May 15, 2015

A Facebook page asks people "to report where you see Matt Kenny. Where he eats and where he works. Anywhere you see him in town when on duty."

Matt Kenny is the police officer who shot and killed Tony Robinson and who, we learned a few days ago, will not be prosecuted.

Facebook has apparently responded to criticism and taken the page down. It doesn't display there, but I can see it in Google cache. I won't link to that. I can see that it had 172 "likes" and said:
This is a page to report where you see Matt Kenny. Where he eats and where he works. Anywhere you see him in town when on duty. It is a community protection service. This cop has killed two people already, he should not be on the streets with a gun....
On the day before the D.A.'s announcement (which detailed why Kenny's action was justified), the Landmarks Commission approved a mural honoring Robinson:
"[T]he mural itself will depict no violence, no guns, no 'RIP.' It will show people in happy moments, skateboarding, sitting on the front porch, playing the guitar. Things anyone in the neighborhood would do."
The mural will appear on the side of the Social Justice Center (which is very close to the place where Robinson was shot).

And here's a 27-page summary of the results of the investigation. If you read it, I think you'll agree with me that it's a story of a young man having a terrible drug experience, losing touch with reality, and endangering himself and others: "I took shrooms. I'm freaking out. I shouldn't have done this."

I googled that quote and got to a Reddit discussion titled "'Oh shit, I shouldn't have done this' on heroic mushrooms doses." ("Anyone else get that type of anxiety? Sometimes during my trips I tell myself 'I will never try mushrooms ever again' but I always come back haha.") From the comments:
My only heroic dose (above 3.5 grams) was 7 grams. There wasn't even a "me" to think that. At one point, I looked at everyone in our group (who all took the same dose) and they weren't speaking English. It was as if their voices were put on reverse and through weird delays, it wasn't even remotely close to English. But the whole thing was shits and giggles and it was the greatest fucking day of my life....
It's hard to imagine what Robinson was perceiving and what he thought he was doing when he encountered Matt Kenny and punched him in the head in that narrow stairway. It's very sad to think that this is someone who earlier in the day said — page 7 of the summary — "I want to get on some spiritual shit." 

Did he search the internet and find things like: "There are many reasons for going to the heroic level; such as wanting to understand the fabrics of the soul, the universe, and just for general curiosity. It deeply cleanses the soul and keeps the ego at bay. Ego death at a heroic dose level is nearly unnoticeable because it happens so fast and the ego is unable to hold onto itself."

ADDED: Robinson was shot in that narrow stairway, and earlier the same day, something else happened there. "Robinson stepped off the top stair without looking and continued towards the door" at the bottom as if the stairs weren't even there. "J.L. described Robinson's jump as being 'like super human." (Page 13 of the investigation summary.) Outside, he lay down on the sidewalk, then got up and ran and "jumped so that his body was in a horizontal position." Sounds like a description of Superman flying. But Robinson landed in the street, in front of a car that stopped "1 to 1.5 feet" in front of him. 

53 comments:

Laslo Spatula said...

From an earlier post:

"Pubic lice... lock their claws around a strand of hair and almost never let go. Their habit of feeding in one place for most of their life means that their feces accumulate around them, making for a truly unpleasant situation."

It seems some people have locked their claws around their own chosen metaphorical hair, and will never let go.

And the feces accumulates...

I am Laslo.

madAsHell said...

I read the report. I did not know that canvas, and canvass had separate spellings.

LYNNDH said...

So another young man is shot, and it is all someone else's fault. No personal responsibility on has part. Too much a symptom today.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I'm guessing that the OED has a definition that justifies that use of "heroic."

MadisonMan said...

The mural might be a source of comfort to his parents, if it shows him happy. 99+% of Madison will never see it, and if they do, they'll not know who is who.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

I want to get on some spiritual shit.

Mission accomplished. Permanently.

Scott said...

Doesn't the federal government, through some arm of the Justice Department, establish standards for hiring, training, and use of deadly force? The reason I ask is that if cops are running into the same use-of-force issues all over the country, then there has to be some doctrinal issue at the federal level that needs to be addressed.

Smart people, what is the agency? What are the standards called? How can non-law enforcement people access them?

