Shooting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

A  young man was shot in the Sherman Park neighborhood of  Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The police had stopped his car and he ran with a gun in his hand. He was ordered to drop his gun. This young man turned toward the cop with the gun in his hand. The cop shot and killed him.

The loss of any life is sad. My heart breaks for the parents. As a parent of a young man, I don't know how I could go on if my son died.

There is a whole lot of what ifs with this situation. What if the young man had not ran? What if he dropped the gun as lawfully ordered? What if he had not turned and faced the cop still holding the gun?

There comes a time when we have to stop giving excuses. Run from the cops and you are going to get hurt.  Failure to follow a lawful command and you are going to get arrested and/or hurt.  Hold a gun and not follow commands to drop it and you will get shot.  As an adult some mistakes carry fatal consequences.

There are bad cops. I do not live in a good neighborhood. It is where I can afford to live. Cops  set off my heart arrhythmia when they are close to me.  My son's heart rate speeds up to the 120's to 140's if a cop gets close to him. Both of us do not drink, do drugs or break the law. We have seen bad cops in action.  BUT, we do not by our actions help the cops to hurt us.

Riots happened  after he was shot. Six local businesses were torched. Seven squad cars were destroyed.. Four officers were injured.  Seventeen people were arrested.  Four of these arrests were for burglary. The rest were for civil disobedience.

Destruction because you are mad and upset makes no sense. The neighborhood may not get the businesses to rebuild. People who work there now have no job or income. This does not honor the dead man or his family.

Get mad in a productive way. Find people that believe the way you do. Work to get them elected or appointed to the offices that oversees the police.  Lobby for yearly police psychological evaluations.
Lobby for ongoing mandatory education. Get mad in a productive way that brings about changes.

The young man who was shot is a black man. The cop forced to shoot him is black man.

I watched news feeds and read information from the following links before blogging.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/14/us/milwaukee-violence-police-shooting/

http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/crime/2016/08/14/man-shot-milwaukee-police-subject-witness-intimidation-case/88721094/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/us/milwaukee-shaken-by-eruption-of-violence-after-shooting-by-police.html?_r=0

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-wisconsin-police-idUSKCN10P06W

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2016/08/14/2cabb65a-626d-11e6-be4e-23fc4d4d12b4_story.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/us/violent-crowd-confronts-police-in-milwaukee-after-fatal-shooting.html