2019 Defined in a Single Video

Take a moment to watch this very short video from Facebook. It was originally posted by a young lady named Coco Grissett. Watch closely and then let's discuss.

​Warning: short fight video.

There is a lot happening here for such a short video. The obvious, of course, is that there is an older gentleman being overpowered by two younger gentlemen. They are going for his head and neck and he is outnumbered by men, age, and strength. We don't know what lead up to this fight, of course, because cell phones only come out once the violence starts. 

The less obvious that we're seeing is that no one is bothering to help stop the fight, choosing instead to film, of course. That alone is the definition of our current society. Don't help, film. You might go viral! Right at the end, as the guy is being put into a corner and losing his chance to escape, the older man pulls a concealed gun and the two younger men quickly retreat from the fight. No shots are fired, they leave quickly without any more beef. The older guy did everything right under the law. He didn't pull the gun until his escape route and odds of getting away were eradicated. I have no idea what state this is in, but he may have been legally obligated to do that. If not, he may have thought he could still physically get the upper hand if he tried. He did not pursue them, and he did not fire shots at fleeing attackers (if he had, he'd be in jail, because when they flee your life is no longer in danger. You pull the gun to stop the threat, and the bulk of the time, just pulling it out stops the threat and shots aren't needed). 

Now, the stunner to me. The reaction of the bystanders. As I said, no one opted to help in this situation. Everyone was content to watch these two younger guys beat the tar out of this older guy and there were zero concerns for the safety of the older guy. But as soon as he pulled the gun to stop the attack and prevent grave bodily harm or death at the hands of these two young men, everyone watching started screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" 

Also as stated, we don't know what happened before someone decided to "World Star" this event with their cell phone. Either way, the crowd's reaction was horrible. Did the two men attack this guy unprovoked? Then why did no one stop the attack, or at least try, before it got to gun time? Did the older guy do something to the young men? Make a racist comment? Try to steal a wallet from one of them? Fondle one of their girlfriends/wives? If so, why did no one come out to stop the fight or help the two younger guys and detain the older guy for police? Why do we not hear someone in the background talking to 911? 

This is where we are in 2019. We see something like this and no one helps. No one calls 911. No one even gives a full story of how it started when posting a video! 

More upsetting, everyone is fine with the physical violence, even if it means one person could be killed... until the person losing gets the upper hand. If he'd fired on these guys this would have been a news story. Old white man shoots unarmed black men. Now, if he'd shot them while fleeing, I'd fully support the condemnation of the older man. You don't shoot fleeing attackers. You've stopped the threat, don't continue needlessly. But in 2019 we're expected to allow others to kill us instead of using a gun to defend our own lives. Especially if the person killing you is a minority. No one wants to help stop the violence and make a wrong right, but they will stand on the news and cry about the racist old white man who didn't let the two younger guys kill him in the name of political correctness. 

What would have been the perfect outcome here? If someone helped. If you step in, then all ends well. The two younger guys go home alive and without a prison sentence and there's one less story of unarmed black men being killed. The older white guy goes home alive and without being decried as a racist all over national TV for deciding not to die today. It might mean your video doesn't go viral. But at some point we need to put the phones down and start helping again. And at some point we need to reach a point of actual equality. The race of the men is this clip shouldn't matter. At all. If the two younger men were wrong, they were wrong. If the older man was wrong, he was wrong. You don't become less wrong because of the color of your skin. And your right to defend your own life and health shouldn't depend on the color of your attacker's skin. We need to be more outraged over violence. Being passive while a man gets beaten about the head and into a cornered wall by two other men should be just as shocking as the man pulling out the gun. But no one cares if you're being beaten to death. We'll make excuses for that. 

You want equality? Stop caring about their races. Start caring about harmony. Stop recording and start helping. Help whoever was actually in the right here. Defend whoever was right regardless of their race or the race of whoever was wrong. If it helps, that video would also go viral. 

Edit: reports are coming in that the older guy was a security guard of some kind. I've heard mixed reasons for his being there, the most common was that he was actually hired by the restaurant he was in front of. This is an FYI addition, it changes nothing about the piece above.