Debate with Frank

I got into a debate at work.  Frank was telling me about some story in California where a black (it matters for the debate) kid broke into a car, stole a backpack and a laptop.  The owner called 911 and said he saw it and the kid had a gun.  The cops tracked down the kid, cornered him an alley, and ended up shooting the kid.  The cop claimed he went for his waistband.

Frank was arguing that it was the typical white cop shooting a black kid.  His reasoning was that he has never seen anyone cornered with a gun pointed at them, go for their waistband.  Even in movies, they never go for anything.  If you had a gun pointing towards you the last thing you do is sudden movements.  So he was claiming common sense would have kept him from doing this.  Therefore the cop was guilty of murdering him and using unnecessary force.  Now I haven’t researched the story or anything, because as I was talking to him, I had no research so I was just going by what he told me of the story.  He also said the guy that called 911 admitted to lying about seeing a gun and no weapon was found on the kid after the shooting.

I told him I understand what he’s saying.  Common sense would prevent you from going for anything.  Common sense would tell me first thing you do is get your hands away from your body, up or to the side.  And I can also see a cop shooting him just because he’s black.  Sad to say, it wouldn’t be the first time.  Racism is still around whether we want to admit it or not.  But I can also see the kid going for his waist.  Frank looked shocked that I said that.  I kept saying, I’m sorry, but people are stupid.  A lot of people don’t have common sense.  I’m not saying the cop didn’t do it for the wrong reason.  I’m saying you can’t discount the fact that people are idiots.  For all we know, he had drugs in his waistband he wanted to throw out, or his pants were falling down (which seems like the style nowadays), maybe he was going to grab his pecker and do the pee pee dance, there is no way of knowing.  Sure you can blame the cop, but there is no reason you can’t blame the kid either.

I can’t imagine being a cop in that situation.  You’ve been told he has a gun so you have to do what you can to protect yourself.  Maybe the kid went for his waistband for whatever reason.  What choice does the cop have now?  You can be angry and cry racist cop all you want, but there is no way to know what happened with the information given to me.  Had it not been reported that he had a gun, it would look totally different.  The cop would have been a little slower with the trigger if he hadn’t been told there was already a weapon.  You have to look at both sides.

Frank doesn’t typically go to the racism thing first, he’s not that type.  And usually he has a point.  But I couldn’t agree with him on this one.

Weekend update

Let’s see. What all happened this week? Hmmm. Was there anything? Oh yeah, I almost got fired, guess that was eventful. But I digress a few days before. Let’s go with Facebook status updates. They help me remember what all went down during the week because I tend to only post status’ when something happens.

Wednesday 5:27pm - Watching "the Fab Five" documentary. This team was the reason I really became a Michigan fan. It was just a bonus that they were a rival of Notre Dame.

Absolutely loved this documentary. Brought back a lot of memories from watching the fab five. That team was the reason I became a Michigan fan. Back then (early 90’s), I watched a lot more basketball than anything. I was a big Bulls fan and just watched college here and there. Now I counted myself as a Michigan fan even back then, but didn’t really follow them much until this team. The documentary was great because of the 4 players who spoke during it were very candid about what they felt and what was going on then. Jalen Rose made some comments about Duke saying they only took the “Uncle Tom” type of players, the rich, two parent kind of kids. Now in the documentary, he said that was how he perceived Duke back then and back then he was late teens, early twenties. Now I don’t know about all of you, but I was stupid back then. Like I said, he was very candid. Well apparently, the Duke faithful, and especially Grant Hill (who was mentioned as one of the Duke players back then) has posted a “response” to the fab five’s comments. Which pretty much makes him sound like they said those players were. Anyways, the fun thing shall be tomorrow, when Duke and Michigan play in the NCAA tourney’s 2nd round after both teams blew out their opponents in the 1st round. Tomorrow at 2, be there.

Friday 9:35am - Lesson for this week: Never trust the system, honesty will always kick you in the ass. Lie, lie, lie. The system doesn't know what to do when confronted with the truth.

This would be the reason I almost got fired. At least that’s how I felt, although, I don’t really think I was that close to it. On Wednesday, a guy at work came up to me and accused me of basically not doing my job while he was on break. I just told him I didn’t really care what he thought. A little bit later, he comes down all angry at me, saying I was talking about it, threatening me. I had no clue what he was talking about, so I pretty much just kept saying what the hell are you talking about and what the hell did I do to you. Eventually he stopped and went away.

Thursday morning rolls around and my foreman asks me if he threatened me, I repeated what he said to me, word for word. He goes away, texts me a little later to meet him at the time clock and then asks for the whole story. I again repeat everything he said to me, pretty much word for word. Awhile later, I glance down to processing and our other operator was up there, apparently they took him up to the office, talked to him, and suspended him. Little later, the 2 foreman’s take me up to the office and talk to me, basically, getting my side. Telling me that the guy said I instigated the whole thing. I again, explained what happened, word for word. I go back to work for a bit, go to break, and then get called up to the plant managers office. I once again, go through everything. He asked a few questions, I answered. He even told me that he wanted to talk to me because I always tell the truth. He asked me if I could work with him if they brought him back, I told him I didn’t have any personal issues with him before this incident so I could if he came back.

Friday morning, here he comes, back to work. They basically decided that what he said to me wasn’t a threat. I had never said it was, but it was. This guy has all kinds of people that he’s gotten angry with and got in their face, long before me. He was fired from our place of employment, for fighting, and threatening the then, plant manager. And then they rehired him for some idiotic reason. Now he’s back at it, and I hope whoever he does go off on, sues the crap out of work because they’ve had plenty of chances to get rid of him, and didn’t. So when he eventually cracks, and he will, it will be all on those who keep giving him chances.

So essentially, instead of trusting the system, I should have just lied, said he took a swing at me or pushed me or something. I should have lied to protect the rest of the employees, because he will eventually go off on someone. Do I care that he’s back to work, not really. But from a company standpoint, they are setting themselves up to get sued for everything they are worth in the future.

The reason I used the word “system” is because this usually happens when kids are involved in divorce. The father rarely even gets a chance to have custody of the kids. The courts don’t care if the father is the better parent, provider, or even nurturer. I got to keep my kids by talking my ex into it, by promising not to go after her for support, allow her to claim one of the kids on taxes, gave her the house and damn near everything in it. We agreed that she would pay basic medical because I was paying for the insurance and we would split any other “big” bills. Here I am, almost a year later, struggling to get by and she’s paid a whopping $7 to date. Not to mention, I’m paying on her van that got repossessed because it was in my name. I had to pay all the kids medical because she wasn’t paying on her bill so they were going to ban us from using that doctor. Why don’t I go after now you ask? Because I’m afraid she will be pissed and take the kids away. By all rights, I am by far the better parent and can give the kids the best care. But I’m so afraid of the courts not caring about any of that and just giving them right back to her.

Also the “system” could be the fact that my wife’s ex hasn’t paid a dime towards his share of a previous bankruptcy. So who are they going after? Us. Why? Because we kept in touch to make sure it was being paid. Even if we give them his information, including job and social security number. They don’t care that we’ve done right by them. We’re the responsible ones so we’ll pay, that’s their thinking.

So again, if you ever go against “the man”, lie your ass off. Tell them what they want to hear. Because they don’t give a damn about you or what you’ve been through. I should have learned this a long time ago, but apparently I’m just a slow learner.