This weekend, 28-year-old Black Lives Matter protester and military veteran, Garrett Foster was shot and killed by a driver who was apparently using his vehicle as a weapon. Mr. Foster and his fiancée, Whitney Mitchell, had been taking part in protests against police brutality in Austin daily since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Mr. Foster is white, and Ms. Mitchell, who is a quadruple amputee, is African-American, www.nytimes.com/…according to the N.Y. Times. Mr. Foster attended protests with his legally owned rifle slung across his shoulder. Kenneth Casaday, the president of the Austin police officers’ union tweeted, after the incident, “This is the guy that lost his life last night. He was looking for confrontation and he found it.” So, there it is. People who believe in equal protection under the law (so called Liberals), who carry weapons, while at a protest to support Black Lives Matter are “looking for confrontation”. But, if you are actually attempting to deliver unspoken threats to lawmakers, for example armed demonstrators who entered the State Senate gallery in Michigan and who stood above lawmakers to demand the reopening of the state, those are 2nd Amendment loving patriots.
The still unnamed driver of the vehicle who killed Garrett Foster, was released by police after he said Garrett “pointed [the rifle] at him”, after which the driver fired several shots at Garrett with a handgun. This, of course, ignores the numerous witnesses on the scene who said “the driver intentionally and aggressively accelerated into a crowd of people.” “We were not aggravating him at all. He incited the violence.” Still other witnesses stated that after the car hit a traffic cone and stopped Mr. Foster walked toward the car, with the muzzle of his rifle pointed downward. “He was not aiming the gun or doing anything aggressive with the gun”.
The problem our country faces, and the foregoing is a stark example, is the fact that the laws are not equally applied. This is the entire basis of the BLM movement writ large on this incident. A person, who should have been charged and arrested for attempted assault with a motor vehicle, was instead released for the shooting and killing of a BLM protester, because the BLM protester was armed, carrying a lawfully owned rifle. I only pray that the elected Democratic D.A. of Travis County (in which Austin is located) will review all of the evidence and bring appropriate charges against the driver/shooter, who is currently scott free of responsibility for his reprehensible conduct.