Officer Alex asks that people wait for the facts.
Editor’s note: Alex Teach’s column represents his personal views and does not reflect the views of The Pulse.
You can believe you are right. You can believe that your first hearing of a tragic story is absolutely, completely accurate with zero margin for error and just run with it, with a stick in your hand to assist in making your point by shattering windows and stealing appliances to express your indignation. I’m all about that, because this is America, and if you can’t do what you want when you’re not happy, I don’t want to live here either.
But…
No matter how tragic the incident, when the leader of the New Black Panther Party is walking through your neighborhood with a bullhorn encouraging people to leave for their own safety, you may not be on the side of the “righteous.”
I’m not casting aspersions against Mr. Malik Shabazz, but, historically speaking, if you’re trying to conduct a respectable race riot, this is a guy you want on your side—not on the side of common sense and rational thinking.
“C’mon, you all, let’s roll out, let’s roll out of here, get some rest and come back tomorrow,” Shabazz pled with determined protestors a few days ago in Ferguson, MO. And if the New Black Panthers don’t have your back…well. Regroup and re-think.
That’s a novel thought, isn’t it? How did this shooting happen? First version: As I understand it, a 10-year-old boy was on his way to church to deliver chemo bottles to ailing baby seals when he was shot in the back for no reason and the neighborhood was perforated by bullets molded from pure liquid metal racism justifying the theft of storefront electronics.
Strangely, that story has shifted, so that just a few days later, when actual video and audio surfaced from actual eyewitnesses, it turned out the 10 year old was actually 6’4”, 292 lbs., and had charged the cop who apparently realized the guy in the street with the cigars in his hand matched the description put out on the police radio of a strong-armed robbery suspect who just stole cigars (with his hands) after he passed him walking in the middle of the roadway (cursing the officer for asking him to not do such).
Witnesses and statements indicate the young man knocked the cop back into his car and grabbed his gun, thwarted by the safety holster, so he could run away again just far enough for the cop to get up and challenge him to stop. According to one of these video/audio witnesses, this young man then charged the officer he just wrestled over a gun “like a bull”. Shots were fired by the officer rather than engaging in wrestling for the pistol again—the bullets stopping once the threat was down. Very different story from objective witnesses now…funny how that works.
Am I happy this occurred? God, no. Was the cop right? I honestly can’t say. Was the little 6’4”, 292 lb. boy right? Sure fails the smell test, but those questions are now irrelevant in the face of the New Black Panthers having to tell people to control themselves so the National Guard doesn’t need to called out.
Is tear gas offensive? Yes, by design. Rubber bullets? Absolutely. Dogs, shields, camo and armor? Yes to all—but does anyone know what a Molotov cocktail is? Having a quart of gas thrown at you in a flaming glass container and firing a few shots off at a cop can make all those things listed above appear quite quickly, and despite such an obvious response, people are simply baffled police don’t want to be engulfed in flame. The state police captain that made headlines by marching with the protestors? He’s back to tossing smoke for just that reason. Racist? Fails the smell test. Dealing with looters and armed rioters? Hello, Febreze. Smelling much nicer now.
The lesson here will hopefully be for an opposing side to disagree but let civilized action replace the much-vaunted “anarchy” espoused by activists. There’s no asshole with a white mask and a pencil-thin goatee romantically distributing roses and polite bombs here…these are lunatics robbing stores now “for justice”. There has to be order, folks. Refusing to let the system work and breaking into Walmart is not it.
All opinions aside, if Officer Darren Wilson is guilty, let the courts decide. Flat screen TVs and incendiary devices will get you no closer to the truth.
Just ask the Black Panther Party, for God’s sake…they’re the sensible ones now.