If Matt Kenny did the wrong thing, it is because he was trained to do the wrong thing, based on established police doctrine. So go after the doctrine at the highest levels.

Matt said...

So, a 19 year old man, who was convicted of armed robbery the year before, gets high and attacks a police officer and now they are going to build a mural in that man's honor?

I think I know what the problem is within the "black community" and it is NOT white people.

tim maguire said...

It's getting to the point where the details of the killing don't much matter, all that matters is that someone close to the victim is media savvy.

clint said...

Clearly, we need to legalize shrooms, so people can experience this high in a safe environment.

(Wow, took me two tries to prove I'm not a robot this time. Troubling.)

Scott said...

In business, if something doesn't work, you go for the root cause.

We know that Matt Kenny followed doctrine because he was acquitted. So go after the doctrine. The standards that cops use across the country need to see sunlight.

Ann Althouse said...

"I'm guessing that the OED has a definition that justifies that use of "heroic.""

I'd prefer Urban Dictionary on that one.

"heroic dose. A very large quantity of hallucinogenic substance, that, when ingested, results in a powerful and often life-changing trip."

Bobber Fleck said...

It is tragic when hatred, anger, and political orientation drive people to ignore facts, logic and common human decency. There can be no real discussion of racial issues in America again. The dialog has been closed under a blanket of dishonesty and political correctness. No one wants to fix the problems, as that would require unpleasant actions driven by inconvenient facts. So we pretend...

Ignorance is Bliss said...

I shouldn't have done this

I was on the jury for a wrongful death lawsuit. There was a party, and one particular 17 year old was quoted as say that he had taken too much, and he thought he was overdosing. The plaintiff's lawyer said the homeowner should have gotten him medical attention at that point. ( They never showed that the homeowner heard the statement )

A later witness stated that he said this every time he took drugs, so nobody took him seriously. And it turns out, he was wrong, he was not OD-ing at that point. He then had a friend drive him to a different town, where he bought and used cocaine, before going back to the house where the party happened, where he was staying.

The next morning they found him dead in the kitchen.

Gahrie said...

You know what I want to know?

How come the cops never end up shooting a A student, or a Boy Scout?

For some reason they always seem to manage to shoot kids with criminal records, a history of drug use, and thug wannabe pictures on their facebook pages.

The A students usually wind up getting shot by gangbangers....

clint said...

"I'd prefer Urban Dictionary on that one.

"heroic dose. A very large quantity of hallucinogenic substance, that, when ingested, results in a powerful and often life-changing trip.""

Ouch.

This was definitely a life-changing trip for Tony Robinson, and for Matt Kenny as well.

William said...

Laslo: Your metaphor is apt and telling. Well done.

George Grady said...

"It deeply cleanses the soul and keeps the ego at bay."

This is one of the saddest things I've ever read. You must really not like yourself to want to do this. If you need to drown your own thoughts, your own decision-making ability, then you're spiritual broken, and you need spiritual healing, not spiritual euthanasia.

Hagar said...

If some idiot should attack Matt Kenny, could the people making these posts be successfully sued?

sparrow said...

Scott

This is precisely the way the Fed gains even more power. I'm sure it's deliberate - just another part of the steady encroachment of overbearing Fed. The Republic is on life support.

Anonymous said...

Gahrie said...
For some reason they always seem to manage to shoot kids with criminal records, a history of drug use, and thug wannabe pictures on their facebook pages.


I don't know. In my town, they always stick a mike in front of the mother who describes her thug son as a good and gentle boy, and he might have been that at age 5...

William said...

By any sane standard, Robinson should be a cautionary tale, but his life now becomes exemplary, even heroic.......That's what happen when you ingest heroic amounts of mushrooms. You end up with a steaming pile of spiritual shit.

Fernandinande said...

To quote a drug dealer of 25 years "Xanax and alcohol is the worst" drug or combo for getting people to act like assholes.

Xanax side effects, "Rare" category:
- Actions that are out of control
- attack, assault, or force

Skipper said...

A troubled sole, for sure, but not a life to be celebrated.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Joseph Campbell wept.

mikeski said...

@tim Maguire:

"It's getting to the point where the details of the killing don't much matter[...]"

Getting?

AllenS said...

