I presume you’re all aware of the problems in Kenosha, Wisconsin. If not, I’ll quickly summarize it for you. There is a report here that strikes me as pretty good.
Kenosha, Wisconsin is a town of about 100,000 people just north of the Illinois-Wisconsin border. Two days ago police responded to a domestic disturbance call. After that things get a bit hazy. The Kenosha police ended up shooting a young black man. He is presently in stable condition in the hospital. The shooting was caught on video; the video has “gone viral”.
There was a night of rioting, burning of businesses in Kenosha. There are expected to be more.
A man shot and millions of dollars of damages done are bad enough but I wonder if people understand how risky this cycle is? Rushes to judgment about a shooting followed by taking vengeance on people who haven’t harmed you? It wouldn’t take much for it to get completely out of control and I don’t mean just in Kenosha.
As usual the usual provocateurs jump to conclusions and justify conflagration which as you suggest could easily become carnage.
The common denominator in these cases is a black man refusing the authority of the police. Police interactions are serious business. Ignore police commands at your peril. Pride takes a back seat for a little while. It’s not Mano E Mano.
More facts will trickle out about this incident but as for the mob the jury is already in.
The guy has a long rap sheet, including police altercations. Supposedly, there are photographic indications he was reaching into his pants waistband, and then getting awkwardly into the driver’s seat and bending down as if to reach for something. This is when the police shot him. Other tidbits are that his kids were in the car – if so that would be shocking. Also, although he has stabilized he is paralyzed from the waist down.
Putting the known and unknown pieces of info together this incident is not going away without lots more collateral uprisings, especially if there is no firm police management of the criminal chaos.
Too early to tell what happened. He lived so we will probably get to hear his side of the story. Heard what I think was his mother on the way home asking people to not engage in violence.
“Ignore police commands at your peril.”
I am not so sure this means police get to shoot you whenever they want. There are a lot of mentally ill and retarded people who will have trouble following directions. We really want the police to just shoot them?
Steve
I agree.
This is another case like Atlanta at the Wendy’s where the police attempted to restrain a suspect and lost the fight.
Stronger, more physical officers and it may not have come to a shooting.
Some 1,100 people died in police interactions last year and 24% were the ones that matter, Black ones. That matters because it’s higher than the percentage of Black population and because the perception of police targeting Black men leads to Black violence in police interactions.
It should lead to Police policies such as wait and see tactics for suspects identified as retarded, schizophrenic, or Black.
These policies could have other negative effects but would serve to protect the lives that matter.
Black ones.