A black life that mattered

On Saturday, October 20, 2018 in broad daylight, Gwinnett County police officer Antwan Toney was murdered in cold blood. He was investigating the report of a suspicious vehicle at the intersection of Bethany Church Road and Shiloh Road, not too far from metropolitan Atlanta.

Officer Toney never had a chance–on his approach toward the stopped vehicle, one or more of the occupants inside opened fire, fatally wounding him. The California native recently celebrated his 30th birthday and was only six days shy of celebrating his third anniversary of service with the Gwinnett County Police Department. My question is pretty simple–did his life matter? If not, why not? 

It certainly matters to me. I happen to live in Gwinnett County. This man died helping keep people like me safe from violent criminals. But you know who probably doesn’t care about this man’s murder? The people involved in the Black Lives Matter movement. They only seem to care about criminals and the rare innocent victim, and only then according to the color of their skin. They only see Officer Toney’s uniform and ignore the smiling, handsome young man wearing it.

However, if suspected gunman Tafarhee Maynard is killed resisting arrest by police who know he’s already murdered one of their brothers in blue, you can bet your bottom dollar that the BLM will be protesting his death. Obviously, the leadership of the Black Lives Matter movement doesn’t care about every black life. They only care when deadly force is used by the police, not by criminals. That’s why I loathe the BLM movement. Like the kneeling NFL protestors, they foment irrational hatred and social unrest with insidious lies. They are nothing but racially motivated professional agitators, not advocates of law and order, seeking justice.

I’m relatively certain that Officer Toney had no intention of shooting anyone in the car as he approached his own death, but I’m absolutely certain that he neither wanted nor deserved to be shot. He only wanted to serve and protect the community. Only corrupt cops can get rich from being on the job. I may not like every law the police are asked to enforce, but that doesn’t give me any right to shoot a cop just for doing the job he was hired to do.

Therefore, I support the death penalty for cop killers, but I’ll settle for life in prison with no chance or hope for parole, if his killers surrender without more bloodshed, and all on account of pulling a trigger. As Clint Eastwood so poignantly said in the movie Unforgiven, “It’s a helluva thing, killing a man. You take away all he’s got, and all he’s ever gonna have.”

Because of stories like this, with every opportunity I have, I thank police officers, firemen (and women), paramedics, soldiers…if you’re in a uniform, I’m probably going to say something like “Thank you for your service” because it might be the last time I get the opportunity, and they risk their lives every day, doing a job I wouldn’t want to have to do myself. I’ve been arrested before, and I’ve spent a night in jail. I didn’t particularly care for the experience, so I’ve spent most of my adult life trying to avoid the sort of behavior that leads one to being arrested by the police. Some of our laws are antiquated and stupid, but the remedy is to change the law, not shoot a cop.

For the sake of argument, let’s reverse the scenario for a moment, and imagine that Officer Toney shot Maynard, a black teenager. To really make the comparison unfair, let’s even assume that Maynard was both innocent and unarmed. And now, let’s step into the shoes of Officer Toney, and see the scene through his eyes. We’re walking toward a vehicle we’ve stopped for a traffic violation or mildly suspicious activity. We’re alert, but relaxed because there’s no reason to anticipate violence, and we don’t intend on shooting any of the suspects in the vehicle. However, we know that in 2017 forty-four police officers were shot and killed in the line of duty, and that was the second lowest total of fatal shootings of police over the past 58 years. We don’t want to shoot anybody, but we also don’t want to get shot. Suddenly Maynard makes a move we weren’t expecting, and we think we might see a gun or some sort of weapon. Are we supposed to let the suspect get off the first shot? If so, what if the suspect has really good aim? Then we’re probably dead…just like Officer Toney.

Can you now understand why I think the protests of Black Lives Matter are evil? I mourn the death of everyone who dies violently, even a criminal–but nowhere near as much as I mourn the death of a public servant, or an innocent bystander. Gwinnett County Police Officer Antwan Toney’s life mattered no less than mine. And if Tafarhee Maynard decides to resist arrest when he is located, I hope and pray that the officers there on the scene will not hesitate to use deadly force for their own safety. They’ll have nothing at all to worry about if I’m on their jury.

Thank you for your service, Officer Toney. God bless you for your sacrifice, may your sins be forgiven, and may you rest in peace.