Philadelphia

Once again, America has been hit with riots, this time in Philadelphia. On Monday, police were called to a location in West Philadelphia, where someone called in a report of a man out of control with a knife. There is a video of police ordering Walter Wallace Jr., 27, a black man reportedly bipolar, to drop the knife in his hand as they are backing away from Wallace, who is advancing at them with the knife in hand. The cops fire and Wallace falls to the ground. The cops carry him to the hospital in their patrol car, but he dies. Now we have two nights of rioting, looting, and mayhem in Philadelphia. Some 30 cops are injured, one struck by a car.

It is tragic, both for the Wallace family and for the country. Having viewed the video, it is hard to come up with any other conclusion but that the police were legally justified in firing. They ordered Wallace to drop the knife, and they were clearly backing away from him. Wallace is clearly advancing toward the officers, knife in hand and ignoring their commands. Had they not fired, one of them would have been stabbed, possibly killed.

It is all well and good that Wallace's father is calling for an end to the rioting. At the same time, I must comment on the impromptu press conference in which the deceased's three small children were brought forth, one of whom said on camera that his father was killed by "white racist cops" and that "black lives still matter". Obviously, he was coached to say that. Those children should have been in seclusion, protected from that spectacle.

What a terrible year 2020 has been.