The Sofia Salva case is Black and White. There is no Gray area.

The Sofia Salva incident has garnered a great deal of attention. The two KCMO Police officers Spencer and Schnell, are trying to get reinstated after being suspended by the Chief of Police for not following procedure during the now infamous traffic stop. Salva asked the police officers 9 times for medical help. When she told them she was pregnant and bleeding , the female officer said" How is that my problem" Salva would go on to miscarry a 5 month old fetus.


Salva filed suit, the two cops filed suits, and once again this city is embroiled in controversy, with race at the center. So should these two cops be fired for being racist as many in the black community have called for? The short answer is no. Were the cops just doing their job and should they be reinstated as many in the white community have called for ? Again the short answer is no.


The argument for firing the cops, at least in the eyes of some in the black community, is that the cops treated her inhumanely because of her skin color. The argument for reinstatement contends that Salva was violating the law, had warrants and had lied to the cops about her name, so they couldn't believe her when she said she was pregnant and bleeding. The two moronic cops also contend that they didn't have proper training on policy and procedure.


Officers Spencer and Schnell should not be fired because they reacted with racial bias. There is no evidence that race played a factor. That's not to say it didn't, there just isn't proof. They should be fired for failing to do their jobs. Being a cop and failing to do your job properly is not the same as screwing up an order at some fast food drive through. When cops fail to do their job, when they take an inhumane approach to a human dilemma, lives are at stake. In this case the 2 cops may well have contributed to Salva's miscarriage, we will never know for sure, but its a definite possibility, and in the end that's what really matters.


What about Sofia Salva, does she deserve part of the blame in all of this? You bet she does. She should have gone straight to the hospital, she should have called an ambulance from her home or from the liquor store she stopped at. Sophia Salva is not an innocent victim in all of this. In my opinion she is as culpable in the death of her unborn child as the 2 cops and the jail staff. Salva is not without blame.


So who is really the loser in all of this? Well the cops may lose their jobs, Salva lost a child. The cops deserve to lose their jobs, and judging from what I have read about Salva and some allegations of past child neglect, she had no business having another kid. The unborn child clearly lost. And we all lose. The KCPD loses and the people of Kansas City lose. The racial line is drawn in the sand. From the African American point of view its another case of white cops doing dirt against a person of color. Whites will again feel like the race card is being played.


Nobody can say how all of this would have played out if Salva had been white. The popular argument being tossed around by some is that this wouldn't have happened if Salva was white. That may be a half truth. Had Salva been a suburban Soccer mom it wouldn't have happened. But not because of skin color. It wouldn't have happened because a white or black soccer mom type wouldn't have been in that position. She wouldn't have been putting fake temp tags on her car. So the comparison is flawed, that's an economic disparity, not a racial one. Lets say Salva was a white woman, from the same socioeconomic background, caught under the same circumstances. In that case I believe the outcome would have been the same.



In a perfect world, race would not be an issue. If a white cop was involved in an incident with a person of color, whatever that color might be, the facts of the matter would be based on details, color not being one of the factors. But this isn't a perfect world. We all hold some prejudicial elements in our thought process, when skin tone is a factor. I don't care who you are, or how open minded you claim to be. I don't care if you are black, white, brown or mauve, somewhere in your psyche, perhaps right at the surface or buried deep, we all make judgements at times that are racially biased. The person of color who automatically feels they are being targeted based on race has a long historical reference to bolster their feeling. Likewise the average suburban white person who has been inundated with news of black on white crime, or reports of gang violence , will invariably recoil if approached by anyone remotely fitting that description.


So here we are, back to square one. The Sofia Salva case is about race after all. Not necessarily the incident itself, but the outcome, the aftershock reverberates and race is at the core. At the end of the day the decision of whether or not to reinstate these two cops, comes down to this. If the officers are reinstated that will be a green light for cops to ignore procedure. And it will be a slap in the face of a large portion of citizens who already feel maligned and disenfranchised, a feeling that is not without merit, I might add.


The officers should be fired. There will be two less incompetent cops on the streets. Firing them will be a positive step toward instilling at least a modicum of trust between the black community and the KCPD. Of course firing these two dolts will piss off a section of white society as well. That group of kick ass now, take names later folks, who are so out of touch with the reality of life in the inner city. These are the same people who think that it is okay to disregard the health and safety of an individual because that person violated a traffic law. Frankly those people don't matter, most of them don't even live in the city, hell , many of them don't even live in the state.