Any time there is a police shooting of a black suspect, the left rushes to excuse whatever criminal behavior came before as the suspect is canonized as a martyr to racial injustice.
Adding to that is a new and pernicious narrative that emerged after 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant was shot to death Tuesday by a police officer as she lunged at another teen while wielding a knife.
Despite Bryant’s apparent intention to kill or at least wound her victim, the left began with the stock claim that the shooting was racially motivated and added the new lie that knife fights are just a normal part of growing up and shouldn’t involve the police at all.
If attempted murder is a rite of passage, another recent case of a teen shot by police may be the test to see how far the race-baiters can stretch such an excuse.
A little more than a week before Bryant’s killing, 17-year-old Anthony J. Thompson Jr. was shot by Knoxville, Tennessee, police after he brought a gun to school and holed himself up in a high school bathroom stall, according to the New York Post.
WARNING: The following video contains graphic scenes that some viewers will find offensive.
Four officers were there to arrest Thompson after his ex-girlfriend’s mother had called complaining of domestic abuse.
But as police confronted the teen and commanded him to put his hands behind his back, Thompson reached for the weapon in his hoodie.
Knox County District Attorney General Charme Allen said in a news conference Wednesday that when Officer Jonathon Clabough spotted the weapon, he thought to himself, “I’m about to die.”
Clabough then shot the teen in the shoulder before firing a second shot that hit one of the other officers at the scene.
The whole scuffle unfolded in 11 seconds, leaving Thompson fatally wounded and another boy in another stall, whom USA Today identified as Thompson’s best friend, physically unharmed.
The officers have not been charged based on the evidence, but the family has lawyered up and retained Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney who represented George Floyd’s family.
“Once again, when a Black person is killed, in this case a Black child, the police quickly shape a narrative to justify the death,” Crump said in a statement before the footage was released (would it have mattered anyway?).
NEWS ALERT: 17yo Anthony Thompson was fatally shot in a bathroom at his HS. Police claimed Thompson shot an officer, but @TBinvestigation determined the bullet WASN’T fired by Thompson. Thompson’s family has retained @AttorneyCrump to represent them & advocate for justice. pic.twitter.com/bqQSAhMlp1
— Ben Crump Law, PLLC (@BenCrumpLaw) April 19, 2021
This is Anthony Thompson Jr. — a 17yo Black teen killed last week by @Knoxville_PD in his school’s bathroom. They first said Ant shot a cop before another returned fire, but now admit the cop accidentally shot himself! Why isn’t anyone talking about this? We must demand answers! pic.twitter.com/ifTh7DFniK
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) April 17, 2021
However, the real story is that this teen is dead because he made a bad decision and police officers had to act fast to preserve their own lives — a fact completely independent of anyone’s race.
Had Thompson escaped the bathroom, other students’ lives would also have been in danger — just as it was when Bryant was on the loose with a knife.
Thompson’s death is a tragedy, but he brought a gun to school and tried to use it as police had him cornered — a surefire recipe to not survive that confrontation regardless of a person’s level of melanin.
Rather than focus on race or bogus claims about “kids will be kids” when it comes to young people prowling the streets with deadly weapons who get shot by police, society would do better to figure out why they’re armed in the first place.
The problem is that Black Lives Matter raises money off the anger generated by false claims of systemic racism, and the public willingly gobbles it up.
But fixing societal problems that lead to violent kids isn’t as lucrative or as interesting because it takes more hard work and diligence than sloganeering and rioting.
Had Bryant or Thompson been truly cared for and raised properly to really believe that violence is wrong, they would still be alive today — but that’s never going to be the message coming from the left.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
