PROLOGUE – On December 20, 2017, as a result of political chicanery, including a City Council Vote taken after business hours, statues of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Confederate President Jefferson Davis were removed from two city parks which had been sold at a rock bottom price to another member of local government in a scam created to get around a ruling by the Tennessee State Historical Commission which prevented such an action from taking place.
WMC-TV5 has the story…
United States marshals shot and killed a man in Memphis Wednesday night, sparking a major protest.
At least 36 Memphis police officers and Shelby County deputies were injured in the chaos. According to Memphis Police Director Mike Rallings, a crowd of people gathered after the shooting in protest, and some became unruly and began to throw rocks.
Most of those officers have minor injuries, but Rallings did say a few were seriously hurt.
At least six of them were taken to the hospital, according to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland. Rallings said there are reports of civilians being hurt and urged anyone who may have injuries to call for help.
The shooting happened near 7 p.m. on Durham Street in Frayser. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has been called in to investigate.
According to TBI, U.S. marshals located a man with multiple warrants getting into a vehicle. When they tried to stop him, he rammed his vehicle into officers’ vehicles multiple times. TBI later identified the man as 20-year-old Brandon Webber.
TBI said Webber got out with a weapon before officers shot and killed him. TBI has not identified the officers involved.
After the shooting, the unruly crowd began to protest. MPD sent officers in riot gear to assist while civilians began throwing rocks and bricks. Eventually, officers had to use a chemical agent to disperse the crowd.
Rallings commended his officers for remaining calm amidst the chaos as well as those protesters who kept calm and did not attack officers.
Officers in riot gear were called to the scene shortly after the shooting when protests began
“I need everyone to stay calm,” Rallings said. “If your home was vandalized or you were harmed, we need you to call police.”
Rallings encouraged people to not react before they know all the information around the shooting. He said he does not have all the facts yet and doesn’t want there to be misinformation.
Rallings said MPD supports people protesting, but not when it turns violent.
“When this happens in a neighborhood, the neighborhood is victimized,” Rallings said. He said he wants to help the neighborhood heal and get back to normal.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland released the following statement after the incident:
“As I monitored tonight’s fatal shooting involving the US Marshal’s, I was proud of our first responders. I’m impressed by their professionalism and incredible restraint as they endured concrete rocks being thrown at them and people spitting at them. At least 24 officers and deputies were injured—6 were taken to the hospital. At least two journalists were injured. Multiple police cars were vandalized. A concrete wall outside a business was torn down. The windows were broken out at fire station 31. Let me be clear—the aggression shown towards our officers and deputies tonight was unwarranted. I want to thank the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance, the Governor and Tennessee Highway Patrol, Memphis Fire, and my staff and directors who worked overnight to serve this city. – Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland”
A fire station on Overton Crossing Road was also damaged during the violence.
Three people have been arrested in connection to the protests.
It has since come out that the deceased thug (yeah, I said it) was being brought in on multiple warrants, including one stemming from a carjacking in Hernando, MS, 20 minutes down I-55 from Memphis, in which he shot the car owner 5 times. It was that car which Webber used to ram the vehicles of the U.S. Marshalls.
A role model for America’s “yutes”, huh?
Clearly someone to riot over. (/sarc)
The Frayser Riot MUST have been the fault of those two dastardly statues, honoring those evil Confederate Generals.
It was mind control, I tell ya! Mind Control!!!
Oh, wait.
Like the riots on Wednesday night, those mean ol’ statues were torn down in the dark of night, after they and the parks that they stood in were sold for the price of $1,000 a piece to a phony non-profit organization, which was actually a scam by a black Shelby County Commissioner.
Watching a replay of the law enforcement officers being attacked on the local news, got me to wondering how the city I grew up in, my Hometown, the “City of Good Abode”, got to be a war-torn and ruined shell of a once wonderful city, following in the footsteps of Chicago and Detroit.
I think I know.
One Christmas Afternoon, year before last, I was sitting in my living room , beside my loving wife, step-son, daughter-in-law, and 10-year old grandson, watching “Despicable Me 3”, which Santa had brought. As we were watching the movie and dozing off from eating too much, I watched with pride as my grandson remained entranced by the movie as my “kid” had his arm around his son.
As I watched my grandson laying against his Dad, I thought about what a difference having a father makes in a boy’s life.
My father certainly made an everlasting difference in mine. He is the one who led me to Christ, counseling and supporting me, and loving me until he passed away after Christmas in 1997.
I think of him and thank God for him often.
I have had the privilege of being the step-father of 3 very different boys, now grown into young men. The first one works as an account executive with a major company. The second one was a seminary student who helped to plant a church in Midtown Memphis. And the last one, whom I mentioned earlier, is a truck driver, who is home every night.
I think often about all three of these young men often and pray that I have made a difference in their lives.
What got me thinking about the role that fathers play in the lives of young men, is all of the gang-related violence, black-on-black homicides, and racial unrest which is happening in our American Cities, like my Hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.
In today’s modern culture, the stigma of having a baby out of wedlock is quite frankly no longer a stigma. In some corners, especially the Liberal ones, it is actually considered a sign of Feminine Independence.
Among a lot of the young black male population, it is a sign of prestige to be a player, or, as we used to call it, a “ladies’ man”.
This practice has become so popular, that now 75 percent of America’s black population are being born out of wedlock and being raised without a father.
Grandfathers, uncles, clergy, and school coaches and principals try to fill in the gap and help these boys as they grow up, but a boy needs a man around every day of their life.
They need a consistent role model to teach them right from wrong, how to treat women, and how to be a man.
Regardless of what all of the Liberal experts say, a male father figure is essential in building a young man’s self- image.
So, what’s the answer?
A song that Elton John came out with during his comeback in the 1980’s goes,
Mama don’t want you
Daddy don’t want you
Give it up baby, baby
Mama can’t buy you love
Liberal Municipal Governments, such as the one which runs Memphis, can continue to blame their troubles on reminders of a troubling time in American History as an excuse to censor history which they view as “offensive”.
And, Municipal and Federal Governments can throw as much money at the problem of gang-related and individually-caused violence as they want to.
However, until this Cycle of Irresponsibility, i.e., irresponsible parents creating irresponsible kids, somehow gets broken, through prayer, education, and community/church involvement, crime will continue to escalate in America’s Cities.
Because, if the parents do not want to love, care for, and raise their children in the way that they should go, the gangs and the other criminals in the ‘Hood certainly will.
And, more “incidents” like the one which occurred in the Frayser neighborhood in Memphis on Wednesday night will become the norm. instead of an oddity.
More’s the pity.
Until He Comes,
KJ
Kingsjester's Blog 