The worst part about crowds gathering for a cause is that MOST of them have only heard hearsay from someone that wants them to believe and listen to only X. The crowd doesn’t know the facts, some don’t care about the facts, and they just want a tag line to follow. If Blacks did some research they will discover that white people are not seeking them out to commit any crime against them. White people commit almost all of their crimes against other white people according to the FBI. Police are so disrespected by criminals, that yes they are using their granted right to exercise “Stop or I’ll shoot”. The police mean it. We are in a society today where everybody believes that the laws and rules are for everybody else. Its ignorance at it’s best.

By Don Allen, Publisher-Educator

No person deserves to be shot and killed by the police, especially when the person is poverty-stricken, information-less, uneducated and unarmed. On November 15, 2015, Minneapolis police shot a black man named Jamar Clark as he allegedly scuffled with officers. His death has reverberated nationwide and spurred protests in north Minneapolis. According to many sources, including Clark’s run-in with law enforcement prior to his untimely death, the details might show that Clark was not and honor student, neither was he starting college in the spring. So why was Clark’s undoing at the hands of Minneapolis police used as a protest platform? Secondly, when the memory fades, like the shooting death of Terrance Franklin by Minneapolis police and many, many other incidents, who benefits in the end? Certainly not Jamar Clark, and certainly not the dead black men and women of the Twin Cities killed by law enforcement, or each other.

The Minneapolis NAACP and Black Lives Matter, which I attest are one, both went to extreme measures to position Clark’s death my Minneapolis police has the most heinous incident to hit black folks in Minnesota since the riots of 1970; both groups seem to have no direction and will likely meander as well resulting in a public disturbance when they fail.

Both groups conveniently skipped over talking about the six homicides in the minority-ethnic community since Clark’s death and tried to convince CNN the five people shot by the white-social media trolls was set up and executed by Minneapolis police.

Needless to say, a day of reckoning must develop soon because as I see it, neither group said a word when in April of 2015, six-year-old ‎Kendrea Johnson was found unconscious hanging in a bedroom of her foster home with a rope around her neck (the second incident in under two-years where a child was found hung). Her mother and grandmother cried out to local clergy and black leaders because the believed someone murdered her. A child’s life, snuffed out before it could blossom. The story of the child is important because local organizations who protest have been very “selective” in choosing which black persons life really matters, certainly not anyone gunned down in black-on-black violence.

Some local officials have requested the protesters to shut it down. Some (protesters) ate Thanksgiving Day dinner in front of the north Minneapolis police station, representing a defiant means to an end of this battle of theater and common sense.

Let’s look at this situation from another point of view: If the police officers involved are fired, convicted and jailed; would the black community better off? No. Was there jobs created? No. Did the Minnesota state legislature actually act on the 2015 legislative agenda created and submitted by then Council on Black Minnesotans? No. What the black community is left with is what they started with before Clark was shot, nothing.

The groups protesting and honoring the life of Jamar Clark suffer from a severe case of “pluralistic ignorance,” in which a majority of group members privately reject a norm, but incorrectly assume that most others accept it, and therefore go along with it. What certain media and groups want the world to believe is that society is singling-out and attacking black people, the police, the judges, the schools, the congressmen, the neighborhoods. Some groups want the world to believe that more blacks get arrested than white, and blacks are falsely arrested. The FBI report shows that white people are arrested more often. So what are some elements that assist in promoting that idea? Well blacks do post a lot of violent videos of themselves and assaulting each other and white people. We sometimes post videos of us robbing stores, committing crimes, where? On YouTube and Facebook (just Google it).

There’s some common sense that isn’t being used and whole lot of defiance. Why not spend more effort on changing the lives and communities of people through promoting the benefits of non-violence, anti-crime, following the rules, education, and religion, more loudly, than the sound of defending criminals because they are a particular race?

Yes, it’s true…we have a long ride ahead of us, but it is important to make sure you’re on the right route.