By Steve Pomper
So, here’s yet another instance of the Left holding up as a hero a criminal who fought with police, refused to comply with lawful police orders, is armed with a knife, who the cops have to shoot. In a video from Kenosha, Wisconsin, a man named Jacob Blake fights with police and completely disregards police orders to stop and comply. He walks toward his car as if they aren’t there, opens the door, and lunges into the driver’s side.
Now, there is some confusion as to whether he had a knife already or if he was lunging for the knife that was found on the floorboard, as reported by DailyMail.com. Either way, a knife was apparently involved. Media seems to be making a big deal of only one officer firing “all seven shots.” Look at the positioning. No other officer had a clear shot without risking shooting the officer who shot or the suspects children in the backseat.
Regardless, what are those officers supposed to think he wants to get from his car? A pack of gum? The latté he wants to finish drinking? A copy of a good book he can read while in jail? Or a gun or other weapon? If you were the officers, would you bet your life he was going for gum and not a gun? If you would, that’s pretty stupid. But it seems to be what the cop-haters want the officers to do.
This is also what happens when some political leaders give tacit and explicit permission to street thugs first to fear, to disobey, and then fight with the police. Governors, mayors, city councils, prosecutors, and even a presidential and vice-presidential candidate incessantly criticize the police. They have either ignored or have done nothing to stop the violence in American cities which has implicitly taught this young man over the years and certainly the past few months to refuse to comply with the cops.
If you want to know what goes through an officer’s mind when a subject known to be dangerous and to keep guns in his or her car fails to comply with simple police orders? When compliance is so easy, cops must consider the suspect either wants to escape or fight. When Blake went into his car, all bets were off. It doesn’t matter that the cop-haters want cops to bet their lives Blake was not going for a weapon. Because that’s exactly what the officers would be doing.
Los Angeles Lakers star Lebron James decided this was a good time to pour some more gasoline on an already gas-soaked conflagration. The Communist Chinese Government’s de facto NBA ambassador wondered if the officer was mad at his kid or just woke up wanting to kill a black man. That is sick. What kind of sane person thinks like that? Well, I guess he does. The Lakers sat out game five or their playoffs in protest over Blake’s shooting.
And he’s not the only example of professional sports anti-police madness. The Milwaukee Bucks declined to play a recent game in protest of the Blake shooting. And the Seattle Mariners also sat out a game in protest to what happened in Kenosha. Hey, folks. It’s not illegal for the police to shoot a known, wanted criminal (Blake had an outstanding arrest warrant), who refused to comply and ducked into his car for who-knows-what.
Another example of speaking before knowing all the facts, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Amir Garret joined in the stupidity. According to TMZ.com, Mr. Garret said, “They put 7 rounds into Jacob Blake in front of his children. I watched the video, you telling me he can’t be tazed? He immediately has to be shot?” He was tased! And anyone watching the entire video, rather than the short clip favored by the media, knows he was not “immediately shot.”
And then there are the politicians like Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers and Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes. Gov. Evers, without any investigation, immediately cried out for “police reform.” For what? The officers did nothing wrong. And, likely seeing only what he wanted to see, Lt. Gov. Barnes said Jacob Blake’s shooting “felt like some sort of vendetta taken out on a member of our community.” “Member of our community?” He was a wanted felon, known to carry firearms. That somehow qualifies him as a hero-victim?
As if trying to out-stupid each other, NBC 5 News reported, “Speaking alongside Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Barnes said, “the irony isn’t lost on me that Jacob Blake was actually trying to deescalate a situation in his community, but the responding officer didn’t feel the need to do the same.”
Oh man, I think I ruined my computer keyboard when my head just exploded all over it after reading that delusional statement. Although, I suppose I’ve got to give the Lt. Gov. credit. Of all the cop-hating statements I’ve heard over the past few months, that is the stupidest.
If you want to know what a suspect retrieving something out of his cars looks like, take a look at this police dash cam recording, provided by CBS Evening News, of what happened to two Pennsylvania state troopers in 2018. In the video, you can see the suspect suddenly resisting arrest, overcoming a taser, and continuing to fight with the cops. Sound familiar? After making his way back into the driver’s seat of his car, he’d retrieved a gun and began firing at the officers. He shot at both cops, striking one several times, fortunately missed the other trooper, and then drove away.
A couple of ancillary notes: It’s clear after the officers tased the suspect, they pulled the man out of harm’s way when he was lying in a lane of traffic. Then one trooper chose not to shoot when he had a clear shot and the lawful authority to shoot when the suspect was reaching into the driver’s side window.
This is in no way a criticism of the troopers. The general anti-cop climate over the past decade or two has caused officers to hesitate using force. And, cops are generally hesitant to use force, especially lethal force. This also destroys the callous allegations by some that cops wake up in the morning thinking about “killing a black man.”
Fortunately, both troopers recovered. The Morning Call reported a judge sentenced the 22-year-old suspect “to 53 ½ to 110 years in prison for trying to kill state police Cpl. Seth Kelly and Trooper Ryan Seiple during a Nov. 7 gunfight….” Cpl. Kelly was wounded multiple times, was in a coma for 12 days, and nearly died. Amazingly, Trooper Seiple was not shot.
But using as an excuse the police killing an apparently armed, wanted criminal, rioters continued their rampage across the nation. For example, in a news story broken by KTTH Radio 770 talk show host, Jason Rantz, rioters in Seattle used quick drying concrete to seal a door to the police department’s East Precinct. Once sealed, knowing there were police officers inside, they attempted to set the building on fire.
The law enforcement officers’ frustration at the lack of true leadership at the state and local levels is palpable. It’s like being trapped in a bad dream but finding that even after you wake up, the nightmare continues. As long as the forces of socialist and anarchist mayhem and their political and media allies continue to manufacture outrage at every racially qualified police shooting, no matter how justified, we will not see an end to the anti-police violence.