A Black locksmith filmed his encounter with several armed police officers who confronted him as he was changing a lock in what he said was a predominantly white neighborhood. The video, first shared to TikTok on May 23, has been viewed over 1 million times.pic.twitter.com/GPcDifk307
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) May 30, 2021
So we have a black locksmith changing a lock.
Someone, presumably a neighbor, called the police to report a person fucking with the lock.
The police arrive.
TikTok ensues.
The replies are full of people hating on the police and the neighbors who called in the complaint.
E.g.:
The person or persons that called the police is a dangerous person
— MaryD ( Mary Ramirez) (@MaireNiBrun1) May 30, 2021
Well, fuck…
I only have this one video to go by, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say most of the people in this situation, and the commentators are wrong.
First, that’s a lot of cops. I have written about the problems with too many police responding to a scene. Often control is lost, officers will give contradictory orders, people get shot. I understand the point of backup in a violent situation but having half a dozen cops continue to roll up on a scene in which violence is not happening presents dangerous command and control issues.
I will give credit to the officer on the scene with the stripe on his sleeve, that he seemed polite and professional. Officer suppressed AR seemed a little over the top.
Legitimate criticisms of police are legitimate. Let’s not go reflexive “the Left is anti-cop so we have to Back the Blue at all costs” stupidity.
Second, the locksmith. He has every right to record his encounter, not arguing that. But you can tell his ego got in the way of his brain.
Police are approaching him about fucking with a lock.
Where is it that he says: “Officer, here is my ID, my locksmith licence, and my work order to change this lock. You can contact my boss at XXX-XXX-XXXX to verify this or here is the contract signed by the homeowner.”
Why make it more difficult than it needs to be?
Lastly, to the people attacking the neighbors who called in the complaint, I’ve written about this before too. The Left utterly wants to destroy the idea of good neighbors and community, where people watch out for each other.
They want you to see someone fuck with your neighbor’s door lock and be more afraid of being called a racist for calling the cops than fear your community becoming unsafe and targeted for theft and home invasion.
Almost everyone involved in this, including the people responding online, are wrong, and only serve to make situations like this more wrong in the future.
There’s something to be said for prominently marked tradesmen’s vans. Not only do they advertise the business, but they inform neighbors that a tradesman is at work.
(Yeah, yeah, a burglar could get a car wrap… but he’d need a different one real soon, since it’d make his car extra conspicuous in a bad way once the first theft was discovered and neighbors remembered seeing the marked vehicle.)
I started to comment, but it got to long so I moved it to my blog here: https://sailorcurt.com/2021/06/good-neighbors.html/
You catch more flys with honey than you do with acid. Leave the ego at home. In my area we are armed and will go politely ask as to wtf you are doing here.. people for YEARS have been conditioned to call the cops for any and every little thing. Now its used against everyone.
“The Left utterly wants to destroy the idea of good neighbors and community, where people watch out for each other.”
Reminder: Leftists/statists want your primary, and most important relationship be with the State, not other people. Marriage, parents, neighbors, those relationships must be secondary to love of the State