early Wednesday morning. Des Moines police officer Steven
Underwood approaches four black teen-age pedestrians to arrest one he
believes is wanted on a felony warrant. He is shot in the head and dies a
few hours later in the hospital. Law enforcement across jurisdictions and
agencies joins the manhunt, closing off the area and snarling traffic for
hours.

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Which life was more valuable?

Many would deny there is a connection between Mr. Kime's death and
Officer Underwood's slaying. I disagree.

When the police do not respond to murder and mayhem, they encourage the brutal thugs everywhere. Violence always tests the limits. Mr. Kerlikowske could have learned that
lesson by studying New York City. The thugs that murdered Mr. Kime were
emboldened when police did nothing. The same powers that be signed both
Mr. Kime and Officer Underwood's death warrants.

There are police officers whom I suspect know this. Some of them have
risked their careers to apologize to Mr. Kime's mother and father. One
even sent the overtime check he earned for working the riots to the dead
boy's mother. They have risked their careers because the only concern of
the powers that be is whether the city will be sued over its illegal
orders barring police from protecting citizens from murderous thugs. Mr.
Kime is little more than another risk factor to be calculated into a
"successful" political or bureaucratic career.

The Tin Man rules in Seattle, and he has no heart.

There is a disturbing tendency creeping into the aftermath of all this.
While the natural tendency is to follow orders, sometimes they must be
questioned. And in rare cases, they must be countermanded by the man or
woman on the scene.

Police officers are not unlike nuclear submarine commanders in that if the lights go out -- they have to be able to function on their own. A good police department would breed and promote men and women capable of making decisions on their own -- even that most
difficult of all decisions -- to disobey a superior's direct order when
justice demands it. But I fear the powers that be have rather bred the
opposite into the Emerald City's police force. The familiar chorus of the
yes-men can always be heard around the weak leader.

Our parents and grandparents confronted one of the many faces of evil
during the war crimes trial at Nuremberg. There, Hitler's lieutenants
justified the deaths of millions of men, women, and children -- and the
destruction of much of Europe -- on following orders. Fortunately, our
predecessors had the wisdom not to accept that defense.

Most of Hitler's lieutenants were found guilty of their actions, and paid with their
lives. Their crime, in a very real sense, was following orders.

The Emerald City is not Nuremberg, and its leaders are not Nazis. Yet we
all know too well that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a
single step.

As Mr. Kime and Officer Underwood's deaths demonstrate, we
are well down the wrong path, and those who would take us further down
that road, nearer the evil of Nuremberg, are no friends of anyone in
Seattle.