Holzworth: Bringing a knife to a gun fight

Cliches exist for a reason. That they’re discouraged for lacking originality holds no bearing on their utility. We say them because they’re true.

Current White House events show us he who has the gold makes the rules. Ignorance is bliss for those with the privilege of ignoring current events. And then there’s bringing a knife to a gun fight — we watched this one through the kitchen window on the night of Oct. 27.

A two-hour-plus standoff between Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies and a man who wouldn’t exit his car during a traffic stop ended with the driver fatally shot when he emerged holding a knife. Sheriff Bob Jonsen has discussed the “numerous attempts” deputies made to reach “a peaceful resolution,” including the use of “several less-lethal tools and projectiles to prevent the use of deadly force.”

What hasn’t been explained is why there was a limit placed on those attempts.

Our street was shut down through late Tuesday morning processing the crime scene. Why not spend that time preserving life? Had the person in the car been the child of a deputy, would officers not have waited an eternity?

The car was rendered immovable by squad cars. A drone was deployed. They had the technology to ensure no explosives posed a risk. It occurred in front of a vacant house. Why not create a blockade to shield officers? Mental illness or substances may have played a role. As someone who has grappled with both personally and with others, I can attest that each is a factor of time. Every storm, as they say, runs out of rain.

Police violence remains a leading cause of death for young men, with risk varying for all demographics at various life stages. There’s the intangible harm, the ripple effect swamping those in the event trajectory. But this isn’t just an indictment on the carceral state’s impact on citizens. Jonsen rightfully mentioned the impact on his deputies. Changing how our communities are policed wouldn’t just protect citizens from police brutality, but also those who have been made brutal by policing.

Officers are more likely to die by suicide than they are in the line of duty, and violence committed by officers tends to outpace the general population. Job stress, witnessing gruesome events and very real danger are to blame. Undoubtedly on deputies’ minds Monday night was the death hours earlier of San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy Andrew Nunez, fatally shot while responding to a domestic violence call. He deserved to go home as much as the unnamed victim in San Jose.

Community safety is about all of us. Jonsen told reporters he had “no misunderstanding” of the intentions of the victim. Threat and intent have very different weights. When the crime scene powder settles, this will be filed away in a container fit for Mary Poppins’ garage, with the thousand-plus instances just like it that occur each year.

The bar for what constitutes a “genuine fear of one’s safety” is so low that we continue to trip on it. It bears saying the victim didn’t just bring a knife to a gun fight — he held a kitchen knife I wouldn’t use on overcooked chicken against officers with bulletproof armor and rifles, weapons preferred by mass murderers because of the bullet velocity and rapid-fire mechanisms.

Standing at the scene where the events occurred, you can see the memorial to Jenny Vasquez, the 24-year-old fatally shot by San Jose police on Christmas in 2018. This cliche is also true: If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.

 Jennette Holzworth is a mom and community organizer living in San Jose.