Officer Alex weighs on in hypocritical “justice” activism
Chattanooga is a wonderful place to live. People have a whole country full of choices divided into 50 states, further divided into thousands of municipalities…and a few hundred thousand people have chosen this one. I applaud them for this, and am proud (yes, proud) to number myself among them.
That said, Chattanooga also has a few problems, and I’m not just talking about pollen and the incoming humidity season that will weigh down upon us like a pending pregnancy test.
Twelve shootings in seven days…and of those twelve, one resulted in the death of a 17-year-old and two of the victims were pregnant. Pregnant!
10 a.m. 3 p.m. 1 a.m. Saturday night or Tuesday afternoon, there is no rhyme or reason, and above all, no regard for consequences. For God’s sake, there was a shooting during a press conference about the shootings.
What’s happened? Theories and speculation abound, but I am inclined to think that this complete failure in civilized behavior may at least in part be the result of the success in anti-cop “activism” that has permeated the country for the last year-plus. I know…that’s crazy, but bear with me here.
Scant months ago, the space above this city was filled with a cacophony of voices populated by those so desperate for an argument against police that they would latch on to any reason a police officer was forced to fire his or her weapon and declare it an “injustice,” regardless of facts, when the losing end of the shooting was a person of color (so long as that color is black, I mean).
In this case was that person holding a raised gun (and a knife for good measure) charging a uniformed police officer who placed himself between the gentleman in question and a 4-year-old child he had just fired that gun next to inside his house. It was captured on video, outdoors, along with roughly three to four minutes of footage up to that point where police, neighbors, and relatives were begging him by name to drop that gun. And yes, he was shot a second time because, according to media reports and subject matter experts, he was theorized to be still holding the gun and posing a threat, just as the man that killed Sergeant Tim Chapin did (from the ground). That was their “injustice against people of color.”
Protest marches with up to eleven participants were conducted; fundraisers were held for the victim’s family.
Flash forward to April now, when there are twelve people of color shot in a seven-day period by other people of color in every case so far…and the “Voices of Justice” are curiously silent.
Yes, I am aware that these lives are only a point of focus for activism when they involve police interaction, which was not the case these last few weeks. But how can you state that you are an advocate for justice, and specifically wanting “to address gang violence in our city through the elimination of root causes of violence—not through the mass incarceration of our youth” when you ignore gang violence unfolding in the same community in unprecedented levels when you know it will guarantee police intervention? You can raise a torch for something even superficially as ridiculous a cause as the incident with Javario Eagle…but go Cold War-silent now of all times?
Chattanooga didn’t suddenly import dozens of fearless gang members. Chattanooga had no “Ferguson-like” flashpoint that sparked this violence. But Chattanooga does have a vocal minority that advocates police as being the criminals and the criminals as being victims (even when those “victims” are attacking children and cops with a knife and a gun). Chattanooga now has gang members telling police officers to their face they are outgunned and they can’t be stopped despite no “Baltimore-like” pattern of abuse. Coincidence?
No “anti-violence” marches. No “fundraising” is being promoted. And a strong police response is a foregone conclusion, yet…crickets from the peanut gallery.
Now that you’re seeing the results of undercutting the only group that’s actually trying to do something about this violence, why don’t you take a break and ask a new question in these communities: When your kids are walking to school or playing in the yard…who are you afraid of? The police—or the gang members they’re trying to stop?
Protest the Protesters, people. I believe the time for distractions is over.
(Just a theory, of course.)
When officer Alexander D. Teach is not patrolling our fair city on the heels of the criminal element, he spends his spare time volunteering for the Boehm Birth Defects Center.
Illustration by Eduard Piél