I had always wondered why the idiomatic phrase “the chickens have come home to roost” was used in reference to karma and cause and effect situations. Doing a tad bit of research shed some light on my linguistic inquisition. The idea of karma and bad deeds coming back to haunt their creator had been expressed as early as 1390, when Geoffrey Chaucer used it in The Parson’s Tale:
And ofte tyme swich cursynge wrongfully retorneth agayn to hym that curseth, as a bryd that retorneth agayn to his owene nest. [1]
The allusion above refers to a bird returning to its nest at nightfall. However, chickens weren’t used until the 19th century. This phrase was marked by Robert Southey‘s poem The Curse of Kehama, 1810:
Curses are like young chicken: they always come home to roost. [2]
Thus, chickens have been coming home to roost for the better part of 600 plus years regardless of what they were called.
NYPD – The Chickens Are Coming
I already know that people are going to ask “why are you referring to such a statement that is practically cliché”. To shoot frank, I did this research to put the phrase in proper context of our society. In recent news, there were 2 cops shot execution style by a perpetrator for reasons of “revenge” against the atrocities of Eric Garner’s death:
Two police officers sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn were shot at point-blank range and killed on Saturday afternoon by a man who, officials said, had traveled to the city from Baltimore vowing to kill officers. The suspect then committed suicide with the same gun, the authorities said.
The officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were in the car near Myrtle and Tompkins Avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant in the shadow of a tall housing project when the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, walked up to the passenger-side window and assumed a firing stance, Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said. Mr. Brinsley shot several rounds into the heads and upper bodies of the officers, who never drew their weapons, the authorities said. [3]
What also needs to be noted is that Brinsley had a pretty extensive rap sheet. It included robbery, concealed weapon possession, and is even suspected of shooting his ex-girlfriend. Before this travesty of rotten apple proportions occurred, he had threatened the lives of cops on social media. Per the media, he had plotted to get revenge for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. Thus, this was practically an action of a criminal that probably had some mental issues in tow.
NYPD – The Chickens Are At The Front Door
Now that we all have looked at this situation for what it is, we need to assign responsibility where it should be given. All of this is a result of years and years of Marshall Law tactics, harassment, and having the wrong person motivated to “return the favor”. I will not vilify these murdered cops and say they deserved this. In my eyes, they didn’t. However, we cannot ignore the massive hemorrhage that the NYPD has caused for citizen-police relations.
Police brutality is nothing new and it should be something of historical relevance. We can reference Rodney King’s beating of 1991. We can reference the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. We can read up on the different cases of police misconduct in both Finland andIndonesia. It needs to be noted that policemen being seen as “the enemy” is somewhat of a worldwide problem.
And what has all of this historical madness led to? Well, it has now led to people with no fear of death going for police officers that were probably good cops. The craziest thing is that people warned us about this. 2Pac warned us in interviews. The Honorable MinisterLouis Farrakhan warned us. Hell, I have even warned us. This heinous action, as awful as it is, was bound to happen.
The biggest problem is that people don’t realize that humans eventually get fed up. Mice in corners claw their way out. There is a TV show for people that “snap” and commit horrible crimes. There is always that point where retaliation, retribution, and plain old “get back” is going to be the response. We have to be smarter than the Rudy Guilianis of the world that point fingers at people, protesters, and presidents for issues the NYPD helped create.
NYPD – The Chickens are Waking Up The Neighbors
Now, the NYPD has the death of 2 cops to deal with. So many people are on panic mode. So many fingers are being pointed. But, at some juncture, there needs to be responsibility taken BY the police themselves. Instead of looking at their outer circle, they should try looking at their inner souls. After that, they can see that this disgusting action was partially (if not mostly) a situation of their own creation.
