This is my buddy. I always claim a friendship in the present tense, bc that never dies.

This is an illuminating thread on how cops shoot unarmed suspects. As he concludes, people who generally represent a threat.

I have a bone to pick about a concluding statement he makes. https://twitter.com/LeonydusJohnson/status/1299153561289461761

I don't believe he was referring to Luke when he wrote this, but it still doesn't sit right with me.

Getting that phone call was the weirdest thing.

Luke was blessed with immense family wealth. He had struggled to get on a good path, but in the last https://twitter.com/LeonydusJohnson/status/1299383254810865666?s=20

decade or so, he had found himself on one. After culinary school he took his parents backing to own and operate his own restaurants.

I was fortunate enough to see him last year, bc he was turning the family's 2nd home in upstate NY into a B&B.

Truth was, he was struggling.

You can read the article, but he had an episode, and ended up leaving his car on a highway, wandering on it with no shoes on.

This is the thing, I appreciate the point being made on that thread. If you don't resist arrest in situations where cops appropriately respond, you will

easily avoid getting shot by them.

Here's my hang up: Luke was an intimidating looking guy, and he was stubbotnly ignoring armed cops commands, I'm sure he appeared even more so.

But when you know a person, you know what a genuinely kind would they are, you know they didn't

have to be put down like a rabid dog the way he was.

I'm not suggesting every unarmed person a cop shoots is really mentally unwell, or not a threat.

What I am saying is that I want to find a better way to subdue people than the threat of a gun.

Bc the people feel when an un-

armed loved one is killed by a cop, you are always left wondering what if? No matter what their skin color is. There has to be a more modern, professional way to strategize these various live scenarios.

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't add, Luke would not like to be used to

undermine the Black Lives Matter movement.

I have my issues w BLM, but I never used Luke's name in my little inconsequential social media campaigns,bc I know he'd hate it.

This time I felt I'm ok, bc someone else tweeted about his tragic death, but also because I wanted 2 state

something important.

Luke's killing brought me closer to BLM, bc it showed me how infuriating it can be to have an actor of the state take someone you loves life, and not answer for it.

The Trooper that shot him wasn't publicly investigated&his family will never have any real

closure.

In conclusion, I have to acknowledge this thread is important.

It shows how universal unarmed death by cop shooting is, and that it isn't mathematically as much of a danger as many perceive.

And that I'm very, very frustrated that we can't talk about cops changing

their procedures, strategies and the like.

Instead we scream into the void about racism&miss the forest for the trees.

I want this problem of unarmed people getting shot & killed fixed. Especially black men, who like Luke, are often complicated souls w goodness in their heart.