Recently Saginaw. Michigan has been in the news because police shot and killed a homeless mentally ill African-American man named Milton Hall who was threatening people with a knife. According to news reports the police (who were white) took 47 shots to bring Hall. The investigation has cleared them of all wrongdoing. Meanwhile the Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have come to town to protest.
The Milton Hall case does raise a lot of questions such as why did it take 47 shots (only one of which was fatal) to bring down Mr. Hall and why weren't alternate methods used? It does sound like the Saginaw police department needs an overhaul.
But I object very much to the race card being played in this case. The week of the Saginaw protest there were other African-Americans who were murdered but because they weren't killed by white policeman nobody gave a damn. There was even a little kid who was killed at his own birthday party by a drive-by shooter. But that is not what the reverends were in town for. No.
The question that has been asked--and I think it is a valid one--is where were all these people who are so concerned now about Mr. Hall when he was alive? His mother lives in Arizona and has a lot of bitter things to say about her son's death. But why is SHE in Arizona and HE in Michigan? Why was Mr. Hall living outside on the streets behind a Chinese restaurant?
Skin color--race--has nothing to do with this. If Mr. Hall had died of exposure--if Mr. Hall had been struck by a car--if Mr. Hall had been killed by a robber or a druggie or a gang-banger--if he had died of any other reason than being shot by cops whom he was threatening with a weapon--nobody would have ever heard of him and the Reverends Sharpton and Jackson would have not come to town. That is the bottom line. Somebody is looking to profit on this unfortunate man's death and they saw an opportunity.
I believe everyone's life is valuable. But it does seem like some lives are more valuable than others and some are worth more protesting than others. Especially when trouble can be stirred up over it. Again, if Mr. Hall had shared the same skin color as the policemen who shot him, it would just be local news and quickly forgotten. No big story in that.
They say Mr. Hall had a three-inch hunting knife which he refused to put down when the cops asked him to. Some people may pooh-pooh the idea that the cops felt that they were threatened by such a puny weapon. I can tell you that even a common steak knife can kill. That happened several years ago in my trailer park. A sixteen-year-old boy was fatally stabbed in the heart with a steak knife by his older brother. Apparently the older brother was doing drugs and the younger brother found his stash and flushed it down the toilet. Both, by the way, were white. Bet you didn't hear about that or the protest that the Pope and the Dalai Lama led down the streets of my village. That's because there was no protest and they didn't come nor would they had they been asked. It was a non-event except to the family and those who lived in the trailer park and witnessed the whole thing.
So what is the solution? Segregated police forces, one to attend African-Americans and one to attend whites? Should the police just pull an "Atlas Shrugged" and say, "that's it, we just won't go out on any calls involving someone of another race?" Isn't that worse racism? I'm sorry, sir or ma'am, all of our officers of your ethnic background are busy at the time, do you want one of another background or do you want to wait? I can hear the screaming now! I simply cannot believe that the white officers of the Saginaw Police set out that morning to kill an African-American. If they were that prejudiced, why stop at Milton Hall?
I have read histories of what it was like to be black and live in the South under the reign of terror that was segregation. I don't hear those kind of stories coming out of Saginaw or any other Michigan city. If anything, incidents like this will only increase prejudice. I know that if I were a white cop I would think twice about confronting anyone who was a minority. It would not make me more inclined to serve and protect minority neighborhoods. And I think--given the numbers of black-on-black crime that goes unprotested that this might be happening. That cops may be saying, leave them to their own.
The Milton Hall case does raise a lot of questions such as why did it take 47 shots (only one of which was fatal) to bring down Mr. Hall and why weren't alternate methods used? It does sound like the Saginaw police department needs an overhaul.
But I object very much to the race card being played in this case. The week of the Saginaw protest there were other African-Americans who were murdered but because they weren't killed by white policeman nobody gave a damn. There was even a little kid who was killed at his own birthday party by a drive-by shooter. But that is not what the reverends were in town for. No.
The question that has been asked--and I think it is a valid one--is where were all these people who are so concerned now about Mr. Hall when he was alive? His mother lives in Arizona and has a lot of bitter things to say about her son's death. But why is SHE in Arizona and HE in Michigan? Why was Mr. Hall living outside on the streets behind a Chinese restaurant?
Skin color--race--has nothing to do with this. If Mr. Hall had died of exposure--if Mr. Hall had been struck by a car--if Mr. Hall had been killed by a robber or a druggie or a gang-banger--if he had died of any other reason than being shot by cops whom he was threatening with a weapon--nobody would have ever heard of him and the Reverends Sharpton and Jackson would have not come to town. That is the bottom line. Somebody is looking to profit on this unfortunate man's death and they saw an opportunity.
I believe everyone's life is valuable. But it does seem like some lives are more valuable than others and some are worth more protesting than others. Especially when trouble can be stirred up over it. Again, if Mr. Hall had shared the same skin color as the policemen who shot him, it would just be local news and quickly forgotten. No big story in that.
They say Mr. Hall had a three-inch hunting knife which he refused to put down when the cops asked him to. Some people may pooh-pooh the idea that the cops felt that they were threatened by such a puny weapon. I can tell you that even a common steak knife can kill. That happened several years ago in my trailer park. A sixteen-year-old boy was fatally stabbed in the heart with a steak knife by his older brother. Apparently the older brother was doing drugs and the younger brother found his stash and flushed it down the toilet. Both, by the way, were white. Bet you didn't hear about that or the protest that the Pope and the Dalai Lama led down the streets of my village. That's because there was no protest and they didn't come nor would they had they been asked. It was a non-event except to the family and those who lived in the trailer park and witnessed the whole thing.
So what is the solution? Segregated police forces, one to attend African-Americans and one to attend whites? Should the police just pull an "Atlas Shrugged" and say, "that's it, we just won't go out on any calls involving someone of another race?" Isn't that worse racism? I'm sorry, sir or ma'am, all of our officers of your ethnic background are busy at the time, do you want one of another background or do you want to wait? I can hear the screaming now! I simply cannot believe that the white officers of the Saginaw Police set out that morning to kill an African-American. If they were that prejudiced, why stop at Milton Hall?
I have read histories of what it was like to be black and live in the South under the reign of terror that was segregation. I don't hear those kind of stories coming out of Saginaw or any other Michigan city. If anything, incidents like this will only increase prejudice. I know that if I were a white cop I would think twice about confronting anyone who was a minority. It would not make me more inclined to serve and protect minority neighborhoods. And I think--given the numbers of black-on-black crime that goes unprotested that this might be happening. That cops may be saying, leave them to their own.
