Beavercreek Walmart Shooting

Beavercreek is in the Greater Dayton Area.

Greater than what?

I don’t know. It’s just called that.

There’s “Dayton” like, the city of, and then there’s all the surrounding bits and ‘burbs, and those are collectively considered Greater Dayton.

I guess it’s a fancy-pants way of referring to urban sprawl.

I’m not from Ohio. I can’t explain these things to you.

Maybe other cities in America have a Greater area surrounding the legit downtown portion.

Or maybe Ohio be cray. Who knows, and who cares?

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So Beavercreek.

It’s east of downtown Dayton.

And from what I hear, it’s not the best place to live if you’re a Person of Color.

That makes sense as Beavercreek is home of a ridiculously lavish outdoor mall: The Greene Town Center.

The Greene is as ultra-frou-frou as it sounds.

I don’t typically visit malls, and I particularly don’t visit malls for the rich. The first are overpriced; the second are simply laughable because of all the uber-silly, richy-rich expensive stores based therein.

I can’t take The Greene seriously. It’s just too obviously White Town.

But that’s just me. And I’m a weirdo. Clearly.

Because a Person of Color did decide to go shopping in Beavercreek. Not at The Greene, but at Walmart.

I can’t stand being made to feel financially inferior, thus I avoid shopping at The Greene.

Conversely, I can’t stand shopping at Walmart because it feels too much like the opposite is true – that it’s geared to rip off the poor. Just take a gander at the site People of Walmart and you’ll catch my drift. I ain’t trying to be one of the folks in those pics.

Why this Person of Color was shopping at Walmart in White Town is beyond me.

Not because he shouldn’t be allowed to shop anywhere he damn-well wants to shop {clearly he SHOULD be allowed to spend his money as he pleases!}, but because it seems like it’s courting danger and inviting trouble to be a Person of Color in White Town, USA.

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Dude.

That sounded like I was victim shaming just then.

I’m sorry. I totes did not mean to imply that a Person of Color who shops in White Town gets what they deserve.

I meant to imply that White Town is shitty and a Person of Color who shops there is brave.

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 It totally sucks to be NOT White right now.

I’ve seen it with my own eyes as my dark-skinned son used to get harassed by cops every time he went jogging around the six-street village of all-White Farmersville.

I read about it every day in an online group to which I belong that is composed mostly of non-White individuals.

I hear about it in the news.

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It’s weird to me that racism is still not just a THING, but a blatant one. I grew up overseas and the kids in my school represented several different nationalities. I thought racism was an exaggeration because I had never seen it.

And I think a lot of White folks operate with these blinders.

Something you don’t see – or don’t want to see – can’t seem real if you aren’t witnessing it first- or even second-hand.

This isn’t to excuse the way Whites treat non-Whites.

It’s merely an attempt to understand how any sane White person can deny that racism is a THING.

I’m tired of hearing White people talk about how minorities are always pulling “the Black Card.”

I think White people forget that the deck is stacked, and that the only cards Blacks even HAVE are Black ones. And the lucky White people got all the fucking Aces, as long as we’re playing out this stupid analogy to its end.

I have to ask myself, “What opened my eyes? How did I become aware that racism is actually a THING? When did I change my perspective? How did I learn the truth?”

I have White friends.

My age, younger, older, varying financial states, different education levels, but all White, and most of them all with the same frame of thought:

They are tired of minorities pulling “the Black card.”

How do you explain to them that, if Whites are tired of hearing it, People of Color are tired of LIVING it?

The most White-trash, bottom-of-the-barrel, economically oppressed, piece of shit White person is still in better shape than the best educated, richest, most successful Black person.

Why?

Simple. That Black person is still more likely to get pulled over than that White person if driving in through wrong place.

Here’s a question:

Would you trade places with a Person of Color?

If the answer is no, then you are a fucking liar if you try to claim that racism isn’t actually a THING.

And if the answer is yes, then you’re a braver fool than I. Funk dat noise! I ain’t trying to get harassed by the popo just for being dark-skinned.

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So a Black guy enters a Walmart and picks up a toy gun.

Sounds like the beginning of a joke, right?

Sure it does. Go on, go ahead and laugh. Laugh now, because it gets ugly and you won’t be laughing by the end of this tirade.

John Crawford III picks up a toy gun and stands for a good ten minutes in the pet food aisle of Walmart, yacking on his phone and swinging the toy gun around.

Sometimes he points it at items on the shelf.

Other times he rests it on his shoulder like a soldier might.

Mostly he just appears like he isn’t even paying attention to the item in his hand.

Much the way my sister will doodle some crap-tastically awesome art if she’s holding a writing utensil while on the phone.

Or the way my hubz paces back-n-forth across the room regardless what’s in his hand while on the phone.

John doesn’t look threatening or menacing or dangerous. He looks, at worst, like you might have to say “Excuse me” a couple times to get his attention if you’re trying to reach that bag of kibble he’s blocking.

Douchebag Ronald Ritchie apparently disagrees.

Where the camera shows a guy fidgeting on the phone, Ron sees a dangerous murderer plotting the deaths of his fellow shoppers.

It should be noted that Ron’s fellow shoppers cross the camera and do not seem to see what Ron sees. Which is to say, they ain’t worried about John.

Ron sees John loading the gun. Ron sees John pointing the gun at people – oh, my – at children! Ron sees John being a scary, gun-toting monster.

Ron sees all kinds of things that aren’t really happening.

Ron is a big, fat, liar. Ron badly needs a spanking. And maybe to be arrested for aiding in the death of an innocent man… as well as the subsequent death of an innocent bystander who had a fucking heart attack over the whole thing.

But enough about that ass clown Ron.

Let’s move on to that paragon of public safety {*snort*}, the cop who shot John dead:

Beavercreek Police officer Sean Williams.

According to his testimony, he gave plenty of warning. It doesn’t really look to me like that’s what happened, but regardless, the end result is another dead Black guy shot down by another White cop.

And of course neither the liar-pants 911-caller nor the overly zealous cop are being held accountable for the oopsie-doodle murders. Because that’s how shit goes in this fucked up country.

Now crazy anti-gun idiots are screaming, “Down with all guns EVER!”

And crazy gun-lovers are screaming “Don’t touch my guns or I will shoot you!”

And I’m sitting over here screaming, “It’s not just about the fucking guns, you dumb a-holes!”

So what ELSE is it about?

Racism.

Abuse of power.

Corrupt city officials.

Cover-ups and conspiracies.

White Right.

And did I forget to mention Racism?

The video proves that.

{Click HERE if this video fails to play. I suck at embedding shit.}

Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks this bullshit stinks.

Anonymous is all over this.

The justice-seeking collective activist group has issued the following demands:

1. Fire or permanently disarm officer Sean Williams.
2. Bring criminal charges against 911 caller Ronald Ritchie.
3. Publicly apologize for the murder to John Crawford’s family.

Anonymous further says, “We will occupy, we will take out any web based assets, and make personal informational viral until demands are met.”

{Click HERE if this video fails to play. I still suck at embedding shit.}

I am John Crawford.

A protest for the campaign { #OpJohnCrawford} is being held this Saturday, October 25, at 1:00 p.m. at the Beavercreek Walmart where John Crawford was killed.

I will be there. My hubz will be there. Hopefully lots of other people we know will be there, too. Come join us if you can make it. Let’s make this thing HUGE.

We’ll be taking pictures and recording the event. I’ll post a follow-up on Monday, October 27.

It’s too late to bring John back to life.

It’s never too late to seek justice.