Ferguson Commentary

The media is all abuzz these past few weeks due to the shooting of an unarmed boy in Missouri. It is a terrible thing when any one is killed, and even more so when it is a young person. What makes it such a headline worthy thing is that it is yet another black youth being shot by a white officer, however there is nothing rare about it in the public's eye and the media makes it out to be a common occurrence with completely racial motivation rather than what the real truth is; the "victim" got exactly what he deserved and it was unfortunately a white officer that gave it to him. Here is where many people who could be reading this post would get very angry and possibly wish me harm. Thankfully, very few people actually read my blog.
  Let me begin by explaining a few things about myself and my point of view to you so that you may understand where I am coming from and why my "unpopular" opinion is what it is. This police shooting occurred in Missouri, the Mid-West, and perhaps you are new to the United States, but the Mid-West is a predominantly white part of the country. However, since there are minorities everywhere, the white population that perhaps grew up with more benefits and a chance at a better life than their minority counterparts will have the occasional run in with each other and most times the law side will outgun the criminal element. As I stated a minute ago, the legal element will generally tend to be predominantly white compared to the criminal element, and although people may view this as an unfair balance of power, this is just the way it is. When the criminal element puts the law element in a position of possible danger, the law is going to do what they are trained to do and they are going to "put down" the threat. As a former law enforcement official, I can inform you of two things without a doubt: 1) you make me feel as though I am in immediate danger of life or limb, I am going to kill you, and 2) chances are likely that you and I are going to be different races. I am an Italian man, which is actually not white, and chances are that you are going to be some race that also does not consider themselves white. Personally, I never gave a shit as to whether the "perp" was white, black, yellow, green, blue, or purple with polka dot stripes, if you put me in the perception of danger, I will have absolutely no problem sending you onto the next phase of your metaphysical plane.
  If you are approached by a police officer, cooperate. End of statement. You come and act like you are being harassed, and most likely that interaction will escalate  from something small and easily remedied to something that  could be perceived as harassing or defamatory. I have been reading statement after statement in article after article about how Michael Brown was a regular average teenager who did nothing wrong other than stealing from a store, smoke marijuana, listen to and "sing" hardcore rap lyrics advocating the "thug" lifestyle and violence and that the ONLY reason he was shot and killed was because the officer was racist. Hmmm...Ok, let's evaluate this for a moment shall we.
  I was a teenager once, and unless you are the result of super advanced successful human cloning, you were one once too. This means that you have experienced emotional instability and emotional confusion, acne, clumsiness, the desire and need to fit in, experimentation with many different things including possibly drugs, alcohol, and music, and other personality traits that may or may not have stuck with you and developed as you matured. Did you have any run-ins with law enforcement of any type? Chances are good that at some point during your formative teen years you were in a place at a time when law enforcement may have been called to assist or intervene with some type of behavior that you or someone you were with was doing and thus you were involved in a situation where you had direct or indirect involvement with law enforcement. Now, with that being put out there for you to relive and remember, you obviously survived up to this point in your life and survived being a teenager in The United States of Racism. I am willing to bet my life and the lives of my children that every single person who is alive right now as a fully grown adult is not white. We are not a completely white world and there are currently 313.9million (2012 census figure) people in America alone. It makes me wonder how 313 million people were able to survive through their teens without all of the racist white police officers out there killing them as they walked through this world.
  My hypothesis is fairly simple, and that is that when you had an encounter with the police you did not decide to test your luck and awesome skills by trying to attack or intimidate the police officers you were having an encounter with. I can speak for myself personally and state that the several interactions I had with law enforcement when I was in my teens in no way shape or form resulted in a weapon being drawn on me nor even a remote chance of being shot by said officials. Why you ask? Well, if you listen to or base this fact off of mass media and the Michael Brown and Treyvon Martin families, my survival is SOLELY because I am fraught with WHITE PRIVILEGE. I mean, how else can you explain it? After all, these two people did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG other than being black and running into law enforcement, right? They were the victims of being teenagers targeted by white racist officers who figured that they would be able to get away with killing young unarmed black teenagers. After all, we all think that we can kill other people and no one will notice, right?
  Plain and simple folks, these two people were killed because they were arrogant, rude, misbehaving, self-entitled, and violent towards others. They made the decision that they could do and have done nothing wrong and were being unfairly targeted because of their skin color/neighborhood/time of day, etc and due to this they decided that they would strike back at those attempting to correct their behavior and didn't account for the fact that they were out gunned and that when a person is in reasonable fear of injury or death they will do whatever is necessary to stay alive. For those people who are in law enforcement, this means that most likely they will use the firearm that they are required to carry whilst they are on duty and this will result in you being shot. Why people don't seem to understand after 100(+) years of police officers being around, and almost as many years of them being armed and trained in self defense, that police officers are trained to kill and not to merely injure. Yet, every single time there is a police shooting, right around the time the race card is pulled, and before the report indicates how many bullets made contact with the "victim," the family/friends/associates of the "victim" scream wanting to know why the officer(s) couldn't have shot the person in the leg. Small thing to consider also, there are major arteries that are throughout the body that can still result in death (slower and often times more painful) if they are hit with a speeding bullet that was fired into the body in a location chosen by the officer to injure rather than kill.
  I know that this entire article will be unpopular with many people, and many others may feel that I am blaming the entire situation of Mr Brown's death on race and thinking that I would not be saying any of this if he were a white teenager. Well, let me assure you that if Mr Brown had been white, yellow, orange, or green, I firmly believe that he got what he had coming to him. You attack a police officer, or make him feel as though impending danger and injury may soon be inflicted upon his/her person by you, you deserve anything that happens to you at the hands of said police officer. If a multi-millionaire white person had been attacking a police officer of ANY race or ethnic origin, I would still stand behind that officer 100% if they used deadly force to neutralize the perceived threat. This is what those who are making the situation in Ferguson, MO out to be a racial powder keg are not even remotely considering. They are people who feel as though they identify with Mr Brown based upon his social status, racial affiliation, ethnic background, religious upbringing, or some other type of absurd connection that they feel they are a part of. They were not there when the incident happened and can not make any logical speech about it to justify either side involved. I am honestly no different. I was not there, and all of my writing here is based on certain facts that are undeniable with inference made based upon the situational facts available to the public. I was not the officer who fired on Mr Brown and obviously I was not Mr Brown and thus I am unable to make any absolute factual statement regarding what transpired between these two people. What I can say I already have within this article and leave you to make a decision about this situation with a little more logic and opinion involved than what I have been reading lately. Hopefully, you will see the reasoning behind my words and not pass them off as just another racist prick who had to put in his two cents. I wrote this merely for the fact that I share no feelings towards any one race over the other, or any demographic group verses another. I just felt the need to say what it seems like others are afraid to say.
  Bottom line, if you behave like a jerk, don't be upset when you get treated like a jerk. Act like a disobedient bad-ass thug, don't be surprised when you get treated like one. Attack someone physically and put them in a position to perceive their life as being in danger, don't be surprised when they kick your ass or worse. If you are not absolutely sure that you can safely win a fight, then perhaps you should be smart enough not to start it in the first place. But, when the other person strikes back and you are left bloodied or worse, don't blame the person's response on anything other than the fact that you gave them no choice but to respond in the manner that they did.