Thousands of protesters condemning police violence marched through St. Louis on Saturday, during a weekend of demonstrations organized after the fatal shooting in August of an unarmed black teenager by a white officer in a suburb. One protester clutched a sign, ‘Stop Killing Our Children.’
Protester Ellen Davidson of New York City, a community college administrator making her second trip to the St. Louis said, “It’s important for this country to stand with this community. This community is under siege. … The eyes of the world are watching.“
Seriously, I wish New Yorkers would come to St. Louis and help build a couple of homes on the North side. Yet, they’re willing to march. Still unless one considers our own inhumanity as weapons, neither St. Louis City nor Ferguson are under siege. Consider for a moment, some thoughts from Ferguson Police Officer Sgt. Harry Dilworth:
Sgt. Dilworth had been at Fort Leonard Wood fulfilling his duties as an Army reservist when Michael Brown died. During the ensuing months, Dilworth’s wife wished he were back in Iraq or Afghanistan.
“She thinks I would be safer there,” he said.
His teeth clenched as he drove past a protester holding a sign that read “Stop Killing Us.”
“We are not killing you, you are killing yourselves,” he said, his voice rising inside his police SUV. “This is a systematic problem that’s been going on for years. I want to tell them to wake up! And look at exactly what the problem really is! Look at the statistics. The number of officer-involved shootings is relatively low. I stand a better chance of being killed by you.”
Lost in all the ‘protest mentality‘ media and protest leaders have shoveled down our throats, is that St. Louis Police are investigating a double shooting in downtown St. Louis Friday that left one person dead and another wounded. Police say, 27-year-old Quinnell Stanciel, was pronounced dead at the scene while the second victim was rushed to an area hospital with a gunshot wound to the arm.
And this past Monday, Jonathan Saddler, 24, and James Lane, 22, were killed in a shoot out in downtown St. Louis. Police said the shooting was drug-related, and officers recovered suspected marijuana and heroin at the shooting scene. Police said the surviving victims were not cooperating with the investigation.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve yet to see any St. Louis-Ferguson protester hold a sign for Saddler, Lane or Stanciel. Maybe their lives didn’t matter? Or is it only Brown’s life that mattered?
Why don’t protesters don’t hold such signs at the scenes of murders, such as the recent killings just noted? The real crime, as Officer Dilworth noted is, “We are not killing you, you are killing yourselves.” We’re killing ourselves … and we’re doing squat … except yelling. If the eyes of the world are watching, all they see is riots and looting.
Paraphrasing from The American President, to the Protesters the Unknown Buddhist says:
‘We’ve got serious problems, and we need serious people, and if you want to talk about change you’d better come with more than a burning flag, quotes on a placard and shouting ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot.’ If you want to talk about character and America, peace and change, fine. If you want to have real dialogue, fine. Tell us where and when, and even I’ll show up. This is a time for serious people and your fifteen minutes are up.‘