Philadelphia President of the Fraternal Order of Police, (FOP), John McNesby, speaking at an FOP rally last Thursday, called the members of the anti-racist organization, Black Lives Matter, (BLM), a pack of wild animals." The FOP rally was organized in response to the BLM rally a week earlier that was protesting the June 2017 shooting death of a black man, David Jones, by Officer Ryan Pownall, who is a twelve-year veteran of the Philly Police Department. Pownall shot Jones in the back. In the Old West, back-shooting, no matter whether it was done by criminals or by the local sheriff or federal marshall, was considered an unethical and cowardly way of shooting somebody.

Criminals were hanged for shooting people in the back, and sheriffs and marshals who did the same were discredited, and some of them were even hanged too.

Pownall's other backshooting victim

Believe it or not, this is not the first time that Pownall has shot a black person in the back. Seventeen years ago, the same befuddled, cowardly officer, who has been allowed to remain on the Philadelphia police force despite being a back-shooter, shot Carnell Williams-Carney, 19, in the back as he ran away. Carney, now 36, is confined to a wheelchair, and he graphically described the day of his shooting as follows, "That was the day I took my last steps on my own," according to the Huffington Post on Saturday.

Why did this happen?

The horrific back-shooting of black man in the back by a misguided cop, which is worse than the New York Police Department (NYPD), allegedly spying on BLM activists, causes one to ask why such an incident ever could occur in the first place. The answer is quite clear: Both Marshall Matt Dillon and his sidekick deputy Chester from the infamous, old western, "Gunsmoke," would describe Pownall and his reasons for shooting two men in the back in just three words: "He's a coward."

This is not 1860 and the Pownall shootings, the latest one of which was an an actual killing by the alleged racist cop, did not occur in Kansas.

However, the fact remains: back-shooting is considered a cowardly act, and when two of them are committed against black men by the same white police officer, it becomes a racist act. And this is why BLM members were protesting in Philadelphia a week ago.

Pownall's wrong choice to back-shoot a BLM member for running away from him is prodigiously indicative of the fact that even today, in 2017, we have officers on urban police forces throughout the country who are racists.

Just last week, a Georgia police officer who was in the middle of a routine traffic stop, told a woman who was suspected of DUI (driving under the influence) that "We only kill black people," according to the Huffington Post on Thursday.

How people reacted

Overall, the Twitter reaction to McNesby's pontification in which he described members of BLM as "wild animals," has been adversely against the tormented, big city mayor. One respondent stated that "doughnuts and underwear" consider McNesby "a terrorist."

Another respondent stated that "John McNesby puts himself in the same category as Sheriff David Clarke."

Echoing the long held belief that unions, fraternal organizations and "brotherhoods" hinder the curtailment of racisim, another respondent tweeted:

The path to civil reform

It is abundantly clear from McNesby's comments and from Pownall's two back-shootings of two black men, that the trip down the path to complete civil reform, including the permanent elimination of racism from our society, still has along ways to go.

The belief that our society has matured beyond racism is just that a false illusion and so long as people like Mayor McNesby and officer Ryan Pownall keep popping up, we will be forever reminded that racism in America still exists.

And let's not forget the fact that McNesby overlooked an officer's sporting of a tattoo that evoked memories of the infamous Nazi swastika or that KKK white supremacist David Duke has been emerging regularly since Donald Trump was elected President because he feels vindicated by Trump and his racist followers.

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