By Brian Richards | News Stories | April 17, 2018 |
By Brian Richards | News Stories | April 17, 2018 |
Last Thursday in the Michigan area, Jeff Zeigler, a 53-year-old retired firefighter, heard his wife yelling at the front door of their home as she demanded to know who was attempting to break in. Upon hearing this, Jeff immediately responded by retrieving his shotgun and heading downstairs to the front door to fire a gunshot in the direction of the supposed intruder.
The person who was supposedly breaking into the home of Jeff Zeigler and his wife? The person who had the two of them fearing for their lives as if Jack Torrance was taking an ax to their front door with every intention of using it to chop them both into pieces?
That person was Brennan Walker, a fourteen-year-old African-American student at Rochester High School in Rochester Hills, Michigan.
The only thing that Brennan had actually done to terrify and infuriate Zeigler and his wife was knock on their door and ask for directions on how to get to his school because he had missed his bus and his cell phone had been confiscated by his mother. From Buzzfeed News:
…After [Brennan] knocked on the door, the woman began yelling at him and accusing him of breaking into her house before he could say anything.“I was trying to explain to her that I wanted to get directions to go to my school,” Brennan said. “I told her, ‘No, I go to Rochester High, I’m just looking for directions to Rochester High.’”
Brennan said he put his hands up and began to run after he saw the man in the house holding a shotgun.
“I looked back behind me, I saw him aiming at me, and I turned back. I turned back and I heard the gunshot. And I tried to run faster,” the teen told WXYZ.
Brennan’s mother, Lisa Wright, told local TV stations that a security video at the suspect’s house recorded the interaction between her son and the homeowners. She said that the woman in the video could be heard saying, “Why did these people choose my house?”
“After watching the video and hearing the wife say, ‘Why did these people choose my house,’ I knew it was racially motivated,” Wright told WXYZ. She also described it as a hate crime.
Prosecutors said Friday that the home security video supported Walker’s version of events.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard called the incident “unacceptable on every level.”
“It is just absurd that this happened,” Bouchard told Fox 2 News. “I feel terrible for the young man; I feel terrible for the mom and the anxiety that they had to go through. We are going to ask for every charge permissible for this guy, who stepped up and fired a shotgun because someone knocked on his door.”
From Huffington Post Black Voices:
“My mom says that black boys get shot because sometimes they don’t look their age, and I don’t look my age. I’m 14, but I don’t look 14. I’m kind of happy that, like, I didn’t become a statistic,” said Brennan.
Zeigler was arrested and taken into custody at Oakland County Jail, where bail was set at $50,000. Despite being placed on GPS monitoring and forbidden from being within ten miles of Brennan and his family, he remained insistent that he was in the right for how he responded. Said Zeigler to the court during his arraignment:
“…[There’s] a lot more to this story than what’s being told…I believe that will come out in court.”
If the details in this story about what happened to Brennan Walker and how he nearly lost his life all because he had the audacity to ask someone in his neighborhood for help sound both awful and awfully familiar, it’s probably because a similar situation happened not too long ago that ended a lot more horribly.
On November 2, 2013, a 19-year-old African-American woman named Renisha McBride was driving through the predominantly White and middle-class Detroit neighborhood of Dearborn Heights at around 4 AM and ended up crashing her car. When she exited her vehicle, Renisha approached the home of Theodore Wafer, a 54-year-old White airport maintenance worker, and knocked on his front door to request some assistance. Wafer, believing that Renisha was trying to break into his home, took his 12-gauge shotgun and fired at her through the screen door, killing her with a single shot to the face, though he would later claim that the shooting was accidental. Wafer would then go on to be prosecuted for second-degree murder, manslaughter, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The following year, he was found guilty of all three charges and Wafer was sentenced to seventeen to thirty-two years in prison, fifteen to thirty years for second-degree murder, and two years for the felony firearms charge.
This is a fate that could have easily befallen Brennan Walker as well. All because he missed his bus to school and knocked on someone’s door to ask for help.
Naturally, once the news broke on social media, there was no holding back on how furious so many people were about this:
Dear fellow white people:
— Alexandra Zafris (@AlexandraZafris) April 14, 2018
This is what a 14-year-old child looks like. His name is Brennan Walker. If he asks you for directions to school, all you have to do is say “good morning, let me google that for you.” No need to attempt to murder him.
