Wednesday, July 20, 2011

To Protest? or not to Protest? that is the question

San Francisco is up in arms because of a police shooting. According to protestors the police shot and killed a 19-year-old man for not paying his light rail ticket. Protests were running rampant on the streets of San Francisco, one protestor dropped a smoke bomb inside a light rail car, and another threw a hammer towards the Mission Police station window. 35 protestors were arrested for failing to disperse after a warning of unlawful assembly.

Here’s the problem I have with this protest. This 19-year-old man who was shot and killed was on parole for prostituting and pimping a 13-year-old girl, and was a person of interest in the murder of a pregnant woman in Washington. Also reports showed gun residue on his finger indicating that he fired the first shot into a crowd of police officers. 

People are not only demeaning the power of protest by backing this sick individual, but they are also making a mockery of the Oscar Grant case, by drawing comparisons.

Furthermore, when they drop smoke bombs in trains, and throw hammers at police station windows, that is a sign of violent initiation. Is this really the way to fight for the “honor” of the deceased? 

What happened to Oscar Grant, regardless of your opinion on the kind of person he was, or was not, was a tragic occurrence. He was shot in cold blood, and the officer who committed this horrific act was let off (in the eyes of many people)

He has to live with the guilt of shooting a young person in cold blood for the rest of his life. Anywhere he goes people will recognize him as “that cop who shot a kid.” 

Is that enough punishment? Probably not, but that’s how the justice system and life works sometimes.

The people protesting the shooting of this 19-year-old pimp from Seattle are like the people who protested Rodney King.

Don’t get me wrong; what happened to Rodney was flat out wrong. The police officers should never have administered such hostile acts. He was definitely a victim in that respect. 

But we forget that Rodney was the cause of a high-speed chase in a residential area where kids play, and was high as a kite. Had he hit, injured, or killed anyone during that chase people might have been singing a different tune.

The Rodney King protests were atrocious, people used it as an excuse to loot, and set local stores on fire, and they caused violence and mayhem everywhere. It makes the cause you’re protesting seem irrelevant, and ridiculous.

The bottom line is the protests being rendered for this 19-year-old pimp, are utter bullshit! Just another excuse for people to “fight the man.” Our country and society has become so focused on pointing fingers at people doing their jobs, that some people are prone to “human error,” because of the fear of having the public backlash.

People need to pick their battles. Not protest every shooting, or every thing a police officer does and fight it. Because sooner or later, you might need a police officer that has the courage to pull that trigger to save your life or the life of someone you love. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want second third and fourth thoughts going through that officer’s head if my life is on the line.

Sometimes, police shootings are necessary. Sometimes people deserve to get killed. It is better to kill one person who is guilty at the very least, of firing into a crowd first, then to lose a few people and then take action.

So the next time you read an article about a police shooting. And you can smell the media spin that reeks of “cops are bad” take a step back and look at the whole picture. It might just change your mind.




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