It seems as if the violence is getting worse day by day. Attack after attack. Bomb after bomb. Bullets after bullets. Murder after murder. How are we to make sense of all this bloodshed? What does the situation of the most recent police shootings show about humanity and our faith and purpose in life?
Last Monday, Charles Kinsey, a therapist, was shot by North Miami police as he was retrieving an autistic patient found in the streets according to WSVN-TV. Wednesday, a cell phone video was released of the events just before Kinsey was shot. After police showed up, Kinsey laid on the floor with his arms up in the air the entire time even after getting shot. Despite telling the police officer that he wasn't armed and begged not to shoot him, Kinsey was senselessly shot in the leg. When Kinsey asked the police officer why he shot him, the officer himself did not know the reason.
“When it hit me, I had my hands in the air, and I'm thinking, 'I just got shot,' Kinsey said. "I'm saying, 'Sir, why did you shoot me?' and his words to me were, 'I don't know.'"
The police were responding to a 911 call about a man walking around with a gun threatening suicide. That reported the gun was actually a toy truck. Kinsey believed that Rinaldo, his autistic patient, would be the one to get shot since he was not lying on the ground and held the toy truck in his hand. That was not the case. Kinsey had complied with all the demands of the police officer keeping his hands in the air at all times while laying on the floor, but even then, the police officer shot Kinsey in the leg. Even after shooting him, they still handcuffed him, patted him down and let him bleed until the ambulance arrived. It all took about 20 minutes before Kinsey could be taken to the hospital.
"My client asked why did you shoot me? The officer told my client, 'I don't know,' that was his words verbatim," attorney Hilton Napoleon said. "Another officer asked, 'Why did you shoot this guy?' and the shooting officer said he didn't know why he shot him."
Kinsey's attorney responded to the incident outraged.
"There is no justification, heightened alert or not, to shoot an unarmed man laying on the ground with his hands in the air who is telling you that no one has a gun and the person here is autistic," Napoleon said.
The police officer that shot Kinsey has been placed on administrative leave.
Only the evil can answer to something like this with "I don't know."
What was so hard about this case that left the police officer with the only choice to shoot? Just how will they justify this one?
This left me to really reflect on what's happening in the world and why there is so much violence. Like a lot of Muslims, this reminded me of a saying of the prophet Muhammad (saw).
"A time will come when the murderer will not even know why he is killing, and the one who was slain would not know for what reason was he slain" prophet Muhammed (pbuh). When he was asked why that would happen, he replied, "Because of trials and chaos." [Sahih Muslim].
Chaos is the perfect word to describe the plethora of evils that plague the world and this particular situation. As we are wrapped up in a time when there are shootings after shootings, more and more bloodshed, you can't help but feel lost and misguided. There seems to be no purpose anymore to do evil expect for the sake of evil and to create chaos. No wonder whoever it is that decided to call the police just assumed someone had a gun without confirming it first. The question doesn't even go to if the police officer shot the man because of the color of his skin or how he abused his power. It's not even about fulfilling the desires, it's not about getting what you want, it's not about superiority anymore, but simply to create pure chaos.
Faith has come to an all time low and to such a point where people don't even know why they're doing what they're doing. Surely it is a trial from our Lord to assess if we have even a trace of humanity left in us, any sense of justice, mercy, patience, just about anything will do. While writing this article I literally was trembling, scared, my heart was aching unable to remain at ease. I am unable to comprehend this situation, I'm confused and angry. It's time for all of us to kick some sense in our lives. It's time to do everything single thing we do with a purpose, even if it is a purpose that will bring the slightest amount of good, it's entirely worth it. We cannot let these cases walk away with little to no accountability. We need to collectively demand justice and practice justice and keep our faith strong because the day we die we'll be held accountable for our actions, and when asked why we didn't believe enough to work for justice, our answer better not be "I don't know."