That’s all for today pic.twitter.com/oFt7Khh9X5
To be black in America is to never be able to have your presence be benign, and to always be in danger, of unease, humiliation or even arrest (or death by arrest) because of it. That’s what racism is, in a nutshell. https://t.co/sK1ct8PbFi
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) April 14, 2018
Every time I look at this story I think about the umpteen ways we make sure our kids know where they are going & how we don't take their phones away when they are going to be outside the house & I just wish people knew how much goes into parenting while Black because of fear https://t.co/As85QAu4Ts
— Mikki Kendall (@Karnythia) April 14, 2018
The man who shot at the 14-year-old is a 53-year-old retired Detroit firefighter. A good guy with a gun, right @NRA?
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) April 13, 2018
https://t.co/0HCLEtgCBG
An interesting fact about the 53 year old retired white firefighter shooting at that kid is that he worked in Detroit. Someone like that retired from “protecting” and “saving” citizens in the Blackest city in the country.
— Allowicious Beefsteak (@OG_Humble_One) April 14, 2018
Once a young black teen boy like Brennan Walker came to our door in Detroit. He had found my toddler baby brother who had wandered outside by opening the screen door unbeknownst to us, & picked him up, going door to door to find his family. We were so thankful he did that for us. https://t.co/COnJma3cVK
— Cindy Pika Chu (@iamcindychu) April 13, 2018
This having happened in Michigan, and in Rochester Hills, sadly doesn’t surprise me. My friends who are mothers of black boys fear for their lives constantly. Why are white people so scared of our Black brothers and sisters? Of children!?! This is why we kneel. #BlackLivesMatter
— Cindy Pika Chu (@iamcindychu) April 13, 2018
As if that particular catastrofuck wasn’t enough to make Black people fear for their safety and their lives (more so than usual, anyway) as well as feel infuriated for having to feel this way in the first place, another incident recently occurred that grabbed everyone’s attention once it was posted on social media:
@Starbucks The police were called because these men hadn’t ordered anything. They were waiting for a friend to show up, who did as they were taken out in handcuffs for doing nothing. All the other white ppl are wondering why it’s never happened to us when we do the same thing. pic.twitter.com/0U4Pzs55Ci
— Melissa DePino (@missydepino) April 12, 2018
I just heard they were released at 130am last night. They are real estate brokers and were at Starbucks to meet their family friend. That’s all I have for now.
— Melissa DePino (@missydepino) April 13, 2018
Ever since I posted this, I’ve had white strangers AND friends say “there must be something more to this story.” That assumption is a big part of the problem. It does happen. All the time. Just not to you and me. Believe it and speak up.
— Melissa DePino (@missydepino) April 13, 2018
The only way they did nothing wrong is if they see their job as arresting black men who have committed no crime, which… well… I’ll let you do the rest. https://t.co/lKK2vfMpUt
— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) April 14, 2018
The two African-American men who were placed under arrest and removed from that Starbucks were waiting for their friend/business associate to arrive and meet up with them. But because they hadn’t ordered anything and were simply sitting in that Starbucks, the manager wanted them to leave and contacted actual police officers to make that happen. Despite the fact that the two African-American men had neither said anything or did anything disruptive to merit such a response from the manager. Despite the fact that it’s a well-known fact that in almost any Starbucks you walk into, the majority of people seated inside that Starbucks aren’t doing anything and haven’t ordered anything from the Starbucks employees to eat or drink. Despite the fact that such behavior from “customers” at Starbucks (and most other coffee shops) merited this article to be written and published by the New York Times earlier this year. Despite the fact that such behavior in Starbucks has become so notorious and widespread that even Family Guy touched upon it back in 2007 with this scene here:
It didn’t take very long for Starbucks to try and put this particular fire out…
We apologize to the two individuals and our customers for what took place at our Philadelphia store on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/suUsytXHks
— Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks) April 14, 2018
We regret that our practices and training led to the reprehensible outcome at our Philadelphia store. We’re taking immediate action to learn from this and be better. A statement from ceo Kevin Johnson: https://t.co/kPav8bEeOX
— Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks) April 15, 2018
…Even though they weren’t very successful in doing so and simply reminded many people why their business wasn’t worth frequenting in the first place, resulting in the hashtag #BoycottStarbucks being put to use by Twitter, as well as people suggesting other and better alternatives for coffee shops and cafes far more deserving of business and support.
The irony of the #Starbucks incident in Philly:
— M (dot) Brooks™ (@TheREAL_MBrooks) April 14, 2018
Remembering the #Racetogether campaign that wanted their baristas to randomly talk about race to customers.
Two black men were arrested in a Starbucks for the crime of waiting for their friend to show up.
