Just because you can doesn’t mean you can everywhere, or that you should.
On the evening of Jan. 25 a young Black man in a Walmart in Vadnais Heights was urgently approached by several Ramsey County sheriff’s deputies, handcuffed and detained. Oh, yeah, forgot to mention, he had a gun. And that was the reason for his detention … and the “aggressive” response by the officers. Much of the incident was captured on live video by independent journalist King Demetrius Pendleton, who happened to be shopping in the store at the time and posted the video on Facebook.
The young man was carrying a semi-automatic handgun with an extended clip. Both the butt of the gun and the clip were visible, which, according to the officers is why someone called police on the young man. In the video, he notes that Minnesota is an “open carry” state, meaning anyone with a permit to carry a firearm has the right to carry that firearm openly and visibly in public. What isn’t mentioned in the video is that Walmart isn’t “public” and has a policy that prohibits open carry in states where open carry is legal.
There was no indication that the young man’s behavior was menacing or erratic. For argument’s sake, let’s suppose Walmart allowed open carry. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Now before you go thinking I’m some gun hating liberal or some self-hating Black man, I would first ask you to “check the receipts” as the young folks say. You’d be incorrect on both. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Following the killing of Amir Locke by Minneapolis police executing a no-knock warrant in 2022, I publicly stated in my admonishment of police and of no-knock warrants that I, like Amir – like nearly 400,000 Minnesotans as of 2022 – have a permit to carry. And I speak out on this incident out of love, not hate for this young brother – this fellow human being.
The young brother in Vadnais Heights is alive, but oh how easily could I be writing a different story.
The irony that this incident occurred in a Walmart is not at all lost on me. The images of John Crawford III being gunned down in an Ohio Walmart in 2014 are still etched in my brain. All he did was pick up a toy gun off the Walmart shelf and it was enough to get the police called on him and within seconds of police encountering Crawford, just 22 years old, he was shot dead.
Let’s work with how things are, not how they should be.
How things are – and no, not right at all, but our unfortunate reality – is a young Black man in a hoodie (sadly, attire plays a role, just ask the parents of Trayvon Martin) is already demonized by many in society. The hoodie alone on a Black man is enough to evoke fear. Irrational fear, but fear nonetheless. A young Black man with a hoodie and a gun with an extended magazine puts him squarely in the crosshairs (metaphor intended).
On the video the young brother, hands cuffed behind his back, states with the brilliance of a constitutional scholar his rights under both Minnesota and federal law. But he also said something that struck me to the core. “This is the second time in six months police have harassed me.”
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Please note, I’m not trying to admonish nor demonize this young brother. I’m trying to protect him. I’m trying to make sure this young man with a powerful mind has every opportunity to use that mind long into the future. Sadly, choosing to open carry lessens those chances. Sadly, it makes him a target. He’s a target to fearful citizens. He’s a target to police. He’s also a target to those seeking to do harm.
When I took my class to obtain my permit to carry, we had a discussion about the pros and cons of open carry. My instructor offered a scenario. He said, universe forbid, if a person was intent on doing harm, say a mass shooter, who do you think that person would shoot first? That shooter would first eliminate all known threats – the person known to have a weapon on them. While some think carrying openly keeps them safe from threats, in actuality, it could invite the threat.
And yes, the rules are the same, but they apply differently – very differently – to different people. And no, it’s not right. But I’m more concerned about life over death rather than right over wrong.Again, I have been a vocal critic of law enforcement officers and their heavy-handed interactions with Black people and sometimes eagerness to shoot first and ask questions later. In the near 12-minute interaction with the young man at the Vadnais Heights Walmart there were several times where I wished the officers had reacted differently, but I have to applaud them for respecting human life enough to not come in guns blazing. The video shows that after verifying the young man’s permit, the officers let him leave the store.
Being detained and handcuffed is traumatizing. I know first-hand. It sticks with you. But imagine the trauma this young man’s loved ones would have felt if he were gunned down for exercising his legal right to open carry.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
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