The rioting in Charlotte, NC over the shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott appears indifferent to some rather significant facts:
We wrote here about Keith Lamont Scott and his long criminal record which includes assault convictions and gun offenses. But what about Brentley Vinson, the black police officer who fatally shot Scott?The Charlotte Observer provides this profile of Officer Vinson. From it, we learn that he grew up in Charlotte, was a football star in high school, and dreamed of becoming a police officer like his father.
Vinson was all-conference in football as a high school junior, but was unable to play during his senior year due to a serious knee injury. The next year, he played at a prep school, earning a scholarship to Liberty University.
At Liberty, Vinson studied criminal justice. He became a captain of the football team and led it in tackles as a senior in 2012.
In 2014, Vinson joined the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police force. He has not been subject to any disciplinary action, according to personnel records released by the police department.
Officer Brentley Vinson appears to be exactly the kind of upright, admirable person a sensible American would want as a police officer. Add that he’s black, which makes him exactly the kind of black American we need more of: the kind who would not hesitate to discipline the unruly and disorderly among us, without regard for their race. This is a doubly valuable man whom we should encourage young men to admire and emulate.
Yet you can almost hear the mutterings from the rioters:
“But he a brother! He ain’t supposed to shoot no brother!”
It would seem that a black man who puts on a policeman’s uniform becomes white by association, which provides the title for this brief piece. Or perhaps the rioters have placed Officer Vinson in an entirely new racial category: not black, but blue. There’s a certain unreality about the suggestion, but for the Charlotte looters and rioters it’s apparently sufficient.
1 comment:
You nailed it. Certain parts of the 'community' would call Officer Vinson either not a 'real' brother cause he's blue. Or Tom/Oreo cause 'he actin white'.
The problem appears not be racial but cultural that tends, but does not always, break on racial lines.
Add to this mess a sitting President and his administration and a Presidential contender who are content to blame the victims and those completely un-associated with any of this. The first because he hates America and will do all to destroy, er, fundamental change it. The second because she is cut of the same cloth and wants those votes as well.
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