The attempted Trump assassination proves gun control advocates right (again)
The attempted Trump assassination proves gun control advocates right (again)
"TMZ Presents Under Fire: The Trump Assassination Attempt" sparks questions about open-carry states, securing presidential events
I’m a huge fan of Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def). I don’t always agree with him on everything, mainly his view of Osama bin Laden, but I enjoy hearing his perspective on social justice and racial equality. In one interview, he was trying to explain this on “Real Time With Bill Maher.” (I watched this interview years before I boycotted and loathed the host.)
“There’s a fine line in between what’s legal and what’s fair and decent,” Yasiin Bey told Bill Maher. “I’m black in America. I live under constant pressure. I don’t believe in that boogeyman s**t. … When somebody want to do some s**t to you, it ain’t — they doing it. Them motherf**kers ain’t talking about, sending you tapes: ‘I’m a f**k you up when I see you.’ Somebody wanna get you, they gone get you.”
In one of my favorite songs of his since 1999, he rapped about this on “Got.” What troubles me now, though, is when the government (and law enforcement) have a startling amount of examples of somebody actually “getting” someone and still acting like there’s no possibility it could happen (again). This list of mass shootings is 13 pages long, and there have been 35 school shootings this year since July 11. Meanwhile, the innocent Sonya Masseys of the world are still being treated as more of a threat than actual threats.
Need an example (besides Sean Grayson)?
Never in my life did I think I’d be this invested in TUBI nor TMZ, but “TMZ Presents” does a startlingly good job of reporting the news in a way that mainstream media has thrown by the wayside. Check out “TMZ Presents Under Fire: The Trump Assassination Attempt” to see what I mean.
When I first saw clips of the attempted Trump assassination on popular news channels, I immediately thought it was staged. Why? I didn’t see people ducking nor running, and one lady was recording away on her phone in Butler, Pennsylvania like this was a movie set.
If someone hadn’t died, I’m not sure I would’ve ever been convinced this wasn’t a photo op for Trump to raise his fist and look for an audience reaction. I was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. This is not how you act when someone starts shooting. I know this from experience. I’m not bragging about it. I’ve just been in the wrong place, wrong time before.
But this “TMZ Presents” footage made that July 13 assassination attempt way more believable, primarily because of the amount of people warning legal officials that a man was lying flat on a roof. And his gun was visible.
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By no means have I made any attempt at all to hide my politics on this “One Black Woman” series, but I cringed through this TMZ special. I neither like nor respect Trump, but I also find what Thomas Matthew Crooks did to be bizarre for a few reasons. This was a primary example of someone showing you they’ll do something instead of idle threats. And there’s no way this one guy on the roof right across from Trump’s podium should not be considered a threat or suspicious.
So imagine my surprise when TMZ interviewees tried to justify that he was well within his right to be on the roof.
“You’re in an open carry state, allowed to carry a gun outside of a secure spot inside of a zone, and walk around,” said Michael De Geus, former Secret Service special agent.
Harvey Levin, TMZ producer, then asked why does a shooter have to get to the point of aiming the gun before it’s considered a threat.
And to my utter dismay, the sarcastic response from De Geus was, “You want me to just shoot him because he’s got a gun?”
Wait.
What?