death in miami

If there's one lesson I learned from the incidents at Ruby Ridge and Waco, it's that Federal law enforcement can shoot a boy in the back, blast away at a mother holding her baby and knock down a building with children in it and suffer almost no repercussions. That's why I agree with Jim Bovard's grim assessment of the recent shooting in Miami:

Some editorials called for an independent investigation of the shooting. This is a triumph of hope over experience, given how such investigations over the past 15 years almost always whitewashed federal action. Perhaps some truth will seep out as a result of jurisdictional conflicts between the Federal Air Marshal Service and the FBI or Miami police. Even in that case, if the media continue acting like South Park's Officer Barbrady—"Nothing to see here, folks, just move along"—the odds of any such revelation go from slim to none.

Our only hope in situations like these is citizen-journalists, armed with the latest in digital technology and access to the web. Alas, I doubt any video or other evidence will come forward in the case, but it would be nice if the mainstream media did a little poking around. That is, after all, their job.