The governor has called in the National Guard.
This time the supposed provocation was the police killing of a 27-year-old black man named Walter Wallace, who was apparently armed with a knife and coming towards the police, The family says they had called for an ambulance because he was having mental health problems. The police say they got a call “about a man screaming and saying that he was armed with a knife.” The family may have wanted an ambulance, but in a situation so unsafe, ambulance workers are not going to be the first ones to interact with the person. Then:
In video filmed by a bystander and posted on social media, officers yell for Wallace to drop a knife. In the video, Wallace’s mother and at least one man follow Wallace, trying to get him to listen to officers, as he briskly walks across the street and between cars.
Wallace advanced toward the officers, who then fired several times, said police spokesperson Officer Tanya Little. Wallace’s mother screams and throws something at an officer after her son is shot and falls to the ground.
A terrible and tragic situation. And now Philadelphia is falling prey to looters who are using this incident opportunistically.
More on Wallace’s history here (in the NY Post):
Walter Wallace, the mentally ill Philadelphia man whose death sparked riots in cities across the US, had a long history of violent run-ins with the law — and was a newlywed about to have his ninth child, according to reports.
Wallace’s family members, including his father, who witnessed the shooting, are “never going to be the same again,” Fitzhugh said. “They actually sat and watched their son literally get murdered,” he told NBC.
Certainly not “murdered” if a person is wielding a knife. More:
Police had been called to his home dozens of times in recent months, including twice Monday before they returned a third time when he was shot, sources told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Since May, police had received 31 calls about the address — including reports of someone with a weapon as well as assaults, sources told the paper.
Why wasn’t this guy in custody already? Possibly in some mental health facility?
Wallace had also been in and out of court for nearly a decade, with convictions for crimes including resisting arrest and robbery, the paper said.
He had been arrested in March after he allegedly threatened his child’s mother over the phone, saying, “I’ll shoot you and that house up,” NBC said.
In 2019, he was charged with resisting arrest by “kicking the windows and door panels of a police patrol car.”
In 2016, during a robbery, he allegedly grabbed a woman by the neck and held what she believed to be a gun to her head, NBC said, citing court records. He was sentenced to 11 to 23 months behind bars, WPVI said.
His mother had a protective order against him in 2013 which he allegedly violated when he “threw water in her face and punched her in the face” and “threatened to return and shoot” her, the reports said, again citing court records.
That same year, he pleaded guilty to assault and resisting arrest after punching a police officer in the face, WPVI said. That same year, a judge also ordered a psychiatric evaluation along with mental health treatment, the reports said.
The aspiring rapper’s music also heavily featured guns and rhymes about shooting people, including police, the station noted.
That’s quite a history. And quite different from what the earlier article I quoted – which is from NBC Philadelphia and very lengthy and detailed – would lead us to believe. That NBC article mentions none of Wallace’s violent history, and a reader would tend to think that the fatal incident was sparked by some isolated breakdown in an otherwise peaceful but troubled person.
But actually Wallace had a lengthy rap sheet and a long and repeated history of violence against family as well as other criminal activity. I wouldn’t doubt that he may also have been mentally ill, but whatever previous evaluation and treatment he got in 2013 don’t seem to have done any good, which is no surprise.
This case follows the same pattern as so many others that have been used as propaganda by BLM. What are police supposed to do in such situations, work magic? They can’t fix the complex problems being exhibited here. They can only defend themselves and others, if threatened – and if BLM has its way, even that avenue will be closed.
