That’s the theory being bandied about to explain the police killing of Sean Bell last weekend. William Saletan of Slate shreds the argument to pieces:
What makes contagious shooting a handy legal defense is its mechanical portrayal of behavior. You’re not choosing to kill; you’re catching a disease. In the Diallo era, the NYPD patrol guide explained that the first shot “sets off a chain reaction of shooting by other personnel.” Officers “join in as a kind of contagion,” said the Times. They “instinctively follow suit,” said the Daily News, as one shot “sparks a volley from other officers.” On Monday, the Times said contagious shooting “spreads like germs, like laughter.” One former NYPD official called it the “fog of the moment.” Another said “your reflexes take over.” A third told CNN, “It’s sort of like a Pavlovian response. It’s automatic. It’s not intentional.”
This mess of metaphors is telling. Nothing can behave like germs, sparks, laughter, fog, instinct, and conditioning all at once. That’s the first clue that “contagious” is being used not to clarify matters, but to confuse them. Another clue is that the same people who invoke it often point out that the number of shootings by police is low and has been falling. An urge that’s so commonly resisted can’t be irresistible.
Here’s a third clue: Prior to Monday, “contagious shooting” had appeared in 25 articles in Nexis. Half of them were about cops or soldiers; the other half were about basketball. Three years ago, for example, contagious shooting “rubbed off” among Duke players; last year, it “spread” among the Philadelphia 76ers. Anyone who follows sports knows that writers reach for such silly metaphors when they have no idea why something happened.
Predictably, knee-jerk pro-cop forces are jumping on Mayor Bloomberg for “prejudging” the case before the facts are in. Bloomberg was reacting to the one fact that really matters — the police gunned down an innocent, unarmed man on his wedding day. The mayor called this “unacceptable,” which is exactly what it is. And quite unlike our previous mayor (“America’s mayor,” my foot), Bloomberg simply sent a message to the city’s black community that he gives a damn. Setting the proper moral tone and making clear to the NYPD that they have a serious problem on their hands does not translate to bias on Bloomberg’s part. We should indeed await more facts, and resist the calls of self-aggrandizing demagogues. But what the mayor said falls solidly in the category of responsible leadership.
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