The following is a response to a news story I saw on Facebook. I wanted to share it here, too.
First, it is tragic that a young man with a son was killed. It was also tragic that someone who put her life on the line in a very difficult position accidentally shot a young man and killed him. He is dead, but her life is forever changed, if not in danger.
What frustrates me, and why I am taking the time to write this, is that there are not only two sides to the story, two people whose lives are forever altered, and a child who is now an orphan, but the side where the media consistently perpetuates a narrative that the shooting victim was loved and model citizen, while the officer who pulled the trigger was a racist, trigger-happy, cold-blooded, murderer worth of the death penalty.
For example, the photo shows Daunte smiling, holding his cute little boy. The article is full of glowing recollections. Yet what happened? As he was standing there beside the car, he decided to take the route of a fool and violently resist arrest! He didn’t think wisely. He didn’t consider all the consequences. He didn’t fall back on the wisdom offered by one of his mentors. No, he wrestled himself away from officers and attempted attempted to flee the scene!
Had he accomplished his intentions and fled in his car, would that have ended any better? Other innocents could have been hurt or killed in the chase, not to mention other lives changed forever by his recklessness, and he would have even more likely been subject to deadly force.
On a side note, have you ever been inside a large jail or federal prison? I have! Many, many times. I have been in multiple jails, from Florida to Kentucky, and State and Federal prisons in Tennessee and Kentucky. And do you have any idea what I saw – besides a lot of self-described wrongfully-accused? I saw a great, great number of African-Americans. I saw every color of human skin, but I also saw a disproportionate number of black men (and women). Why is that important? How is that relevant?
They were not dead – they had not been killed by police, only arrested. Think very slowly about that. Think. Let’s use our logic, folks. If the narrative of the news media and BLM and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez was true – i.e., police are out to kill black men – then why are our jails and prisons full of living, breathing black men? Doesn’t fit the narrative, does it?
If you watch enough television and movies, you will see police shoot more people in one episode than most departments shoot in a year, or ten. Believe it or not, I have never met a “Dirty Harry” type cop. Of all the ones I’ve met and worked with, including my late father and the entire Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office in Tennessee, even though one could have existed, I’ve never, NEVER met a man or woman who wanted to kill anybody.
As hard as it is for many to believe, many police officers and deputies go their entire careers without ever discharging their service weapon!
I know I run the risk of being criticized for writing this, but too few people are standing up against the lie that all police are evil, over-funded, racist hitmen/hitwomen. I feel it’s my obligation to bring the discussion back to the center. Yes, there are always two sides to every story, and then there’s the truth.
Simply put, Daunte Wright, regardless his past crimes or outstanding warrants against him, would be alive today if he had not wrestled away from the officer detaining him and attempted to flee in his vehicle. He could have had his day in court, but now all he gets is a funeral for his poor decisions.
My prayer is for the media, Hollywood, and the race-baiting ambulance chasers in politics to shut up, go away, or simply just REPORT the news, not create it!
Let the communities of real, caring people from all races come and work together, as they so often try, yet are divided by false narratives and manipulated information. And if we would stop making everything a race issue that’s not, black and white followers of Jesus Christ could come together as the family of God and show the world how loving one’s neighbor can heal our country.
You are welcome to share this, and I welcome any respectful comment or dialogue. God bless you all, God be with the Wright family in their time of loss, and may the officer involved be shown grace.
The Recovering Legalist 
A different perspective is that women shouldn’t be in that situation. She completely overreacted.
Even if the guy was scum, he still shouldn’t be shot down like a dog because a female cop freaked out.
Yep. You went there.
Someone has to.
Watching the video you can tell from the second she interjects herself into the situation that it’s going to go south.
I’m as pro-police as they come. But they’re going to have to stop killing black men.
For a guy a who likes to whine about his rights those of his fellow cult believers, I I would of thought you’d stick up for this guys rights. But apparently as usual, you take the douche bag approach and stick up for those are privileged.
From now on I’ll call you No Shame for you have no shame.
You could of just kept your mouth shut, but No Shame, you just can’t help that you’re a douche bag from time to time.
And also, for a guy that runs a funeral business, you also like to say nice things, possibly lies to those who pay you funeral services that those who have departed look good.
You’re one sick little man No Shame.
Thank you, Stephen. I appreciate your heartfelt, however misguided, comment. But just to be clear, I’m not in the funeral business. I only sold funeral prearrangements for the funeral homes I once worked for. That was years ago.
Oh, and even a douche bag has a purpose. Many women are thankful they exist.
By the way, what’s your nickname for Al Sharpton?
You’ve never taken money to conduct a funeral service? I find that hard to believe.
Al Sharpton I don’t care much for, but I would call him the rhyme master.
Oh, to CONDUCT a funeral? Yes, I have. Same as weddings. $50 here, a $20 there. Covered my gas money. One time I got a call from a funeral director who asked for my help. The family of a man wanted a minister to say something at his graveside. They didn’t have a pastor, and the deceased had not been a church goer at all. I think he actually died in prison. They gave the funeral director $100 for an honorarium to pay any minister he could find to ride in the hearse 2 hours one way to the cemetery and speak. Did I accept it? Of course I did! Did I ask for it up front? No.
You may or may not have looked at a funeral contract. There is a line item for minister honorarium. It’s voluntary, however.
I’ve more often than not performed funeral services without any honorarium (pay). Even my own mother didn’t put anything in her funeral prearrangement for me! Jeez!
Seriously, it’s been a month, now, since my mother’s funeral. No joke, I didn’t get anything for doing it. But that’s understandable… she left me the ‘95 Grand Marquis 🙂
I read this again and am more disgusted than the first time. The reason why jails are filled with black men is because those you support believe the only worth a black man has is the profit off his incarceration.
The government pays private, for profit businesses to house felons.
You can’t profit from a dead man who isn’t famous can you now No Shame?
How’s that for a fact against your idiotic narrative?
Ask a few more stupid questions and please enlighten us with your fact-less narratives.
The bigger question you should ask yourself, what reasons are most of these men in jail for?
You know, I can tell there is a caring heart somewhere underneath all that anger and bitterness and vitriol. But aside from that, I don’t see why you have to be so disgusted. My point was to show that black men are not summarily rounded up and targeted for execution. That is the narrative from BLM. We can talk statistics all day about why black men are incarcerated, but that is a relevant to my point. It is even a relative to my point to discuss the rate of incarceration, except that it supports my point and not the narrative from black lives matter that says all carts only want to shoot and kill black men. If that was so, there would not be that many in prison, there would be more under ground! But if you want to turn this into a money making argument, then I would ask of you who makes money from aborted black babies? That is the leading cause of African-American morbidity!
We’re not talking about abortion No Shame. You asked how come not more black men were murdered by police because you think it justifies your position. Perhaps you’d like police to murder more black men for minor infractions but it’s more profitable to rich white men to incarcerate them to simply let them live their lives.
I’d like to think there’s a caring heart in you, but it seems you only care for yourself and those who believe your delusions and perhaps that is the reason you have no shame.
Wether aborted or incarcerated, the white man will manage to profit from the suffering of the black man and woman’s suffering, a win win for you No Shame. Either way, you can use them to feel better about yourself
Honestly, Stephen, I didn’t even finish reading your comment. It’s obvious you are completely incapable of listening to me or even trying to understand where I’m coming from. You’ve got this bigoted hatred ingrained in your psyche and nothing I can write or say will merit a neutral, much less agreeable response. You are not willing to discuss anything with an open mind or empathetic heart. Therefore, you are wasting my time and yours by leaving these hateful, ungracious, and accusatory comments.