Milwaukee burned and has been in the national spotlight for two nights now as citizens riot, protestors are in the street, one was shot. Again, Black people are tearing up their own community in a mock protest against “the oppressor.”
I get angry when I have to write this type of article, I am as one would say ‘down for the cause’ and I wear the struggle on My sleeve as well in my heart. To see the goals which we are fighting for so maliciously twisted is heart-wrenching.
An armed Black man was fatally shot while fleeing from police Saturday in Milwaukee. Just as in the case of Korryn Gaines, who was mortally wounded in a shootout with Baltimore police earlier this month, Sylville Smith, was armed and disobeyed lawful commands from a police officer. Subsequently, he was shot dead. In My opinion, just as in the case of Koryn Gaines, the shooting was justified.
Black rage is a real thing. No, Black people don’t walk around angry all the time, however, Black people in America tend to carry such a heavy burden from the past. We walk around angry at missed opportunity, at blatant racism we can’t control, at systematic forms of oppression like the welfare trap that forces you to live in poverty and other things that have been heaped upon us in reality or spirit our whole lives. It’s not hard to work up a group of people who are already angry beneath the surface. When you yell fire in a packed auditorium people will run, scream and try to protect their loved ones. The media has been screaming fire since the death of Trayvon Martin.
There has been a blatant attempt in the mainstream media to create division in this country; division by sexuality, race, class and political affiliation. America is a powder keg waiting to explode. He who controls the information disseminated to people controls the people and the angry mobs that scream foul every time a police officer shoots his weapon have been brainwashed beyond repair.
I too hate injustice. I will fight and scream and jump in situations that don’t involve me whenever I witness blatant injustice. But there has to be a real injustice, not a false sense of personal outrage on my behalf because I have strong feelings about the people involved.
That’s what’s been going on in America recently and it has to stop before it gets up all killed and destroys what we have worked and fought so hard to achieve.
Milwaukee is in the public spotlight, not because an officer shot a perpetrator in the line of duty, that happens fairly often. Milwaukee is in the public spotlight because angry Black people think that every police shooting is a murder. It isn’t, I’m sorry to have to tell you all and I’m Black. I wanted to write this article when Korryn Gaines was shot, being here in Baltimore, I was shocked when I saw how much support was being thrown behind this unstable woman. I see her as nothing short of an unfit parent and criminal, while many others see her as a warrior. People are entitled to their opinions. What’s similar to Gaines and Sylville Smith, both 23, and their death by cop is that they were both justified shootings. Both Gaines and Smith forgot that it’s a crime to point a gun at a cop, some people have forgotten that it is the job of police officers to protect us everyday citizens from law breakers.
A Black man was shot dead by a Black cop while in the commission of a crime and local citizens are outraged. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen our people rally behind and unjust cause, As I’ve said before we must fight when injustice is done. The injustice done to one of us can affect us all. So can mob mentality. This mob mentality that is leading people to loot, riot and commit crimes in the so-called name of justice is just as ridiculous as those who kill in the name of religion.
We are not in a race war, we are not in a war where the police are against the civilians, we are in a war where the only two sides to choose are right or wrong. That’s all justice is about, giving people an opportunity to be proven guilty or innocent, a chance for the right thing to happen. It doesn’t mean the right thing, or the thing that makes you happiest will always happen, it just means the system wasn’t rigged so it never could.
When you take to the streets to march protests, loot, and riot because a young man of ANY race with an extensive criminal background refused to put his weapon down on an order of the police, you’re a part of the problem. We have police because we have criminals. I understand that every criminal is someone’s son, daughter, uncle, nephew, spouse, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re a criminal.
Police officers stopped the vehicle Sylville Smith and one other suspect were in Saturday afternoon for still unspecified reasons. Smith and friend ran from the car, Smith with a gun that was found to stolen in a burglary earlier this year. The other suspect was taken into custody without issue. An officer gave chase, ordering smith on more than one occasion to drop his weapon. Smith refused to comply with the officer’s order and was shot before he could hurt anyone. Sounds like a lawful shooting to me. This is not a Philandro Castile type case, this was not an innocent man driving down the street, carrying his legal registered firearm, shot dead with his seat belt on. No, this is known criminal, pulled over by police, flees with a weapon, refuses to drop the weapon, is shot justifiably by the officer. The officer’s body camera caught footage of Smith holding his weapon still before the officer fired the two shots that hit Smith is his arm and chest. Smith had 23 rounds of ammunition in his weapon.
You can not want justice only when it doesn’t come with any inconvenience to you. If you seek justice then you will appreciate it in all forms. If you point a gun at a cop you will get shot, that should be a law if it isn’t blatantly one. I know some of you are on your conscious high horse screaming about all of the white people who raised a gun to police officers and are still alive. Spare me the diatribe, reality is the fact that they were not shot is unjust and we can’t take away from good behavior by pointing out bad behavior. You can correct bad behavior with continuous good behavior, however.
Yes, the system that teaches cops that a Black person with a gun is inherently more dangerous than a white person with a gun must be abolished. There are some police shootings where that comes into play. But when a Black officer shoots a Black man aiming a gun at him where does the argument go?
Just as the street burned here in Baltimore when Freddie Gray died, residents of Milwaukee have taken to the streets angry that another gun-toting criminal is off the street. They have destroyed their own communities, setting fire to a gas station, looting stores and torching a police vehicle. Protesters have marched chanting slogans like “Black Power.” Black power? Why are we backing up criminals when innocent men and women are being killed daily. Do you think Smith was heading to trade his semi-automatic weapon in for a new computer? The officer probably saved a life in taking one.
“What happened tonight may not have been right and I am not justifying that but no one can deny the fact that there are problems, racial problems in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that need to be rectified,” Alderman Kalif Rainey said of Saturday night’s riot. “This community of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has become the worst place to live for African-Americans in the entire country,” he added.
Milwaukee’s two days of riots, looting and unrest caused the local government to call in the National Guard. Saturday night 4 officers were injured and 17 people arrested as protests grew violent. Reports show that Sunday night protesters fired weapons and threw large objects, injuring more than one person. At least one person was shot and rushed to the hospital in an armored vehicle. An officer was also injured Sunday night.
Kimberly Neal, Smith’s sister told reporters “He should have been tased, if anything,” she said. “We want everybody to feel our pain.” How laughable, your brother points his gun at a cop and you think he should have been tased. Yea that seems like a fair response to a lethal weapon, a nonlethal one. You have to be kidding me. Is she delusional? The problem is she and so many others feel the same way. This is the culture you breed when you glorify the street and thug lifestyle in every song, movie and television show created for the Black community. You create a community of people who can’t understand right or wrong, they just know what they’ve been taught and shown repeatedly.
When I was young we played cops and robbers, we knew there was a difference at a young age between the cops and the bad guys. Now in almost every scenario the cop is considered the bad guy and the bad guy a hero. Get real and get a real cause. Stop destroying your own community over a man who was a detriment to it.
