Ron Martinelli, Ph.D.
Copyright © 11-26-15

If you have been watching the recent citizens’ protests of Chicago police by members of the black community and the Black Lives Matter movement, you will see that the star de jour is Lamon Reccord, a 16 year old teenage media darling who’s face and comments have been plastered all over the TV, electronic social and print media. The apparent parentally unsupervised Reccord is basking in his “15 Minutes of Fame” for his “bravery” in angrily staring down a number of hapless Chicago PD officers assigned to protest picket lines to keep the peace during the demonstrations.
When interviewed, Lamon justifies his aggressive, provocative “In Your Face” behavior towards police by stating that he wants them to know the “pain” he feels when police shoot another teen sixteen times. His statements and actions are in reference to the recent officer-involved shooting of suspect Laquan McDonald by Officer Jason Van Dyke over a year ago.
The question I pose to the media and public is, “Are Lamon Reccord’s actions to be considered as brave; or cowardly and exploitative?” My opinion as a retired police detective and a forensic criminologist who researches violence and independently investigates police shootings, is that they are the latter.
I have scars on my body from encounters with violent suspects much older than Lamon Reccord has been alive. It doesn’t take courage or bravery to exploit the presence of the national news media and get into the faces of innocent police officers who are posted on picket lines to keep the peace; while people like Reccord violate their officer safety space and provocatively stare them down, knowing that the cops will not do anything about it. That’s not bravery; it’s extreme cowardice. But what do you expect from a dumb kid? Where were his parents who should have taught him to respect authority? AWOL from what I saw. That’s a problem.
You know Lamon, it’s OK to feel some pain about the current state of affairs in the black community. My problem with you and members of the Black Lives Matter movement is that you have your pain priorities all confused. Here are some facts that should cause you all some real pain.
• The black on black violent crime and homicide rate is through the roof in most large urban cities like Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, Washington DC, New York, Newark and Los Angeles, just to name a few. Your own city of Chicago has lost hundreds of young black men, women and small children to black on black gun violence this past year alone. Yet we didn’t see you and your BLM movement members on TV protesting that.

• Ninety-three percent (93%) of blacks are murdered by other blacks; not white cops. Again, we must have missed you and the BLM movement members on the picket line protesting that fact.

• The vast majority of young black men that have either been killed by other black men; or have been shot while committing crimes like Laquan McDonald were abandoned by their parents. They were bounced around from foster home to foster home and essentially have grown up on the streets; raised by gang members, dope dealers and other criminals. Where has your outrage and “pain” been demonstrated for this circumstance. We haven’t seen you and the BLM movement protesters walking down the streets in gang ridden neighborhoods. We haven’t seen you staring down any neighborhood dope dealers and gang “shot callers” who impregnated black teen females and then abandoned their offspring. I’m sure that if you talk to some of the single black teen moms in the hood you know, they can ID the fathers for you to stare down. Now that would be courageous and brave! Call the news media. Let’s get all the national TV reporters and cameras in for that tight shot.

• The vast majority of young and older blacks living in abject poverty in urban ghettos lack education and any employable job skills outside of flipping burgers or simply doing manual labor. Many in the black community subside on cradle to grave government subsistence with no hope of moving forward towards personal or social independence. The police didn’t create that circumstance. Who did? Where is Lamon Reccord’s and the Black Lives Matter movement’s demonstration of pain and outrage here? There is none.
I will tell you why you never see people like Lamon Reccord and members of the Black Lives Matter movement demonstrating their outrage and “pain” for the circumstances I have just discussed. They are “deniers” of black on black violence. For me, there is no difference between a Holocaust denier; and a black on black lives violence denier. Both personalities deny the existence of the systematic slaughter of a people. Tell me I’m wrong here.
The “in your face” statistics and circumstances I have just outlined are an inconvenient truth to these cowards and race baiting exploiters. People like Lamon Reccord and members of the Black Lives Matter movement, would rather practice deflection and redirection by forwarding “Hands up. Don’t shoot!” false narratives; then protest the real self-created injustices within their own communities. Black on black violence deniers would rather point their fingers and assign blame to others; than roll up their sleeves and make a positive impact to begin the process of ending the outrageous and ever-increasing statistics of black on black violence.
If anyone has a right to feel outraged and emotional pain, it is the very people Lamon Reccord and members of the Black Lives Matter movement are assailing – the cops. The police didn’t create your problems Lamon; they respond to them. They more than feel your so-called “pain.” Here is a statistic you are probably not aware of. Black suspects kill police officers at a rate over seven times greater than police officers kill blacks. Now that’s real pain.

Cops clean up the vestiges of the violent messes your communities create. They see, hear, smell and touch the victims of black on black violence every day. Their experience is visceral. Cops bravely stand post and tolerate the uninformed, immature, self-serving crap that people like Lamon Reccord and members of the Black Lives Matter movement dish out to them on camera. At the same time and at a moment’s notice, without regard for their own personal safety; they would put their own lives on the line to save Lamon Reccord’s life if it was in harm’s way.

Now that’s what I call courageous and brave!

About the Author
Ron Martinelli, Ph.D., CMI-V, BCFT, CFA, is a nationally renowned Forensic Criminologist, police expert and Certified Medical Investigator. Dr. Martinelli is a retired detective who now directs the nation’s only Forensic Death Investigations & Independent Review Team. He has personally investigated over 200 officer-involved shootings and in-custody death case. Visit his site at: http://www.DrRonMartinelli.com