Matt Kenny is welcome at my house anytime. We can go out back and shoot our guns.

amielalune said...

So, not too concerned about the threat against the police officer; much more interested in the effect of the mushrooms.

Typical boomer.

tim in vermont said...

@Scott,
I agree with you. Revolutionary truth says that it's all the racist cops fault so objective truth doesn't matter. What we need are pigs like those pigs in the sci fi story who were bred to volunteer to be slaughtered, first showing off their best cuts for diners. Every cop should be Jesus, willing to die for the sins of the criminals among us.

Or better yet, we could simply stop enforcing the laws against violent crime! That would cut the number of police shootings immeasurably.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Pretty sure this is Nancy Reagan's fault, somehow.

CJinPA said...

The mural, and the dishonest defense of it, represents a community lying to itself.

It's uncomfortable to witness a huge swath of society repeatedly engaging in mutual denial of the truth.

CJinPA said...

By any sane standard, Robinson should be a cautionary tale

Exactly. But The Movement is perfectly willing to sacrifice more young men - encourage more confrontations, violence and deaths - all in the name of The Movement.

Ann Althouse said...

"So, not too concerned about the threat against the police officer; much more interested in the effect of the mushrooms."

Damn right.

1. It's not a real enough threat. It wasn't even phrased as a threat, and it was easily called out as wrong, and Facebook took it down. It's bad, but it's fringe bad, and it was pushed back. And I am saying that as someone who has had two distinct experiences being on the receiving end of that kind of thing. And I wish Kenny well and, in fact, feel really sorry for him for what he's had to go through and will have to live with all his life.

2. This tragedy was avoidable. A young man, it seems, sought something "spiritual" in drugs without realizing until he was completely lost and unable to control himself that he'd made a terrible mistake. But every day people take drugs like that. Learn something! It's a bad idea and you might not be able to make it back. Robinson had enough decency, through all that confusion, to stop in the middle of 2 of his attacks and apologize. That's in the report. He also spent a lot of time yelling at his (absent) father: "Fuck you, dad!" The truth of his experience has some depth to it, and I am not seeing much discussion of it, presumably because the drug focus doesn't serve the interests of the people who are choosing to be vocal and activist about this case. I'm not interested in being an activist myself. I read the investigation summary just to try to figure out what really happened, just truth seeking. If you want to say that's "typical boomer," then fine. I wasn't looking for a way to say drugs are good or bad and I wasn't focusing on the drugs because I'm interested in drugs. It's what stood out to me reading the presentation of the facts.

RMc said...

A troubled sole, for sure

Sounds fishy.

Birches said...

On the day before the D.A.'s announcement (which detailed why Kenny's action was justified), the Landmarks Commission approved a mural honoring Robinson:

I'm so glad I don't live in Madison....

mikeski said...

@Rob McLean -

"A troubled sole, for sure

Sounds fishy."

Poor kid was out there floundering around.

Todd said...

Scott said...
In business, if something doesn't work, you go for the root cause.

We know that Matt Kenny followed doctrine because he was acquitted. So go after the doctrine. The standards that cops use across the country need to see sunlight.

5/15/15, 9:32 AM


That is a friggen BRILLIANT idea! Lets go one better! As too many people get tickets for running red lights, lets remove all red lights! Since too many people that are ODing die at in the ER, lets just stop taking them there and take them straight to the morgue instead! As too many robbery suspects get shot lets just not make robbery a crime!

Just like your idea, all of these things will work to reduce the number of the described incidents from happening but each will also have side-affects that are likely worst than the initial thing.

I really believe you don't understand the phrase "root cause"...

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

I hope Lynch is all over this.

n.n said...

Stalker.

Donatello Nobody said...

The Drill sgt. said...
I don't know. In my town, they always stick a mike in front of the mother who describes her thug son as a good and gentle boy, and he might have been that at age 5...


... or asleep. As Theodore Dalrymple once wrote of his encounters with convicts in British prisons, one usually found that these were good people who had "fallen in with the wrong crowd" -- funny that one never met anyone who was actually in that wrong crowd.

Hagar said...

Scott has a point, but it is not pertinent to this case or any of the lately nationally sensationalized cases I can think of.

