Jacob Blake ‘s Past Crimes Do Not Warrant 7 bullets
Jacob Blake has had some serious misdeeds. He had a criminal record. By all accounts he was a guy who we would label “a bad guy”.
But even “bad guys” have the right to their day in court, which is not what happened this week.
Instead, we had BAD POLICING.
Really BAD POLICING.
Police Officers are keepers of the peace. They come to the scene to de-escalate events or actions. In this case though, in a mere three minutes not only did the police not maintain peace, but they escalated an incident where a man, a black man, was shot seven times in the back.
In this time and this place in America the sheer optics of this are terrible. At a time when the police are being scrutinized over their handling of black people this only proves the point of African-Americans that they are treated(mistreated) differently than their white neighbors.
Yes, you can talk about the resisting arrest, the rap sheet, the knife in the car, but the elephant in the room is a black man was shot 7 TIMES!.
Saying the word excessive does not even do it justice.
For any of us that have ever shot a gun or heard a gun go off, you can say it is one of the most thunderous and sickening noises you will hear. The force of which a bullet comes out of a gun is powerful. Like shock and awe powerful.
And for a police officer to shoot someone in the back from point blank range is sickening. It is a human rights violation of the highest grounds.
(If you have never shot a gun before, I actually do not recommend it, but I also think you should try it once at a secure gun range to know what it actually feels like. The understanding of the power it has is something that cannot be fully explained)
I have, unfortunately, had domestic fights with my brother where the cops have been called. I am a white male and I can honestly say that when the cops showed up they never once drew their firearms . Never even reached for them. They came out, separated the parties, talked to us and made peace or at least de-escalated the situation.
I have, again regretfully, been in some drunken brawls, in the middle of the street, where again, cops were called and, again, a group of white males never had the police draw their weapons or use force against combative suspects. They broke up the fight, told everyone to go home or they could go to jail. Everyone went home. Nobody was shot.
Jacob Blake did not deserve to be shot seven times in the back. He deserved proper policing that should have de-escalated the situation. Part of the problem is that black people do not feel safe with the police because of past and present history of violent encounters that cause a gut reaction to flee. And seeing guns drawn within two minutes of the police arriving tells me these police officers were not interested or trained correctly in handling escalated incidents, which only confounds the problem even more.
So to say Jacob Blake was a bad dude who resisted arrest and got what was coming to him is not correct. At worst, Jacob Blake should have been arrested. Then let the legal system take over from there where his rights for Due Process and a Trial is what every American is entitled to regardless of past crimes, race, or creed.
Police Officers are not judge, jury, and executioners. They are officials of the community to protect, to serve, keep the peace, and de-escalate confrontations of said community.
Jacob Blake is guilty of crimes.
But so are the police.