Here we go again.

-Last August we had Michael Brown – a budding young music entrepreneur and soon-to-be college student, a gentle giant who was gunned down in cold blood by a White cop while he had his hands up in surrender and was saying “don\’t shoot”…

…except he turned out to be a thug who had just robbed a convenience store, roughed up the store owner, smoked enough weed to register 2 1/2 times the legal limit to drive a car in states where it is legal, was stopped while walking in the middle of a street rather than the sidewalk…and, based on the forensic evidence, was shot while going after the police officer, possibly trying to get his gun.  Forensics also showed the claim that Brown was shot to death while his hands were up in surrender was patently false.  We still have no idea what his juvenile police record was, because the parents, who assured us what a sweet, gentle young man he was, have refused to allow them to be made public – something they would have been screaming for if the claim were true.  The officer, Darren Wilson, had an unblemished 6 year record with not one complaint ever filed against him regarding racism or anything else.

-Months later, we had Eric Garner, another “gentle giant”, who was just standing on a street corner not bothering anyone, when a cop hassled him and choked him to death…

…except he turned out to be a serial miscreant (over 30 arrests) who was being arrested – again – this time for illegally selling “loosies” (individual cigarettes) without a license.  We were told that he was grabbed and intentionally choked to death on the scene, but the video clearly shows that a take-down occurred only after the police tried to talk him into peacefully surrendering, and he refused – at one point physically pushing away the officers….and that Garner was both alive and able to say “I can\’t breathe” a number of times after the officer\’s arm – which was in “choke” position for only a few seconds – was no longer at his neck area.  Garner did not die at the scene, he went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance while en route to a hospital and was pronounced dead an hour later.  It turns out his inability to breathe was probably brought on by his asthma, heart disease and obesity (about 350 lbs).  His family stated that there was no racial element to the incident…and, in fact, the ranking officer at the scene was, herself, Black.

-And now we have Tony Robinson a 19 year old recent high school graduate, headed for technical college, who was a sweet young man; a great friend, always there for you, but shot to death on Friday for no reason at all…

…except, what we know so far is that, just months ago, Robinson pled guilty to felony armed robbery.  The shooting occurred after police received a report that he had assaulted a “friend”, tried to strangle someone at a gas station, was running in and out of traffic, and ducked into a house.  When the officer arrived and entered the house, he states that he shot defensively after Robinson assaulted him (hardly a stretch given the reasons he was there).

There are several things common to these incidents.

-All three were Black;

-All three are dead;

-All three have generated marches and protests by people – most of them, I assume, well-meaning – who are convinced these were racial incidents, and who chant “Black Lives Matter”.

For the record, today is the 7-month anniversary of Michael Brown\’s death ( last August 9th).  That\’s 212 days.  And, if the most recent statistics I have seen bear out, it means that, since then, roughly 3,550 Black people have been murdered in the United States – with a disproportionately large number being young men (like Michael Brown and Tony Robinson) being killed by other young Black men (like Michael Brown and Tony Robinson).

Have you seen any marches, or protests for those 3,550 Black victims?  Even one?  Any protesters marching through high-crime Black neighborhoods where the majority of these murders take place, chanting “Black Lives Matter”? 

Does this mean that “Black lives matter” only when a case – however, flimsy – can be made that the life was taken in a racial incident, but Black Lives don\’t matter if there is no opportunity for racial agitation involved?

That, I think, is a very fair question:  one which mainstream media are not going to be asking.

But I am.  And you should be asking too.