——
One of the supposed solutions presented by radical Black Lives Matter organizers and “protesters” to deescalate tensions between police officers and suspects of color has been to propose sending social workers or well-known community leaders into neighborhoods to resolve domestic disputes when they arise.
The counterpoint to this idea, of course, is that one never knows when a situation is going to go from 0-60, benign to deadly – and that it’s best to send in someone who is better equipped to manage the situation in the event that one or both parties in the dispute turn aggressive and hostile towards either each other or the officer.
Unfortunately, the latter argument does not remotely compute with the left-wing agitators in BLM who hate the police and who are constantly spoiling for an excuse to declare another war against law and order and the police officers and sheriff’s deputies who are trained to mete out such things when the situation calls for it.
A perfect example of Black Lives Matter activists “not getting it” when it comes to the need to send in law enforcement officers to settle domestic situations played out on Monday night, when Lancaster, PA rioters took to the streets (in much smaller numbers than the night before) to chant “Crisis workers, not cops!”
Townhall’s Julio Rosas was on the scene, and snagged this video of their chant:
BLM protesters in Lancaster chant, “Crisis workers, not cops!” pic.twitter.com/UXSIRfNU4a
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) September 15, 2020
The big problem with their chant is that the officer-involved shooting death they were protesting was the one in which a knife-wielding 27-year-old Ricardo Munoz charged at a Lancaster city police officer Sunday, according to body cam footage.
Fearing for his life, the officer shot and killed Munoz. The body cam footage below shows exactly how quickly the situation escalated:
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
24 hours later, and well after police released the video which clearly laid out a case that the officer was defending himself, Black Lives Matter demonstrators – even with the facts being well known at that point – were chanting “crisis workers, not police!” as if a crisis worker could have actually solved the dangerous situation that unfolded Sunday.
Until these “peaceful protesters” can explain how a social worker by themselves can resolve these types of tense situations without becoming victims themselves, their arguments about sending them in will continue to fall on deaf ears in most communities – as they should.
It’s one thing to call for having a social/crisis worker on standby nearby to potentially help in deescalating the situation while officers secure the scene. It’s another thing altogether (and not in a good way) to suggest social workers alone be sent to handle such disputes.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member