Rant #2,633: The Way It Is

Again, this is a very difficult Rant to write.
 
It is going to say some things that many people don’t want to hear, but I am going to say it anyway.
 
I don’t care if I get any “likes” when it appears on Facebook, but it has to be said.
 
The most recent police shooting in Minnesota--which occurred just blocks away from the George Floyd incident--is a horrible thing, another life wasted, and another police officer whose career was thrown into the dumpster by one stupid move.
 
But let’s look at this tragedy for what it is, not what the media and others want it to be.
 
Here is what we have been told about what transpired: the driver was pulled over by police for some minor traffic infraction, the car’s plates were run through the police computer to make sure that everything else was copacetic, and it obviously wasn’t as serene as could be, as there was a warrant out for the attest of the driver.
 
The driver was told to get out of the car, and he didn’t do as he was told.
 
Finally he did, but then, as cuffs were going onto him, he jumped back into the car, looking to speed off.
 
The police warned him that he would be tasered, and here is where the problem happened.
 
The officer, supposedly an experienced officer at that, took out the wrong weapon, and rather than tasing the suspect, she shot him.
 
He still was able to do what he wanted to do, which was drive away, but evidently the shot finally got him, and he crashed into another car and was found dead.
 
Now, let’s be honest about it. An experienced officer of the law should not mistake a taser with an actual gun, and for that, and for the actions that were the result of this horrid mistake, the cop should get the book thrown at her, and deservedly so.
 
However, was the suspect pulled over and eventually abused in this way because he was a black man?
 
Sorry, I don’t think so, even though the media narrative today is that any confrontation between black and white is due to social injustice and prejudice and racism.
 
Look, even the president has made this fellow into an angel, even though there was a warrant out for his arrest.
 
It is unfortunate what happened, but if he would have simply done what the officers told him to do, none of this would have happened.
 
We know why he didn’t comply, and then, due to the cop’s stupidity, what happened happened.
 
It clearly had nothing to do with whether he was white, black, brown, yellow, orange or purple.
 
It happened, and it is a tragedy, but it had absolutely nothing to do with race. If he was white, he would have been pulled over for the traffic infraction, and if he was white and had a warrant out on him, he would have been cuffed.
 
And the reaction by some, or course, should have been expected.
 
Protests abounded around the country, and if they were simply protests, that would have been fine. Americans have the right to peacefully protest, but even though the media called them “peaceful protests,” they certainly weren’t.
 
They were full of destruction, particularly in the state of Minnesota, where businesses were broken into and destroyed and police were attacked.
 
And then the sports world chimed in, with several contests involving teams from Minnesota being canceled--for the safety of players, employees and fans. Not that they weren't going to be shot by police, but because they had to be protected from the "peaceful" protestors.
 
Players decided to sit out last night’s games, even if they weren’t players on Minnesota teams, including Aaron Hicks of the New York Yankees, who we have been tied was having a tough time after this latest incident.
 
Hicks plays for a New York team, and he once played for the Minnesota Twins, so the connection is there.
 
To grieve, he received a paid day off, which was needed anyway since he currently isn’t hitting his weight anyway, and the Yankees won their game without him.
 
Yes, I am knocking Hicks, and I am knocking him because it seems people who “can’t handle this” pick and choose what they can and can’t handle, and their choices are coddled by the media and in the case of pro athletes, by the teams they play for.
 
Hicks plays for a New York team, yet he evidently could handle the fact that two more innocent children were shot in the New York Metropolitan Area during the past day or two due to gun violence in communities of color.
 
Gun violence has gotten out of control in New York, simply because the justice system in the state coddle criminals due to no bail laws, and this problem is rife in communities of color, which are already ravaged by black on black and brown on brown violence, which the media chooses to ignore.
 
So if the incident with the young man in Minnesota never happened, Hicks would have played yesterday, ready to dig in to get out of his early season slump, seemingly oblivious to the fact that young children got in the way of errant bullets just hours before.
 
I guess we have a right to pick and choose our agendas, and Hicks—who has also been coddled by the media for his actions—has a right to not play if he doesn’t feel like it, unlike the rest of the world, who goes to their jobs day in and day out whether they like it or not.
 
You just know that Black Lives Matter will have their say, violent or otherwise, at the latest incident, but will be silent about gun violence in communities of color, which is killing young people way more than the police are.
 
There. I have said it. It had to be said and I said it.
 
Try to have a nice day.