Not only did we, once again, witness one of the major issues with society today, that being “Black Friday,” but we also saw people completely ignore the rules of polite society.
Yes, there’s the old joke that, just hours after being thankful for what you have, you can elbow people to get a good deal on more stuff, but it’s true. I actually went to Wal-Mart Thursday night, as they had a few home appliances on a great sale, which I need for the house I’m building, and I watched as people almost trampled each other. I live in a “small town,” so we were spared the horrors that were seen in places like LA, NYC or Chicago, but why can’t people be courteous, rather than only screaming at others to be? I saw people literally screaming at others to not block the aisle, while they were doing that very thing, but if you suggest they take their own advice, you will be called ignorant, a racist, or worse.
Well, it seems that Michael Brown is being remembered, by people using his name to justify their refusing to even cooperate with police. In South Strabane, PA, a man was suspected of shoplifting, so the store manager at Wal-Mart called the police. When they arrived, this man refused to show ID and refused to allow the officer, who he all but yelled the name of, to see the receipt. He said “he knows who I am,” before admitting that the officer had arrested him before. This is strike one for me, as it shows a criminal history. In “showing the receipt,” he treated the officer like a child, telling him “look with your eyes, not your hands,” even after the officer told him he couldn’t read it due to moving. The idiot then said his hands were shaking because he was mad. As an officer, had a man who was larger than I am said he was “mad,” I’d have him on the ground, or at least in cuffs.
In addition to this, he had someone recording, so we hear him say that no one called, thereby accusing the officer of lying, and also suggesting he knows what the manager did, even though he has no way to know if the manager called or not. The alarm not going off means nothing, as not everything is tagged to do that. Finally, he walks around, yelling while holding his hands up, that he fears for his life and saying the officer is “trying to Mike Brown me” while the officer never even acted as if he was going to draw his weapon.
Here’s the video –
So, we have a black man, who, after robbing a store of cigarillos, and physically assaulting the store owner/operator, struggled to take a police officer’s sidearm, only to be shot. To be clear, the wounds showed that he was not running away, his hands were not up, and so on. Yet when the evidence showed that the officer wasn’t in the wrong, that’s ignored, and now, apparently, a way to get police to leave you alone when you are likely guilty.
A few suggestions for if you are approached in a situation like this. Show your ID, let the officer actually hold the receipt, and don’t act like this, instantly accusing the police of trying to kill you! You are in a private business, which means they or the police when called, CAN SEE AND HOLD YOUR RECEIPT, and it’s not racist or anything of the like!
So, all of that said, what are your thoughts?