Many decried the actions of the Charlotte, North Carolina police chief Kerr Putney on Thursday when he refused to release the video of the confrontation that led to shooting victim Keith Lamont Scott’s death because he said he did not want to “inflame” people in the city. Charlotte has been rocked by riots for three nights since the police shot the allegedly unarmed 43 year old black man on Wednesday as covered here on Victory Girls by Nina.

Frankly, given the state of his city, where protesters shut down a major freeway and looted a tractor trailer while lighting vehicles on fire, I cannot blame the Chief. This is not a city I would choose to “inflame” as a law enforcement official in its current state. However in the interest of transparency I disagree with the Chief’s decision. Sometimes seeing what happened in a confrontation can help calm the situation down and at least spark a dialogue. Of course, that would require both sides to be engaged and respectful. I think in our current political situation this country lacks that ability-which sickens me to say.

Evidently, the victims wife, Rakeyia Scott, could care less about inflaming the situation in Charlotte though since she released the cell phone video below Friday. Though this video does not capture the shooting  it does feature the sound of shots being fired and as you can see, pictures Mr. Scott on the ground in cuffs after being shot.

Whether or not Mr. Scott was armed I cannot answer. I do not think anyone but the people who were directly involved in the situation can answer that question. What I do understand is that his wife, while understandably upset by seeing the situation her husband was in, may have contributed to the escalation of the interaction between the police and her husband.

I think what this incident proves to us as a society is that we have many serious problems. Not only do we have problems with race in America, we have problems with trust in the police in many minority communities in this country. There are many theories as to why that is. If you ask some minorities they will tell you that they are scapegoated by police. If you ask some in these communities, they will tell you that many youth have turned to crime as an alternative to being unemployed. Others will tell you that it is a problem of racism.

#BlackLivesMatter  and their ignorant antics have only served to inflame the already rocky relationship that some police have with a subset of members in the black community in many urban areas across the country. In my state we have members of this “protest group” calling for the outright murder of others, and their guilty, white liberal supporters cheer them on.

I think it is time for us to stop cheering the sickening behavior of the lowest among us. Whether it is Trump calling Mexicans “murderers and rapists” or Hillary Clinton asking “What difference does it make??” that multiple brave Americans died in Benghazi or an angry black man calling for people to shoot others if it “comes down to you or them”. This is not how societies thrive. This is how they perish a fiery death.

Many groups in our society need to start cleaning up their own communities and instilling values in their young people again. We need to, as a society, stand up and say that this type of barbarism is not welcome in our country. Police need to be respected and those in the criminal justice profession need to force those who are outright racists out. Perhaps then we can all set our country back on a path to peace, prosperity and reason.