Asheville – On September 23, while exercising his First Amendment rights (freedom of the press) to cover another First Amendment right event (assembly), Skyline News’ Chad Nesbitt was seriously injured and remains in the hospital. However, there is no right to intimidate. There is no right to riot, steal, vandalize, or harm others.
I can tell you that Nesbitt is a personal friend who I helped get into the news business several years ago. He has incredible sources for his stories, which make me and other news media jealous. The difference is Nesbitt is willing to do what the big news media does – print his stories on anonymous tips. If you don’t like it then, stop watching any mainstream news because they do it too. Is he bias? Yes, but so are most other news outlets, but fairness is where the balance comes in, allowing the focus of a story to have their say if they are willing. Nothing you can do if they aren’t amenable to talk to you.
Enough of my running that rabbit, back to my main focus of this commentary…Who’s to blame for this terrible incident? I think we only have a few places we can blame for what was going on in Asheville, and the first place I’ll lay the blame is at the feet of the Asheville mayor and the city council.
When you try and appease an angry mob, all you get is more trouble, as we’ve seen. I know some people out there are upset over law enforcement’s shooting of people of color they feel are unjustified. Still, until they follow Dr. King’s model of peaceful protests, there’s only one way these events can end – badly.
Asheville City Council threw these rioters a bone that only emboldened them and made them think, ‘Well, I guess we just need to cause more trouble so we can get more defunding.’
In truth, every time someone is injured, or a police officer is killed, or a building burns or innocent business owners are vandalized, or their businesses looted, their movement loses momentum.
In June, a majority of Americans supported the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement at 54 percent, according to an AP-NORC survey. In a September 11 poll by the same group, only 39 percent of those surveyed now agree with the movement.
There’s never been majority support in the black community for reducing the number of police officers in their community. The major surveyed said that policing is at the right amount, or they want more officers. What the black community does want is better relations with the police.
If you watch the news, you’ll believe all want the police defunded – when that’s far from the truth because much of the crime and murder is being committed in the black community by blacks. Black on black crime is an ugly truth, and one I’m sure people don’t want to hear.
Defunding police will only get you more lawlessness, and the lawlessness must stop so that people can live their lives peaceably.