— JRehling (@JRehling) April 14, 2018
It's a good thing they weren't holding anything or the police would have had to use deadly force.#BoycottStarbucks
I am 100% confident that as a white man in America, I could go to any coffeeshop and sit for two hours without ordering anything and the police would not be called. 100%.#BoycottStarbucks
— JRehling (@JRehling) April 14, 2018
1. Is the employee who called police being held accountable?
— Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) April 14, 2018
2. Is @Starbucks doing anything substantive to make amends to the two people who were arrested?
3. Will @Starbucks use its platform/resources to encourage systemic change in policing? https://t.co/pKKG6Q98cC
White people: watch the Starbucks arrest video. See the white folks arguing with the police and asking why two innocent black men were being arrested? THIS is how you use your privilege. Because if one of us had said something we’d get arrested too.
— Chris Evans 🩠(@notcapnamerica) April 14, 2018
To be black in America is to never be able to have your presence be benign, and to always be in danger, of unease, humiliation or even arrest (or death by arrest) because of it. That’s what racism is, in a nutshell. https://t.co/sK1ct8PbFi
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) April 14, 2018
My dad sits around Starbucks for hours and nobody says a word to him about it.
— Red T Raccoon (@RedTRaccoon) April 15, 2018
He's a 69 year old white man, so that might have something to do with it.#BoycottStarbucks
The two black men arrested at Starbucks:
— Sarah Lerner (@SarahLerner) April 14, 2018
-Asked to use the bathroom
-Were told it was for paying customers only
-Waited for their friend to show up
-Were confronted by police
-Politely asked why they were being told to leave
-Were taken away in handcuffs
And then there’s this: https://t.co/PvyGQPTem6
You know what’s interesting in the Starbucks story? All these white people admitting they loiter in Starbucks without buying anything all day, all the time. Who raised you??
— Louisa 🌹ðŸžðŸŒ¹ (@LouisatheLast) April 16, 2018
You guys have issued more heartfelt apologies for being out of scones & almond milk. The barista in question needs to be terminated, these gentleman need to be compensated, and there needs to be company wide diversity training. #BoycottStarbucks #BlackLivesMatters https://t.co/3zcObeDHiM
— Elgin Charles (@ElginCharles) April 14, 2018
I hope that more than just an apology, @Starbucks will use its platform to generate conversations about this. Why is it so ridiculously easy to call cops on blk men? Or shoot at a 14 year old who's knocking on a door. https://t.co/RL1hJR1IFL
— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) April 14, 2018
"Our store manager never intended for these men to be arrested"
— N. K. Jemisin (@nkjemisin) April 15, 2018
They could have been killed.
Since few PDs have bothered to change their training to reduce implicit (or overt) bias, DO NOT CALL THE POLICE ON BLACK PEOPLE UNLESS YOU WANT THEM TO POSSIBLY BE KILLED. https://t.co/IpvOcArDpa
The Starbucks employee who called the cops put those men's lives in danger. Any time you call the police on a black person, you put their lives in danger. Any business that endangers its customers deserves no business.
— N. K. Jemisin (@nkjemisin) April 14, 2018
I hope the Philly Starbucks incident helps all of us acknowledge this fact:
— Kaz Weida (@kazweida) April 14, 2018
THIS HAPPENS EVERY DAY IN EVERY CITY IN AMERICA.
If you’re a person of privilege, you need to learn to see it.
And we need to ask ourselves how to be better allies when it happens.#BlackLivesMatter
White people: when you call the police to deal with a Black person you are putting that Black life at risk. I’ve seen police called in too many small situations by Whites who don’t know the danger they are invoking. Once police come, a small situation can escalate to Black death.
