Unrest Follows Justified Police Shooting In Lancaster :: 09/14/2020

The world has lost its ever-loving mind.

That’s the only takeaway I’ve got dealing with some of the stuff we’ve seen so far in 2020.

See, I get why people were upset after the death of George Floyd. Nothing about that situation looked right and it clearly shouldn’t have gone down that way. For a lot of people on both sides of the political aisle, it was a bad thing and it was a fine time to unite and try to make sure it would never happen again.

Then everything went downright insane.

Now, a night of unrest hit Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Violent riots and looting broke out in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Sunday night after a black man died in an officer-involved shooting. Local authorities quickly released footage from the incident that showed the man running out of house and charging at the police officer with a knife.

Police responded to the home after a woman called them to report that her brother was allegedly becoming aggressive with their mother and trying to break into the home.

“The first officer on the scene walked to the front of the residence and made contact with a woman, who was identified as a family member,” The Lancaster Bureau of Police said in a statement. “A male subject then exited the front door of the residence and began chasing the officer. Preliminary information and body worn camera footage indicates that the male subject had a knife in his right hand as he was chasing the officer. The officer fired several shots from his firearm, striking the subject. The subject, identified as 27 year old Lancaster man, did not survive his injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. The officer was the only police officer on the scene at the time of the shooting and his body worn camera was activated and recorded the encounter.”

Here’s video of the incident

This is the bodycam footage of the officer-involved shooting in Lancaster, PA that Black Lives Matter is rioting over. The perpetrator charged at the police officer with a knife over his head with clear intent to strike. pic.twitter.com/xD72TweQK4

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 14, 2020

Now, that looks pretty damn clear to me. The man charges officers with a knife, the officers fired. There was no opportunity to try to deescalate the situation. The suspect came after police with a deadly weapon and officers responded. (The official response is that it’s under investigation, which is to be expected, but don’t expect the officer to be charged.)

However, we now live in a world where that doesn’t matter.

On Sunday night, Lancaster police were forced to use tear gas to disperse violent rioters that gathered in front of the Lancaster Bureau of Police Station and attacked the building.

The Blaze Media journalist and videographer Elijah Schaffer posted video of the alleged looting that broke out in the city following the incident.

“Looting has started in Lancaster at Villa athletic store approximately 1 hour 50 minutes ago according to the shop owner,” Schaffer wrote. “Groups of rioters are roaming the city breaking windows and stealing merchandise. It was too dangerous to follow them since there are no police.”

In other words, they were rioting because officers protected themselves from a violent attack, the same kind of attack anyone else would be justified using a firearm to defend themselves from.

Further, it’s not the first time we’ve seen rioting and lawlessness result from what sure looks like a justifiable shoot. After all, it wasn’t all that long ago when we saw a similar situation take place in Chicago. In that incident, the suspect opened fire on police and they returned fire. Arguably, an even more justified use of force, and yet people still gathered to protect and ended up looting several stores.

This follows “protestors” trying to storm the emergency room where two LA County Sheriff’s deputies were fighting for their life after being ambushed.

At this point, it’s clear that these “protests” aren’t about any police brutality and are instead about the police using any degree of force ever against a black man or woman. Especially if an officer’s life hangs in the balance.

Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. He's also the host of Unloaded TV on YouTube. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/

https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2020/09/14/police-shooting-in-lancaster/