Run or Comply, either way you die. FTS

The names in this situation are made up.  The problems are real.  The actual story may or may not happen this way...but lets think for a minute.  I was reading about the riots and protests that are happening in Milwaukee right now because two men fled from a traffic stop, one with a gun, and was shot dead by police.  Many are saying...good for the police, he had a gun and didn't stop.  He should have listened.  Please don't compare my comparisons directly to whatever just happened in Milwaukee.  Even thought they are similar.  I don't know all the facts.  I'm not making a villain out of  all police.   Please don't make villains out of all black people.


Jake is young black man.  He knows the tension is high right now.  For him, tension has always been high.  Being looked at just a little bit different because he dresses and talk a little differently.  His culture is just a little bit different.  As Jake grows up and sees violence, he does what anyone else does, gets a gun.  Jake gets a gun the way a lot of other people do.  They buy a used one.  As far as I know, in Wisconsin you can buy a handgun from a private seller.  Why not trust a private seller?  Jake is a seemingly nice guy that needs a handgun for protection.

   *Sidebar, I'm gonna lose my shit on this one.  But how many times do I hear, why does that black man need a gun?  The same reason all the white guys need guns.  Why is there a difference in your mind?  

So Jake gets a gun.  Jake is nice guy.  Jake just wants to live his life the way he see's both the black people and the white people living.  But one night...Jake and his friend were having fun, doing what people having fun do.  But...their fun looked suspicious.  So the police stopped them and they ran.  And Jake, got shot and killed.

But why run?  When you live in a time period when you think you have a better chance of running then trying to work compliantly with police, that's a problem.  Especially when you've seen videos surface of black men like you being shot being compliant and running?  JAKE WAS SCARED.  His worst nightmares were coming true.  His flight mechanism kicked in.  NOT HIS FIGHT.  Especially if you've just bought a gun earlier that year and it's something you didn't really want to do, but felt like you needed to.  And you had that gun on you.  And what you didn't know...it that gun was stolen.

But..I don't even want to say Jake is totally innocent.  But all he did was run.  He was scared.  He knows how tense racial relations are right now.  And remember...guns don't kill people.  Imagine if we treated EVERYONE with a gun like a criminal.  And any suspicious behavior they exhibited they could be shot.  Suspicious is objective...and suspected doesn't mean guilty.  And now that Jake is dead...and they learned the gun was stolen.  They can "assume" he stole it and his death was warranted.

BULLSHIT.

People need to understand.  The protests and riots aren't happening for Jake.  They are happening for the hundreds of thousands of those like Jake.  Of the systematic racism and oppression that's been happening ever since we've come to America.  Yes...it is getting better.  But it should be GONE by now.  GONE.  But it's not...and people are pissed.  Rightly so.  Are riots the right way?  Probably not.  But people listen when someone breaks shit.   Is shooting a fleeing man holding a gun who only "appeared suspicious" acceptable.  NO.