The way American society treats the people at its margins leaves law enforcement personnel with a literally impossible job.

We hire young men (usually) who haven't experienced much of the world, hide them behind a badge and gun, give them remarkable powers and privileges, and tell them they'll be a cop, an off-duty cop, or an ex-cop every hour of the rest of their lives.

We ask them to be our primary social workers, as well as our protection against petty fuckups and hardened sociopaths alike. We saddle them with a weapon-fetishizing cop culture and with training inadequate for such work.

Then we wonder why so many either burn out or get cynical and hardened, treating the city like a war zone and the public, or at least certain segments of us, like the enemy. The job self-selects for sociopaths who like the idea that day-in, day-out, they can take out their aggressions on anyone who isn't wearing a uniform or a badge. Their bosses don't care, and their bosses find that such misbehavior suits their own social and political agendas just fine.

We pay cops to break our cities down into tribes--good guys vs. bad guys, rightous Americans vs. evil-doers, Us. vs. Them--and then, when something as elemental as race enters the tribal equation, we look away, and cluck a lot when the inevitable tragedies erupt.

King County Sheriff Dave Reichert bristled last week after the fatal shooting in suburban Newcastle of deputy Richard Herzog--a white officer, allegedly "executed" by a naked, unarmed African-American man with the officer's own gun. Here's Reichert: "I'm just going to be blunt about it and get to the point: Race isn't important...we're sick and tired of being labeled as racist."

In other words, first, Reichert equated discussing race with calling people racists. And then, he shut down all discussion.

The sheriff has since backpedalled, but all he did was express what many people were, and are, thinking. That's pretty typical in Seattle--a city where the petty racism common to all Americans is compounded by the good liberal conviction that we're all Nice People. So we (that is, whites) don't talk about race, and keep to our segregated neighborhoods where it's not a constant topic of discussion. Somehow, the unspoken logic goes, if we ignore it, it doesn't exist.

And then, there's the other side: under the present King County inquest system, not one of the 150 or so law enforcement officers associated with a civilian death since King County instituted its current inquest system in the mid-'70s have been found culpable. Not one. Ever.

Lately a stunning percentage of those victims have been black. In that climate, even an irrational and/or psychotic black man, confronted with an officer, may think (dimly) that he's fighting for his life, in a way that white suspects wouldn't.

Both the "justice" system and what few social services remain are not only deeply racist, but premised on the idea of inflicting contempt and humiliation upon people who need help--whether it's drug addiction treatment, or mental (or physical) health care, or a welfare check, or whatever. Even though the haze of whatever drug(s) Matthews was on, it's possible (and likely) that he remembered one of the most elemental facts of life for a man who's spent his entire life recycling through the "justice" system: white cops kill black men, because they can, because they want to, because they like it. And cops like Herzog, in turn, are fully aware that this is what men like Matthews believe.

It's ridiculous to assume that race didn't matter to either Matthews or Herzog once Matthews, wandering through the streets, was confronted with a fully armed cop. Both parties expected trouble. But that's what we're to believe, and then we're to consider the topic off-limits.

Herzog's death mirrors that of Aaron Roberts--like Matthews, a local African-American with a drug-filled past. Last year, Roberts also reacted badly when confronted wtih police. In that episode, Roberts died.

This time, if the naked, unarmed Matthews had instead died when struggling for Herzog's gun, we would have seen no massive blue funeral, no posthumous media hagiographies. There would have been protest marches, and powerless demands for better training and accountability. The inquest outcome would, as always, be preordained, and another bitter stake driven though the heart of police-community relations.

Instead, officer Herzog is dead; another troubled black man has become the local personification of evil incarnate; and somehow, in that way only possible in a heavily white, highly segregated place like Seattle, discussion of how race might to played a part is preemptively verboten.

Eyesight, Wool, and Greg Nickels

We ask the impossible of cops. When that job description runs up hard against reality (and human frailty), they can't possibly always make good decisions. Outside accountability--and help--become essential. But only days before Herzog's death, the city of Seattle pulled the same avoidance stunt. Seattle's City Council approved compilation of racial data in traffic stops with only five (of nine) votes. Afterwards, Mayor Greg Nickels let it be known that he might withdraw his support as well, joining councilmember (and Public Safety chair) Jim Compton, Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, and the Seattle Police Officers' Guild (SPOG) in opposing it. Moreover, declared Nickels' people (good liberals all), bickering with SPD over compiling racial data could undo the more broadly supported pilot proposal to put cameras in at least a handful (25) of patrol cars. Hint, hint. And last Friday, Nickels made it official, confident that a divided council couldn't override his veto.

I'm all for workers having bigger roles in running their asylums. But law enforcement isn't a plant floor; it's a publicly funded job involving guns, and arbitrary decisions by humans. And many non-whites have developed a deep mistrust and fear of local police.

That rift closes only with time and change, but the process can't start without some listening. Both effective policing and public safety are jeopardized when white politicians go running for cover, and police and too many non-white citizens see each other as The Enemy. And, in fact, for an awful lot of us in this Era of Ashcroft, cops are the enemy.

The Washington State Patrol (WSP) routinely tracks a great deal of information on its stops, including the name of the officer (another SPD bugaboo) and the perceived race of the person stopped. Strangely, the WSP does its job with a minimum of controversy, accepting the radical notion that public employees with guns and attitudes, backed by politicians and business leaders anxious to keep the rabble in line, should have at least some modicum outside scrutiny.

We should be so lucky. Until this region can begin honestly talking about law enforcement, race, and public accountability in the same sentence, there will be more rancor; more Aaron Roberts; and more Richard Herzogs. More fear, more deaths. Nobody wins.