Charlotte

So, here I sit in Cackalacky (one of the millions of former Yankees) not too far from the riotous goings-on in Charlotte.  The major element of the 'he said-she said' or, more accurately, the 'cops say, locals say' is this:  Keith Scott had a gun, whereas others say he had a book.

A book.

Wait, a book...?  I thought reading books was 'acting white'?  Never mind.  I love books.  I applaud taking them wherever you go and reading when you have some down time.  Unfortunately reading as a pastime is not on an upward march.  It's depressing, but I rarely see a book in the hand of any of the rich white people that I interact with every day.  Maybe Keith Scott was that rare anomaly, both for society at large and for blacks specifically, an avid reader.

People are allowed their doubts though until facts can be established, and it looks like a journalist as well as the CMPD are confirming visual evidence that it was not a book, but a gun.  Now, don't get me wrong, I like both books AND guns (Kipling said you can never have too many books or too much ammo, which implies something about guns), but there is a chasm of a difference between brandishing one versus the other.  One will probably get you shot.  And if you don't know that, then you probably should have used much more of the other.

On another literary note...this is a long standing fraud, this notion of the choir boy in the wrong place at the wrong time.  That great American observer of things, Tom Wolfe, wrote about this fraud in Bonfire of the Vanities way back when.  Nothing turns a punk kid into an honor student faster than wrongful death.  When an outcry goes up, justified or not, suddenly they're all honor students.  Never does a bad guy meet with an avoidable death.

Oh, one last thing...black victim, black, officer, black police chief.  What will it take for blacks to realize that maybe something else is going on here??

UPDATE:  Scott does not seem like the overly bookish type.  Seems like the classic Wolfeian Honor Student to me.