Police released grainy images today of two "individuals of interest" and a vehicle that may be linked to the shooting death early Monday of an off-duty Newark police detective outside a Paterson strip club.Detective Michael Morgan, 32, was the last officer to leave Sunrise Gentleman’s Lounge on Straight Street after a birthday party for another Newark cop on Sunday night, authorities said. When Morgan and a dancer from the club walked outside around 3 a.m., they were approached by a man in his 20s who tried to rob them at gunpoint, police have said.
I want to make absolutely clear that I think that this is a tragedy, and I hope those thugs who took this officer's life are brought to justice. I have a great deal of respect for those who serve in law enforcement and I'm mindful that these men and women put themselves in harms way to protect and serve the citizens in which we live and work. The account makes it clear that the officer wasn't looking for a fight when he was in the parking lot, and got jumped by two men who were looking to score some quick cash.
That being said, is it at all troubling that the officer was walking out with a stripper at a dance club? I'm not going to question the legality of his actions or conduct. It's completely legal for a person to pay money to drink and watch people take their clothes off and dance seductively. It's also completely fine for men to escort strippers out to their car. Maybe Detective Morgan wanted to ask the dancer out for dinner or to take her home to show his baseball card collection. It's all completely legal. We'll probably never know his intentions that evening. It's possible that Detective Morgan was just at the strip club as a community outreach, and was talking to the dancer about self-worth, and how she didn't need to objectify herself to the lusts of men.
There's no need to trample on someone's grave or dishonor those who have been victims of violent crime. From all accounts, Detective Morgan was a highly respected member of the force. An article after the shooting spoke of him as being a highly dedicated member of the force who was "a role model at the precinct and at home".
But what I don't get is whether it's the desire to paint the deceased in the best light (fine and understandable) or the changing values in our society (not so fine and understandable) that spins the story. For example, I don't want my son to see someone who goes to strip bars to be a role model. I'd like him to have a much higher view towards women and a more elevated view towards sex.
The point isn't whether Detective Morgan's death was tragic and whether we should mourn his loss. It clearly was, and it should outrage all of us that he was a victim of violent injustice. It doesn't at all detract from all the good he's done in society and in the line of duty. But at least to me, getting killed in a robbery outside a strip club he was patronizing isn't exactly the best way to go. Dying while saving kids from a burning building or slain while providing cover for innocent bystanders under a hail of gang-related gunfire probably would have been preferable. It's possible that Detective Morgan doesn't care either way, and felt no moral hesitation around attending strip clubs. But at least for me, I'd prefer not to be recognized posthumously as a hero while foiling a robbery at a porn theater or at a KKK meeting.
Maybe there's a lesson here that given that life is so fragile and death can come at any turn, we ought to be careful on how we conduct ourselves. But even more so, I wonder if there's a lesson around how we live our lives supposedly in secret. I remember visiting a church classroom where Sunday school was taught and on the wall was a poster which said something along the lines of:
Don't say anything you wouldn't say if Jesus was standing in front of you.Don't do anything you wouldn't do if Jesus was standing in front of you.
I think the point was that if you believe in an omnipresent God, this is the reality. If people who are Christian live with the sincere belief that God is in their midst, would we sin as brazenly or flippantly as we do? If "just because it's the right thing that God commands of us" isn't sufficient reason for living rightly, maybe leaving the right legacy might provide a little more incentive.
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