She didn't know. Well, I'm sure she does now.

Yes, I know this event was from last fall, but it was just today that WRSA and AP clued me in to it.  The date is trivial;  the event is not, despite its frequency.  As Billy Beck so poignantly put it, "Man, it gets hard to remember them all."

The news item itself:



Actually, the only thing that's news is that it appears that Chrisman actually was fired over the event.  (It is more a matter of simple historical analysis, rather than unfounded cynicism, to observe that this case was exceptional only because Chrisman's partner could not bring himself to defend Chrisman's actions, and was the one who provided the damning testimony.  Without that, who wants to bet that we'd even have heard of this case?  It is also just a matter of historical analysis to note the absolutely stunning rarity of anyone in The Family The Brotherhood The Gang Law Imposement law enforcement "rolling over" on a brother member no matter what the circumstances;  the unnatural statistical anomaly is so well-known in our collective consciousness that we make movies about it, perhaps in an attempt to convince ourselves that it is rare, rather than common.)  And as of this writing, I don't see anything other than a firing.  Unless you count the police union's fundraising barbecue for Chrisman after he was canned.  They're making quite sure he gets his due process, when (and if: it's gotta be said) ever the "day in court" comes.

Rodriguez, of course, remains dead.  So does his dog.

This post, though, is actually about Rodriguez' poor mother.  Watching her in the above video, it's pretty obvious she did not expect the result of her call for "help" to be her son's murder.  She, like so many of us, was probably trained from birth that calling 911 brings people whose primary goal is to help, and so she probably called in perfectly good faith.

She didn't know, and I admit that makes me heartsick.

Well, I bet she knows now.