‘It’s the Behavior, Stupid!’: The Simple Truth About Blacks Shot By Police

Alton Sterling fought the police, and now he’s dead.

He refused to follow their directions and fought them and continued to struggle with them while on the ground. Was it because he didn’t have a permit for the gun? I don’t know, but I do know that if he had obeyed their instructions – AND NOT FOUGHT WITH THEM! – he’d be alive today. Yes, he may have been in trouble for the firearm if he didn’t have a permit, but he’d be alive to deal with that trouble.

And it has been the same in almost every single incident over the past two years where a black man gets shot by a white cop. It’s because the black man insists on proving how brave, strong and tough he is by ignoring their instructions, fighting with them, etc.

The only two incidents I know of where the black man did NOT do something utterly stupid that caused him to get shot is the young man with the BB gun in a store (where the cop began firing as soon as he laid eyes on the man) and possibly the recent shooting in Minnesota. (Although that, too, was precipitated by a very foolish action on the part of the black man: while reaching for his back pocket he announced that he was carrying a firearm. My God, with all that’s been happening between blacks and the police, how difficult would it have been to have kept his hands where the cop could see them, advise the officer that he has a permit for a handgun and that he’s carrying the gun and ask the cop how he wants to handle that? Exactly as I have done on several occasions, and I’ve not been shot by the police.)

Part of the problem, no doubt, is scared police, especially when encountering black males. Why is that? Partly due to the people they hire nowadays as police officers (because so few others want the aggravation and danger of the job?), many of whom are soft, not skilled in physical fighting and without the needed tough temperament or judgment required.

BUT…the biggest reason any cop is more on-edge when dealing with black males is the continually demonstrated contempt for the law exhibited by a certain segment of black society. Certainly not all black people, but way more than there should be, apparently think slavery, Jim Crow, etc., gives them the right to flout society’s established rules of behavior in dress, public language, aggressive and belligerent behavior, etc. Many, probably because of previous experience with the criminal justice system, show absolutely no respect, let alone fear, for police officers, practically daring them to stop their flagrant disregard for the law.

The rule of law is designed to protect every citizen; yes, even if/when it is unevenly applied and the wealthy and powerful (like Hillary Clinton recently) get away with things you and I could never get away with. And yes, even if/when it’s not fairly applied across the board because of skin color, which is a part of our history.

However, anyone who would argue that there is a systematic, deliberate mis-application of the law towards black people today simply aren’t paying attention. It’s not skin color that makes some cops more nervous when dealing with black people…it’s the behavior, speech and demeanor so often exhibited which says, in effect, “I don’t recognize your authority, I don’t accept your behavioral standards or laws, and you don’t have the right to prevent me from doing as I damn well please.”

Alton Sterling wasn’t “murdered,” as the BLM racists are spewing; he made stupid choices and continued to make them, even while struggling with the police officers on the ground. At any point he could have simply stopped fighting, got handcuffed and then dealt with the charges later. If he didn’t want to get in trouble for having a pistol, then he should have gotten a permit for it before he started carrying it.

Whatever the reason he fought, it was HIS BEHAVIOR that got him shot and killed. Unless/until black people acknowledge that fact, these killings will continue, but it’s not the police who are to blame. It’s the fault of the black people who seem bound and determined to be the most recent martyr to the Black Lives Matter idiocy and the latest reason for other blacks to “protest” (i.e., riot, burn and loot).

If Black Lives Matter ‘activists’ really gave a damn about black lives, they’d be working in the inner cities to stop young blacks from murdering each other wholesale every single day, over the stupidest of reasons (gang colors, shoes, perceived slights, etc.). But apparently black lives only matter when they’re taken by a white cop.

And you claim that the cops are racist?

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Formerly a liberal and an atheist, Paul E. Scates served as a Marine in Vietnam and is a lifelong student of American history, politics and culture. A former contributor to national website TooGoodReports.com, he writes his staunchly independent Conservative and informed Christian commentary for his fellow ordinary, working Americans, the “we, the people” who are ultimately responsible for preserving our Constitutional liberties.

Paul E. Scates

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