David Eric Casebolt Was Having a Bad Day

David Eric Casebolt Was Having a Bad Day

Jane Bishkin, the lawyer for former police officer, David Eric Casebolt, says that he simply was having a bad day, that he was stressed. Stressed she says, stressed!

Perhaps, Jane Bishkin could explain this than:

I have had many bad days. In particular and especially, as my adopted mother, who raised me since I was 2 ½ years old, lay in bed, dying from the horrible illness of HIV, seeing her ill so many times, and wondering if she would even make it to see Christmas.

It was not that long ago, when she was diagnosed in the summer of 2000, that she had the illness and as doctors tried almost every method to keep her healthy, and to try to bring her some sense of normalcy, nothing worked. Why? Her body was old, it was worn down by HIV, and all we could do was watch and practically do nothing because there nothing that could have been done. Her fate was sealed, it was not a question if she would die, but a question of when and how soon. We were, as a family stressed. We had begun to watch our matriarch wither away, and with each passing day of seeing her, a piece of us would die. It was that slow chipping away of our sense of normalcy being eroded, and drowning in a sea of gloom and despair.

When doctors tell you, there is nothing that can be done, you are left with several choices, all of them being not favorable, you can accept the inevitable, you can pray for a miracle, or you can blame others.

During that time, I was also stressed at my job, having a supervisor who was constantly nitpicking at what I was doing, thus creating a situation where I began to question whether I belonged. I questioned each day, whether it was worth being at the job. However, in lieu of that admission, I continued to always engage with the people, to make websites, always smiling, and always being professional. Why? Because that is my job, that is what the people of my State pay me to do regardless of what is happening to me or my family or how I am feeling that day. It is what the people expect, and I am inclined and obligated to give them 110% because as a servant of the people, in some way, have entrusted me to do the right thing.

Former police officer Casebolt’s lawyer says, “with all that had happened that day, he allowed his emotions to get the better of him.” Let there be no mistake, he was stressed, he was helping to console a widow who lost her husband to suicide, and helped prevent another suicide of a young girl. How many times could I have allowed my emotions to get the better of me? How many times could I have lashed out at individuals who have removed the last sense of temperament because of their usurpations against my kind character? In times and situations like this, it calls for a reasonable effort to take a time out, to get away, to let the stresses of the day to peel off so that one’s composure is back to normal.

In lieu of this, Casebolt’s lawyer says, “he never intended to mistreat anyone, but was only reacting to a situation and the challenges that it presented.” If a non-law enforcement personnel or person on the street acted in the same manner, can we predict what would have been the outcome? Can we know for certain what would have been the response by the authorities? I will let you be the judge and suffice to say, it would have not been well received regardless of the individuals skin color. Therefore we must resist the temptation to say that this is about the individuals skin color and rather focus on the totality of the situation and its context.

I fear, we have only deepened the crisis in our republic, where different groups feel marginalized, and the media does no favor to us by sensationalizing and telling we, the people half-truths. I fear greatly that as we see the police feel marginalized, too, they will abscond from their duties and we will descend into a foray of increased polarization. Eventually, the disenfranchised people will gradually and naturally in this furnace of national debate, national ballots will crystallize into national furor; and both sides come at last to the position formerly held by the great Troupe of Georgia: “The argument is exhausted; we will now stand to our guns.”

We can take an opposite but better approach, to end the polarization of country, we can become soldiers and not fight for slavery, but for liberty and for one another. We, the people have the power to make life a splendid adventure together with our American brothers and sisters, we can fulfill the promise that is America. We can lead a struggle for all of mankind’s happiness here in our republic; only the unloved, unnatural and greedy hate. We are not machinery, cattle or sheep, we are Americans who have the love of humanity within the fabric of our hearts and souls.