Shameful Behavior

As per usual, the Greensboro News & Record only skimmed the surface of this story . . . about an N.C. A&T freshman/student athlete killed in a gunfight in downtown Ahoskie in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

Here's the report from the Roanoke-Chowan News Herald. To anyone familiar with the area, it reads like the OK Corral.

And even the News-Herald played it down: Personal from numerous law enforcement agencies rushed to Ahoskie to assist in the aftermath of the shooting.

What happened in the aftermath of the shooting (the way I've heard it, there was talk of calling in the National Guard) . . . particularly in and around the hospital (putting medical personnel trying to save the life of this young man -and other patients trying to access Emergency Services - in danger) was SHAMEFUL in a civilized society.

And it should NOT be over-looked and/or white-washed by the press.

That's just my opinion.

5/20 Update

From an Editorial at the N&R: Details about what exactly happened to this young man remain sketchy. But a crowd impeded responders: " . . . (Ahoskie) police Chief Troy Fitzhugh told the News-Herald"Officers had to literally remove people to protect the victim and preserve evidence."

The comments on the Roanoke-Chowan Herald's original story continue to be "entertaining". I've got no use for the Greensborish black-vs-white mumbo-jumbo. And I'm having a very hard time with the notion that what happened should IN ANY WAY be blamed on local law enforcement.

I'm thinking more that the community (black/white/red/yellow) needs to take a close look at the kind of collective PATHOLOGY that would allow things to get so out-of-control that a young man could be gunned down in the street, and an angry mob could impede access of Emergency personnel to the scene to help him.

There is NO WAY to rationalize that. NONE!

I have news for you, people. Government cannot fix this. But disgusted citizens can . . . by condemning it in their churches and their schools . . . by telling anyone who was there, "We will NOT tolerate this kind of behavior! If you were there and you saw something, then STOP WHINING and man-up/woman-up and come forward with the information!"

Journalistically speaking, the Roanoke-Chowan News Herald should also be commended for acknowledging (albeit vaguely) what happened at the hospital in the after-math of the shooting. Hospital staff went above and beyond in the face of people acting like animals.

Children were in that ED.

And what this mob did is UNACCEPTABLE. There is NO EXCUSE.

Again, just my opinion.

5/23 Update

The "alleged shooter" is arrested.