By John Burtis
Monday, September 18, 2006
The small sterile bunk occupied by the suspected cop killer, Ralph "Bucky" Phillips, is hardly warm before soft-hearted journalists begin their bathos riddled reports on the sad tales of his immensely troubled youth.
In the latest, "Troubled upbringing haunts Phillips" by William Moyer of the Binghamton, New York, Press and Sun Bulletin, we find that Mr. Phillips was hectored unmercifully by an alcoholic father, who used to beat him regularly, driving him into the woods and onto a path to criminality.
according to the article, beyond his chronicled misbehavior, there was also a radically divergent "Bucky" Phillips than the one so recently described, who worked for a Mr. Dan Suitor, an Erie County resident, who owns a North Tonawanda company which deals in used equipment.
"None of this should have happened," said Suitor, "My heart goes out to him."
and you can hear the noise of an old apologist at work.
Dan Suitor thought that Bucky Phillips was a changed man and the article states that he "knew a different Phillips than the man portrayed in the media as the elusive cop killer. Phillips was meticulous in his work, said Suitor."
along the way, we also learn, thanks to Mr. Moyer, that the oft pilloried Phillips was not the outdoorsman as he was painted by those fanciful police, but was simply a kid used to running through the woods to get to automobiles, which he had previously hidden there - though the author refuses to speculate on whether they had been stolen or to link them to his many arrests - in order to provide a means for him to seek his freedom. But he does aver to Bucky's attempts to drive pursuing police vehicles off the road.
Thus we are treated to the troubled child-man acting to escape a household inimical to his desperate yearnings for peace, quiet and the pursuit of happiness, and forced to hot-wire and steal autos to pursue his fervid dreams.
Mr. Moyer, after explaining Mr. Phillips' problematic youth and later puritan work ethic, then goes on to explain why Mr. Phillips may have lashed out at the New York State troopers, allegedly shooting three and killing one.
The author quotes a Mr. Emery Masiker, Jr. as explaining, "He (Bucky Phillips) did not like to see his friends or family disrespected. He'd do anything to not upset people that he cared about or allow other people to upset people that he cared about."
So, from what I can gather from this exculpatory send up to Mr. Phillips, after enduring a difficult youth, and having turned his life around, while all the while looking after his friends and family, and nurturing a deep feeling for their welfare and respect, while at the same time not wishing to upset them in any way, he was compelled - once he noticed the troopers disrespecting them by staking out their house while looking for him because he had escaped from jail -- to shoot them.
and then, not wishing to cause any further agitation to those he so desperately cares about, Ralph "Bucky" Phillips went on an extended tour, finally surrendering in a corn field on the Pennsylvania line, many miles and crimes away from his starting point.
Yep, poor Bucky, has at least one newspapermen singing his song already, and I'm surprised that it has begun in Binghamton, since his journey of mayhem began at the confluence of Broome and Chenango Counties, of which Binghamton is the largest city. But the Press is a liberal paper with a decidedly progressive bent, so in the end it is really not so remarkable.
But how poor is Bucky Phillips anyway?
Doesn't this poor troubled man, with trooper Langobardo in the crosshairs of the scope on the .308 caliber high powered rifle, which is suspected to be the weapon used to murder him, bear some responsibility for the untimely death?
Didn't the Buckster allegedly pull the trigger, after all?
Poor old Mr. Phillips knew right from wrong at that moment, didn't he, despite all the problems of his bathos drenched youth, the problems with his drunken father, the illness of his siblings and their placement in homes, the confusion of his mother, and his being hounded by the police for his inveterate propensity for the commission of felonies?
Mr. Phillips allegedly burgled a gun shop and made off with weapons and ammunition, to say nothing of his extended string of jacking cars.He could tell right from wrong in these instances, too, couldn't he, notwithstanding all the pain endured during a childhood chock full of shame and degradation?
after awhile, as a retired cop, I get just get sick and tired of all the trite and hackneyed attempts by brilliant roseate journalists to blunt the crimes of obviously violent malefactors, particularly those who have broken out of jail and gone on state-wide rampages, managing to kill law enforcement officers as a matter of their bloody courses by portraying them as victims of their families and our polite society.
It's funny, but journalists, just like judges, and John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, who are busy courting similar felons for their valuable votes, are so often in there pulling for the violent perps until, of course, they too suffer at the hands of a vicious lout.
I seem to recall a ditty about a liberal becoming a conservative when suffering pitiably under the tender painful ministrations of a violent criminal.
You know, one like Mr. Ralph "Bucky" Phillips.
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