The front page story about the man who went to Home Depot for help in making pipe bombs [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Friday, April 29, 2016] continues on page A6 right across from the stories on A7 of the continuing prosecution of the San Bernardino terrorist attacks and two stories from Baltimore; one about a man in a hedgehog costume with a fake bomb and the other about a 13-year-old boy who was shot while brandishing a BB gun designed to look like an automatic pistol.

Embedded in the story about the 13-year-old is a quote from a press conference given by Police Commissioner, Kevin Davis.

“Why this young man chose to leave his home with a replica semi-automatic pistol in his hand, I don’t know,” he said. “Why this young man chose to flee on foot when he was approached by two Baltimore police officers, I don’t know. Why that young man chose not to drop the gun and comply with the officers’ commands to stop? I don’t know that either.”

I do.

He left his home, the place of greatest safety for him, to go out into the streets where it is very unsafe for a young man on the cusp of becoming an adult. He took with him what he has been told will make him safe by an army of pro-gun activists.

When he was confronted by police he ran because he is emotionally flooded by fear and he doesn’t experience the police as a force for safety in his life.

When told to drop the gun he didn’t because he couldn’t decide whether he could give up the only thing in his grasp that gave him a sense of safety.

I often have conversations with folks who feel just that way. What troubles me most is that the Police Commissioner doesn’t seem to be having these conversations.

I get it that the police were scared too. They didn’t know the gun wasn’t what it appeared to be. They could not have known that they were not at risk. Everyone in this scenario did just what we could expect them to do. And the boy will live.

But we continue to live in fear, a fear born not just of the media but of our day-to-day experiences, a fear that causes us to flee or to freeze such that we do not understand each other and therefore cannot work together to create genuine safety.

Rev. Dr. Mark Lee Robinson
Friday, April 29, 2016