However, here in Albuquerque, we have had at least a couple of cases, and I rather think more, where the "suspect" was needlessly shot and killed because of "procedure," and I think this may well be true for a lot of cases nationwide.
Not inadequate training, but bad training.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

The FBI and DOJ better do their best to find out who did that and prosecute, or we may as well give up any pretense to rule of law. Lock and load!

Birches said...

Very interesting that all of these witnesses can't even agree on the number of shots fired...

Jim in St Louis said...

Finished reading the report.

They interviewed 5 people who identified themselves as Robinson’s friends. Some real crappy friends in my opinion, two of them drove off and left their buddy trippin in the middle of the street, and the others were the ones who called the cops in the first place. Also interesting to me that Tony had been pulling a check since the age of 7. Made me think of the idiot comments about the pee test in the other thread about welfare people having to be drug free- how about healthy young men on disability? Or actually anyone on disability? Should they have to pee clean as well?

richard mcenroe said...

Sprituality of course being something you can buy and ingest rather than work towards.

Where's my satori pill?

richard mcenroe said...

"It's not a real enough threat." Welcome to life in the faculty lounge, folks. Ann, do you honestly believe an action like that facebook post would not lead to an escalation? Do you not believe that people so heavily invested in this as to stalk the cop will not include or attract people looking to interact with or confront the cop? Do you believe it would not lead people to escalate to following and confronting his family once his home was inevitably located? If not, why not?

Birches said...

Just finished the report. Poor Officer Kenny...he seems like a good guy and a good cop.

Birches said...

And boy, Robinson's family doesn't come off very well at all.

furious_a said...

"It's not a real enough threat." Welcome to life in the faculty lounge, folks.

Maybe so.

Ann Althouse said...

As I said, I have had similar personal threats twice, and I have called the police on one of them. I am not in a 'faculty lounge" position here. I could show you what I'm talking about in the archive. Longtime readers know.

MaxedOutMama said...

Well, it's a strikingly sad story, but nothing about it has changed since the first morning. We just have more details. The account sounded like this individual was in a manic state, and he was, and now all this adds is that it was due to a combination of cannabis, nicotine, Xanax, and a huge, whopping dose of psychedelics.

Robinson doesn't appear to have been fundamentally bad. His mistake was taking a lethal combination of drugs.

The officer gets in this position because he feared that Robinson was attacking someone, all of which is consistent with the testimony of others and what he was told by dispatch and at the scene.

So the officer attempts to intervene in what might well indeed have been a violent attack - generally what I would expect an officer to do, but mildly heroic under the circs, the officer is violently attacked, and shoots.

Then it appears that the officer was backing off and Robinson continued to advance, resulting in the second series of shots. That is consistent with the behavior reported by the other witness accounts telling of someone in a manic state who is inflicting harm on himself and not apparently registering it.

Everyone else ran from the scene, but the officer didn't have the option.

Yes, the officer could have waited for backup, but what if Robinson had been attacking someone? Those minutes might have resulted in the death or severe injury of a victim!!!

There is acute denial on the part of the family, but one would expect that.

There is no possible change in doctrines of allowable force that doesn't essentially place the interests of the perp above the interests of the victims or the officers. Maybe people aren't reading the account linked, or maybe they want to bang on their own drum.

It's wildly unlikely that Kenny would have exposed himself to danger in this way if he had not thought that someone it was his duty to protect might be in danger.

For this, he is to be a marked man? Not right.

MaxedOutMama said...

Ann, not too long before this very sad story erupted, you posted about the institute wanting to treat people with dangerous illnesses with psychedelics.

I cannot find that post, but it appears to me that the ideas about psychedelics espoused contributed to Robinson's death.

Scrambling your brains is not the safest thing to do, and it does appear to have evoked Robinson's feelings about abandonment and anger, which then caused him to act uncontrollably. There's a lot of sorrow, pain, suffering and anger buried within every human psyche.

Zach said...

Scrambling your brains is not the safest thing to do, and it does appear to have evoked Robinson's feelings about abandonment and anger, which then caused him to act uncontrollably. There's a lot of sorrow, pain, suffering and anger buried within every human psyche.

The point is well taken, but the dose makes the drug. Drinking a beer with dinner is a fundamentally different experience from getting blackout drunk.