Racial letter devoid of facts | Letter

My wife and I read with disgust the opinion of Talijah Vaotogo. Having armed ourselves with facts not usually found in mainstream media these days, we quickly picked out the false narratives Vaotogo was pushing on his targeted audience – us.

My wife and I read with disgust the opinion of Talijah Vaotogo. Having armed ourselves with facts not usually found in mainstream media these days, we quickly picked out the false narratives Vaotogo was pushing on his targeted audience – us. For starters, Eric Garner was not killed by a so called – illegal chokehold. Garner had heart disease, severe asthma and was obese; Officer Pantaleo used a submission hold, not barred by NYPD restraint techniques, to restrain Garner. Autopsy showed Garner died from cardiac arrest, not asphyxiation as there was no damage to the windpipe or neck bones. Not that the fact matters, but if it is of any importance to you, Garner was a huge man who resisted arrest when ordered to surrender. He had a history of 30 arrests dating back to 1980 to include assault and grand larceny. Even in the wildly liberal city like New York, Pantaleo was exonerated of wrong doing by his peers. While I agree there may be grounds for concluding that excessive force was used, if you so much as wonder why things like this could ever happen, then perhaps you should rethink leftist way of governance.  Yes, Garner was arrested after being warned in the past for selling unlicensed/untaxed cigarettes called “loosies,” and if you think having laws to regulate every minutia doesn’t have consequences, think again. Someone has to enforce those laws the politicians passed and in this case, and as always – the police officers. Now when someone resists arrest, people can get hurt or die as a result of stupid laws like this because physical confrontation always has an element of “unpredictability.”

On Michael Brown, before his fatal encounter with Officer Wilson, he had just robbed a convenience store of Swisher Sweets cigars and manhandled the small framed store clerk when the clerk attempted to stop him from walking off with the loot. Wilson did not know Brown was the robbery suspect he heard over the radio when he encountered him. When ordered not to walk in the middle of the road, Brown, the not so “gentle giant,” shut Wilson’s door on him as he was trying to get out of his unit. In the ensuing struggle, based on evidence such as blood spatter, shell casings and ballistic tests, the facts revealed Brown had assaulted Wilson and reached for Wilson’s weapon. As if only facts are in the way of Vaotogo’s baseless allegation, all evidence examined by the Grand Jury and even autopsy performed by the medical examiner hired by Brown’s family supported Wilson’s account of the event. The “gentle giant” was actually not so gentle, and he was in fact charging Wilson after reaching for his weapon. I love leftist community agitators like Vaotogo, who gets to throw out emotional and fact-absent allegations to stir people then aren’t held accountable. They are like short sellers on Wall Street, who profits wildly from hyper devaluing companies and then walk away in the carnage they left for the shareholders still holding those companies’ assets.

Lastly, while tragic, Officers Garmback and Loehmann from the Cleveland Police Department were only told that a male was pointing “a pistol” at random people in the Cudell Recreation Center. There was not a “black male” or an “African American male” in the descriptions. When the officers arrived, Rice reached for the pistol in his waistband and Loehmann fired. It was a quick and lethal encounter. Though tragic, there was no way the officer can tell its was an airsoft gun. I am around a lot of guns, and when I see the same gun they encountered, I wouldn’t be able to tell you whether a gun like that being reached for in front of me is real or not. Not that police lives matter to you or facts matter, but leftist race baiters like Vaotogo always consider evidence and truth inconvenient for their narratives. To return to the first example Vaotogo used as base for the existence of systemic racism, Scott’s case is a direct contradiction that turns this allegation on its head.  Scott was shot and killed without cause in the back by Officer Micahel Slager in South Carolina after a traffic stop for broken brake light.  Slager’s action was filmed by a bystander and that film led to the immediate arrest and charge of Slager for the murder of Scott. Based on all available evidence to include the video footage, while Slager did most likely murder Scott, there is not enough evidence at this point to conclude that his motive is racially based. I know, it is inconvenient to say that because emotion runs high and it is easier to just go and form a lynch mob and do what may seem most immediate. Yes, the homicide might have been racially based, but until all facts are brought to light at trial, it is pure conjecture beyond hearsay. The important thing for us to take away from this is that there is no systematic targeting of blacks by police officers. In this case, and when presented with evidence, the authorities immediately arrested and charged Slager with murder. There was no closing of rank due to his skin color or his victim’s skin color. The justice and public safety system worked like it intended. This is fact, albeit an inconvenient one the left and mainstream media loves to ignore.

This brings me back to my final point; both my wife and I grew up in one of the largest cities in America. We went to schools in the ghettos and I have been a victim of black hoodlum violence many times. I am talking about getting beaten up unconscious bloody and jumped from behind types of violence. I had no doubt who my attackers were at the time. Today, I do not go around assuming all black people are there to hurt me, although in the leftist mindset, my experience wins me the right to be one as I am forever a damaged goods as society’s impact over people are absolute. I understand people choose their actions and I must judge people individually, not by class nor skin color. However, the fact-immune community agitators like Vaotogo would choose to castigate an entire sector of people (like the police) purely by professions.

I know many police officers, black, white, yellow, red, brown etc. None of them harbors an agenda of “let us go kill us some black people today” or “let us fire on black kids on the most whimsical excuse or thinnest circumstances.” They do not say that about black people and they do not say that about people of any color, to include white people. If facts only mattered, maybe there will be less hate in the world. And to Vaotogo, sorry to rain on your parade but facts do not care about your of my feelings.

To the sorry excuse of a publication that is known as the Bothell-Kenmore Reporter, you are part of the problem. You are part of the problem for censoring truth speaking letters from other readers in the community like mine while aiding and abetting divisive forces that breed distrust among the community. It is the willingness to fan the flames and be a mouthpiece of these community agitators/maoists that Americans collectively distrust you and cheered when Ted Cruz called your games out. Quit reporting with bias disguising as being objective. Thanks to your bias, Ben Carson might just be the next POTUS.

Justice Suarve, Bothell