Hands up, dont shoot! Too bad Michael Brown didnt say that. He would still be alive. I would to GOD that he would have taken a knee and put his hands up. Better yet, just shrug his shoulders in the first place and walk on the stupid sidewalk like the intelligent college bound man he was. Instead, he choose to impress the hoodlum, high friend with him and died like a fool. Yeah, I know his co-conspirator in a robbery and later assault on a police officer told us that myth, but the unbiased witnesses, the DNA, the Forensic reports, and three autopsies all show that was not true. Read the hard evidence your self. How do intelligent college students at UMES fall for this fraud? They didnt do their research. Why should I blame them, 4 members of Congress did the same thing. I guess now that this is starting to get local, it is appropriate to muse. The idea that a man would twice attack an armed police officer is worthy of skepticism. I don’t fault people for not jumping to that conclusion, but as I review the evidence that is exactly what happened. I find it incredible and almost unbelievable. How many people would attack a police officer in his car, grab for his weapon, get shot in the struggle, be escaping, then turn around and charge at the pursuing officer? Apparently, one–the one who ended up dead. If you attack an armed person and make him/her fear that you are going to do it again, you will have a low chance of survival, which is why that is not normal behavior. Apparently, the 6’5″, 285 lbs. Brown high on pot, had the conceit that he was indestructible. The reports including the autopsy commissioned by Brown’s family is consistent with the Officer’s story not those of his detractors. After you disqualify every other option, the one left, no matter how unlikely, is the truth. So now we have a perverse situation where an officer whose life was endangered is driven out of his career, life threatened, family threatened, and the hoodlum who died in a failed attempt to kill him is turned into some sort of pop icon. Who would want to be a police officer if this is how we treat them? It was tragic that Brown made bad decisions. It is these bad decisions that in microcosm go to the heart of a disease starting to infect our country. People feel that they need to respect no one. He decided that he would get high. bad decision one. Then steal from a store, bad decision 2. Decision 3, when confronted knock the store personnel down another bad decision. Decision 4, instead of keeping a low profile walk in the middle of a street. Decision 5, when an officer yells at him and his friend to get out of the road (professionally asking them move to the sidewalk would have been a much better option), he name calls the officer, bad decision. APB comes out with description from decisions 2 an 3. Officer Wilson decides to turn around and confront them. Bad decision 6, he attacks an armed officer in his cruiser and tries to grab at his weapon. Bad decision 7, after he is fleeing and has a significant lead of 30 seconds on the stunned and now pursuing on foot officer, unlike his accomplice, he turns around and says that you are too much of a pussy to shoot me and comes back toward the officer. Some witnesses say charge him, others saw it differently. Bad decision 8 when shot, he didnt just stop and dive. Whats the real lesson? Cops are racist or the real danger to our community is an internal cancer that thinks success is white instead of equal opportunity? Could it be that we need to teach quality decision making to our youth, respect for authority, respect for yourself-- dont get high-- dont risk your dreams with stupid stuff like shoplifting, and dont choose the prison path over the college path? We should remember Brown because he was a tragic figure. On one hand he had a bright future two weeks away, instead he threw his life away for nothing. That is heart breaking. It is not only heartbreaking because of the individual case, but that decision is being repeated too often. I wish the Urban League, NAACP (of which I am a member), and other fine organizations would give as much public attention to that aspect the Brown tragedy. I know they care about the deeper problems. On a local level, I have been a part of internal discussions so I know the hearts of people are engaged in grappling with these problems. I just think when we let a myth grow up that actually harms our ability to solve the real problems by dividing the community from the police, diverting the conversation from the real problems the situation uncovered, and allows the professional agitators, anarchists, and others to actually hurt a community by destroying minority owned businesses and jobs, we do a disservice to the wider community. We have to say to our young people that choosing success, faith, honor, hope, and a future is an equal opportunity thing. One author wrote a book, Think and Grow Rich: Its a Black Thing. Maybe we need to put pamphlets of that in every high school. Maybe elementary schools should be included. Stop the enable the hoodlum to hurt you mentality called dont snitch. Why not? So you can keep being victimized? Thats stupid! Dont get too good of grades or your not cool? So working 3 jobs at minimum wage until you die of an heart attack at 60 is? Maybe dying in a street fight at 30 is better. No, thats foolish talk. Lets call it out. We have to shame not people but bad attitudes that destroy people and build up the people. We need to go to war and uproot them root and branch. We need to embrace the values of Faith, freedom, and family that allowed us to survive 350 years of oppression and emerge prosperous, strong, and dignified with inventors, Doctors, CEOs, Generals, and even a President of These United States. Lets start inspiring more young men to go to college not prison. Are there things the larger society can do? Sure, lets evaluate some of the silly victim-less crimes that only some people really get arrested for. We need to have a working reentry system so people who made a bad decision at 17 or 22 arent still stuck behind vindictive barriers at 30, 40 or 50. Stop the attack on the charter schools that are giving hope and skills to kids that were already failing district public schools. Aid them, dont be afraid to look at progress not just standards, reward success. Do things which strengthen marriage and family not undermine them. Invest in law enforcement to provide security, but also invest in community building and economic inclusion that will make security less necessary in the long run. Things like leaving Browns body uncovered like road kill for 4 hours was inflammatory and disrespectful. If officials want respect, give respect. Everyone says when will Black leaders speak out. Many are, but until Charles Barkley everyone who did not fit into the media stereotype was ignored by all but FoxNews so who cares about some local councilman. I bet this will be ignored unless you share it then again maybe it is not worthwhile. This is just one mans heart being shared. nytimes/interactive/2014/11/25/us/evidence-released-in-michael-brown-case.html#
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 05:28:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015