Good read (IMO) from Matt Walsh...this was taken from his FB post:
More riots last night. This time in Charlotte. Another black man, Keith Scott, was shot by a black cop, which was a good enough reason to loot a Walmart and throw rocks at moving vehicles.This happened just a day after Terence Crutcher was shot in Tulsa.
In both cases we were told the men were law abiding, compliant, unarmed, pillars of the community and so on. In Scott's case, they told us he was "reading a book" when the cops ran in and executed him for no reason. In Crutcher's case, they told us his car broke down when the cops rolled up and executed him for no reason.
Then, within hours, the truth began to reveal itself. Scott wasn't holding a book, he was holding a gun. He wasn't compliant. They told him to drop it and he didn't.
Crutcher's car didn't break down. He abandoned it in the middle of the road because he said it was going to explode. He was hallucinating. They found PCP in the car, so I think we know why. He wasn't compliant. They told him to stop moving and get on the ground but he kept walking towards his car. They say he reached into it. I don't know if that's true, but you certainly can't say it isn't true.
I still can't tell you whether these shootings were justified, but I can say that the story we heard initially in both cases was, as usual, bogus. Does that mean both men brought their deaths upon themselves? That remains to be seen. But the facts are not leaning entirely in their favor at the moment.
And I can say one more thing:
Whatever the truth ends up being, it seems clear that, once again, if these men had followed the law and listened to the commands of the officers, they'd still be alive. It seems like there's a very simple two step process to avoid being killed by police. It goes like this:
1. Don't break the law.
2. Comply with lawful commands.
That doesn't mean everyone who breaks the law or doesn't comply should be shot. But it does mean that doing either of those things puts you in an at-risk category. It's best to avoid putting yourself in that category, which means avoiding brandishing weapons at the police or smoking PCP, among other unwise behaviors.
It is very, very, very, very rare that someone who is truly non-violent, law abiding and compliant gets killed by the cops. I'm not saying it never happens. It does happen. But it's rare. Not an epidemic. Not a pattern. A tragic aberration. Almost everyone who is shot by the police has gone out of their way to put themselves in a volatile situation with law enforcement.
So, no matter who ends up being at fault in Charlotte and Tulsa, I think we can learn from it. Or we would be able to learn from it if we were allowed to have an honest conversation about it without an angry mob screaming "RACIST" at us.