His name for starters was Jawaad Jabbar. He was 16 years old and lived in or near Dayton, Ohio. He was shot to death last Saturday at a mall, where according to police where he and two buddies were attempting to rob a man of a pair of limited-edition basketball shoes at gunpoint.
Yet, Jabbar’s name and picture are not destined to appear on signs carried by protesters and there is no Twitter hashtag #justiceforjawaad. There has been no announcement by Al Sharpton or other “community organizers” of plans to swarm Dayton. Why? Because Jawaad Jabbar was not gunned down by a police officer. The man who shot him — the same civilian he tried to rob — is described by WHIO as having a concealed-carry permit. The shooting is being viewed as a clear case of justifiable homicide.
In the words of Miami Twp. Police Sgt. Jay Phares:
When he [the owner of the shoes] was threatened with the firearm, he drew his firearm and discharged it into the juvenile. What’s tragic is that somebody lost their life over tennis shoes.
It is tragic. Jabbar’s two friends are being held as accomplices in the robbery-gone-bad. Derrick Moore, the father of one of them, said he was confused because his son had the money to buy his own pair of the highly prized shoes:
“His mom and me gave him some money to go get them,” Moore said Monday. He said his son told him he wanted to go to Dayton to buy the new Air Jordan shoes being released Saturday. “’I’m going to be the first one there.’ That’s just what he told me.”
Moore said his son and the other teen arrested drove to Dayton on Friday night to spend the night at his son’s mother’s house before going shoe shopping. It is unclear when Jawaad, whose nickname is “JJ,” came in contact with Moore’s son and the other teen who was arrested.
One point on which everyone can agree, sloganeering aside, is that black lives do matter. Sadly, they seem to matter only when they can be used as a political tool, to be exploited by people with one or another ax to grind.
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