The Quiet Before the Storm

Last Tuesday around 8 45 Pm I heard all these sirens rushing past my house in North Braddock PA they were heading towards East Pittsburgh. I paid little attention to the Sirens because this is the hood there is always sirens in the hood especially in the Spring and Summer.  Then I got on Facebook and the first post I see is from my niece who posted that the Cops Killed a kid.  My heart sank because we had already had 9 murders in the City most of whom were unsolved now a child was killed by the Police. This was not a good thing. The Community and the Police have always had a strained relationship and recently there have been some improvement in that relationship, but this could set that progress back. 

A Police officer shot a 17-year-old boy who was running from the car. The boy had no weapons and witnesses stated that the cop was roughly speaking to the Jitney driver he had in hand cuffs.  He did not tell the two passengers not to run but as soon as they got out of the car he shot without yelling stop or saying anything to the young man. He shot him three times in the back.  His name is Antwon Rose Jr and he was from Rankin.

The Officer stated that he stopped the car because it matched the description of a car involved with a Shootout/Drive By and he could tell this was the car because of the Bullet holes in his car.  This is a discrepancy because how can it be a car involved with a Drive By but had bullet holes.  If the car had bullet holes, then that would indicate that there was no Drive By but a shootout.  I know the area where this shooting took place its on a corner about three blocks from my house.  They are notorious for shoot outs that occur daily. The Hood says that it was a shoot out but of course the media states Drive by so some citizens of Allegheny County can make Racist remarks on media pages.  However, as Journalists you would think they would want to report fact.

The Protest began Wednesday in Downtown Pittsburgh which was peaceful. Later that evening the Activists from the Community organized a Protest starting at the police station in East Pittsburgh that caused the Parkway East to close for several hours.  The Parkway East is part of the highway system in Pennsylvania. They also protested at the PNC park at a Pirates game and over at the South side of Pittsburgh. The protest at the South Side was majority white. 

The People here are emotional and hurting because it is bad enough we have young people in the community shooting and killing each other and to have someone outside of the community shoot one of our children in the back is unbelievable.  Nothing says your life doesn’t matter more than the people who are PAID by your tax dollars either by Property taxes or by your rent, shooting a teenager from your community, in the back.  Like we chanted at the Protest. “Three shots in the Back How are You gonna justify that?” The Police is already trying it and they have John and Jane Redneck saying “He was a killer” The person shot was treated and released and as I said before was a shootout people are going to get shot.

Yesterday was the funeral for Antwon Rose Jr, held in the Junior High School that he attended as a 7^th and 8^th grader.  There was a long procession of cars of people who were there to say good bye to the Honors Student who wrote a poem about Violence in the Community. He was afraid of being murdered by someone in his community. He had no idea that he would be murdered by someone who should have protected him.  Yes I said he was murdered being shot in the back means you murdered someone who was no longer a threat.  This is no different then being shot in the arm pits that means you had your hands up.  However, the Police will always win when it comes to this. They lose when the community loses faith in them again and NO CRIMES get solved.

The past seven days, the local media has gotten more wrong about the stories than correct. The District Attorney, who already has a strained Relationship with the African American Community, announced that he wouldn’t be making an announcement before the family buried their 17-year-old son. He said he would make the announcement soon but since he is a Democrat who lost a state wide Primary to the Current Attorney General because of his fractured relationship with the black community in Allegheny County.  The people in this community reached out to the communities of Philadelphia and Harrisburg and all over the State of PA and let them know that he ignores us and our issues. He lost in a landslide.

So here we sit we know that if the announcement is the Officer is cleared then the streets of my neighborhood will erupt first followed by one hood after another until this city is on fire.  We know this because the ONLY thing to cause a riot is POLICE BRUTILITY and especially what the community views as a cold blooded murder.

We have not gotten any word about when or if he will announce today because he will more than likely not give to much of advanced notice and will try to hold off as late as possible. We always hope and pray that there is no riot but its been a long time since 1992 and this community is ready to blow.