— Touré (@Toure) April 15, 2018
Next time I walk by Starbucks (because I'm never going in again) and I see white people without drinks in their hands I'm calling the cops. #BoycottStarbucks
— BurnDog (@BurnDog10) April 14, 2018
47 Black Owned Coffee and Tea Businesses That are Great Alternatives to Starbucks https://t.co/3Z3DkcWOPx
— Imani Perry (@imaniperry) April 14, 2018
At 22 years old, I became part owner and Bo$$ of Village Coffee House in Little 5 Points in ATL. we black owned, black women owned all dat. Moms opened the shop when I was 3, now she calling me the boss. follow us and come see us. New changes OTW. 💛 #BlackOwnedBusinesses #ATL pic.twitter.com/NHc0gqBGvV
— Maraki Lotto (@rakilotto) April 3, 2018
Red Bay Coffee Roasters in Oakland @redbaycoffee is an excellent alternative to Starbucks. A company I am engaged with as we bring a store to Richmond CA. African American owned with respect for the community Starbucks has offended. #BoycottStarbucks
— Wendell Pierce (@WendellPierce) April 14, 2018
This particular tweet came from Okieriete “Oak” Onaodowan, who played Hercules Mulligan and James Madison in Hamilton, and who knows a little something about being a Black man who has to publicly deal with questionable behavior from others:
— The Incredible Oak (@OakSmash) April 16, 2018
As the protests against Starbucks, and against this specific Starbucks in the Philadelphia area where the arrests took place, grew in numbers as well as volume…
Protesters gathered outside and in at the Starbucks at 18th and Spruce in Philadelphia, where two African-American men were arrested on Thursday. Starbucks CEO wants to apologize to the men 'face to face' for the 'reprehensible outcome.' https://t.co/WPs1ZPd5jG pic.twitter.com/1SKyuVolXm
— Philly.com (@phillydotcom) April 15, 2018
Big mass of people led by the interfaith group Power are now entering the Philly @Starbucks not to buy anything but just to sit and wait for the next round of protests later on tonight. No police have entered with them yet. pic.twitter.com/s0hmxcHFbX
— Evan Birnholz (@evanbirnholz) April 16, 2018
At the Starbucks protest. The entire shop is filled with activists. The speaker here is emphasizing the problem of stop-and-frisk in #Philly is one of the sources of tension between the police and communities. #WaitingWhileBlack pic.twitter.com/1k8JHySjmS
— Waqar Vick Rehman (@WaqarVick) April 16, 2018
…it became even more clear that something had to be done to keep Starbucks from losing further profits to bring calm to the African-American community in Philadelphia. Kevin Johnson, the CEO of Starbucks announced that he had arranged a meeting with the two men who were arrested so that they could sit down and discuss their thoughts with one another in further detail.
He also appeared on Good Morning America for an interview with Robin Roberts in which he apologized for everything that had happened:
FULL INTERVIEW: "I personally apologize…" Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson one-on-one with @RobinRoberts in his first interview after two black men were handcuffed at a Philadelphia store.
— Good Morning America (@GMA) April 16, 2018
FULL STORY: https://t.co/4CL5j2lPL7 pic.twitter.com/AVnguPqAxa
And then the news broke that the manager of that Starbucks who had originally contacted the police to have the two men removed from the store and taken into custody was no longer employed at that store. Though, there were some protesters who had questioned as to whether the manager’s employment was terminated entirely or whether she was simply transferred to another location.
As horrible as both of these incidents are, it says a lot that we have to breathe a sigh of relief over the fact that neither of them escalated and ended with either Brennan Walker or the two African-American men losing their lives as a result of what happened to them. That Ziegler’s shot didn’t connect and that the two men in Philadelphia didn’t end up being killed while taken into police custody. Because situations just like these have ended just like that, or even worse. And the names end up becoming hashtags, and numerous articles end up being written about them, and some of the people who write such articles can’t be bothered to recognize the humanity in who they write about, and would rather point out that the recently deceased was “no angel” and that we should side with those who give us yet another reason on an increasingly long list of reasons to say that Black Lives Matter.
Because Black lives do matter. They always have. They always will. And as much as we can breathe a sigh of relief over the fact that Brennan Walker and the two African-American men in Philadelphia are still alive, it doesn’t change the fact that reminding the rest of the world (even with another post like this, as this is not the first time I’ve written about it and I unfortunately suspect it won’t be the last) that Black Lives Matter has become an absolute necessity. Because of Renisha McBride. Because of Alton Sterling. Because of Philando Castile. Because of Sandra Bland. Because of Aiyana Stanley-Jones. Because of Freddie Gray. Because of Michael Brown. Because of Korryn Gaines. Because of Rekia Boyd. Because of Walter Scott. Because of Tamir Rice. Because of Tanisha Anderson. Because of Eric Garner. Because of John Crawford III. Because of Stephon Clark. And because of the countless others whose names and stories we don’t know anything about.
Because when stories such as these about Black people become public knowledge, there are too many people who immediately feel the need to ask what these Black people did to deserve death and mistreatment, and immediately feel the need to assume that they could’ve and should’ve done more to avoid such a fate.
When your first response to such stories is to ask questions and make assumptions such as those, you’re saying to the rest of the world that you don’t think that Black lives actually do matter. Not as much as your life and the lives of those who look like you. And you’re saying it to others who are willing to prove, in both word and deed, that they completely agree with you.
The fact that we still have to tell these people and tell the rest of the world over and over and over again that they’re wrong, and that Black lives do matter, whether they want to hear it or not?
That really is some bullshit.