Readers,
Last month, sometime after the one year anniversary of the shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, protests once again broke out when white officers shot and killed black 18 year old Mansur Ball-Bey. Officers arrested nine and deployed tear gas to control groups of protestors who blocked traffic in intersections and threw bottles and debris at responding officers. Cars and buildings were once again set on fire, and even an American flag was set alight.
Protestors chanted the “Black Lives Matter” motto that’s been gaining steam across the nation. To listen to the protestors, one would presume that this incident was another racially motivated slaying of an innocent youth.
But here’s the thing – evidence points to the fact that Ball-Bey was pointing a firearm at officers when he was shot. In fact, the officers serving the warrant for the home from which he fled eventually found three guns in addition to the one Ball-Bey used, as well as crack cocaine.
And that’s what I don’t understand about the recent Black Lives Matter movement. Of course black lives matter – but so do white lives and lives of every other color and creed. The lives of those white officers also mattered, but those protesting (or, more accurately, rioting) are quick to ignore the fact that the deceased presented an immediate lethal threat to the lives of the officers before he was shot.
Mike Brown, the original catalyst for the movement, had committed a violent robbery immediately prior to assaulting the officer that eventually shot him. The last time I checked, robbery and brandishing a firearm are perfectly adequate grounds for being shot by the police. Yet these rioters ignore the criminal behaviors of the deceased and elect the easier narrative that the shootings were racially motivated.
Do the police sometimes use excessive force? Yes. But failing to acknowledge the criminal behaviors of some of the individuals they shoot cheapens the discussion that our country needs to have about racial relations. And responding to injustices done by the police with more violence and lawlessness does nothing to further the Black Lives Matter cause.
Until we can have that honest and frank discussion, I have a small suggestion – don’t break the law. While even that may not be enough to protect one completely from unfortunate encounters with the police, it surely goes a long way towards ensuring that one isn’t shot by them.
Until next month,
Esther Fournier
Publisher & Editor
American Recycler News
Published in the September 2015 Edition of American Recycler News
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