Where Are the Protests for This White Man Shot by Police with His Hands Up?

AFP/Scott Olsen
AFP/Scott Olsen

It’s been three days since Michael Thomas’ camera recorded the shooting death of an unarmed white man in Bexar, Texas, at the hands of the police. But unlike Michael Brown, this unarmed man’s death won’t be the cause for any coordinated demonstrations.

There won’t be any die-ins. His death won’t warrant that pro-athletes, singers, and movie stars show their solidarity in front of the nation by holding their hands up.

And, shamefully, it’s because he’s white.

After robbery suspect Michael Brown’s scuffle with Officer Darren Wilson resulted in the 18-year-old’s death, Ferguson, Missouri was mired for months in a mix of mass riots and peaceful protests.

Four months later and 950 miles away, America was again engulfed in grievance-driven tumult after a grand jury elected not to indict a New York police officer who had placed Eric Garner in a death-inducing chokehold.

After repeat offender Freddie Gray died from a severe spinal cord injury he reportedly sustained while in police custody, rioters rocked the city of Baltimore and burned businesses to the ground.

So, naturally, one would think that cellphone video capturing a fatal sheriff’s deputy-involved shooting of a white man with his hands up would inspire protests and widespread press coverage.

“Certainly what’s in the video is cause for concern,” Bexar County Sheriff Susan Pamerleau said.

Remember, “Hands up, don’t shoot,” quickly became the battle cry for Black Lives Matter–even after President Obama’s own Justice Department investigation concluded that Michael Brown did not have his hands up when Officer Wilson fired the fatal shots.

And still, “Hands up, don’t shoot,” remains the big lie. America’s new and obnoxious grievance group needed a mantra, facts be damned.

There were false witness statements in Ferguson. There’s video in Bexar.

Sure, black people do care about and protest the persistent problem of black crime. But let’s be honest: most black Americans are about as indignant about cops killing white people as they are about black teenagers killing other black teenagers–even though the latter is an endlessly vexing dilemma.

And don’t expect America’s racially-obsessed media to send camera crews and reporters to Bexar, Texas, either. The same press that persistently pumps out updates about black men being shot by police won’t produce wall-to-wall coverage featuring the “Unarmed White Man Killed by Police” narrative.

There’s a callous disassociation of a police victim’s race and their humanity if he happens to be white when killed by a cop.

Black Lives Matter leader Shaun King says that he and his outfit’s “focus will continue to be ending police brutality” because he believes “it is the pre-eminent civil rights issue of modern America.”

So, I challenge Black Lives Matter: make this white man’s death matter.

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