Being a police officer can be tough, especially in the era of COVID-19. We already know that the police aren’t responding to low-level calls in many places, but high-level calls are another matter entirely. They’re still responding to those, and in addition to the threats they normally face, now they have to worry that the person they’re arresting my be infected with a potentially deadly disease.

Joy.

However, those “normal” threats are still threats and sometimes, police have to do respond with deadly force. That appears to be what happened in one New York town.

Unfortunately, it seems that a city councilman had to go and make things so much worse.

NEWBURGH, NY– Friday evening, an officer involved shooting occurred in Newburgh involving a suspect that reportedly pulled out a silver handgun during contact with police.

The suspect, only described at the time of this writing as a man in his early 20’s, is dead, and several officers were left injured.

According to reports, police approached the suspect around 5pm on Williams street, who was wanted for questioning in relation to a shooting that had occurred Thursday near Benkard Avenue and William Street.

Police said that when they approached the suspect, he pulled out a silver handgun.

So far, it sounds like the kind of officer-involved shooting we see on a regular basis. Granted, there’s a lot we apparently don’t know about the shooting which is normal in the immediate aftermath.

It doesn’t matter to some people, though.

What is known is that City Councilman-at-large Omari Shakur was outside of the hospital where officers and the suspect were all reportedly taken, Montefiore St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital, less than two hours after the incident occurred stirring the pot and condemning police before literally any type of investigation could even be started.

…

Even so, Shakur took it upon himself to talk to the crown about how the “pigs” are “killers” and shot an “unarmed black man.”

Shortly after getting the crowds riled up outside the hospital, he posted a Facebook live video again calling the cops killers:

“These are the killers in our communities!”

And how did the community respond?

They rioted.

Worse, though, is that Shakur posted video to Facebook showing him walking around in the midst of the riot, talking to people and recording their anger, but not even attempting to diffuse the situation he helped to create.

Law Enforcement Today is already familiar with Shakur, who previously responded to officers trying to do their job with “Do you know who I am?” Of course, as a general rule, if you have to ask that question, the answer is either “no” or “I don’t give a damn.”

Anyway, Shakur seems to have incited a riot, then walked around stoking the flames of outrage. Honestly, while this isn’t related to COVID-19 in any way we can tell, is it any wonder that so many people are buying guns right about now? I’d argue that besides food, it’s probably the best precaution one can take in a time like this. Especially with people like Omar Shakur walking around in our cities.

Especially when there’s currently no evidence to suggest that the police acted inappropriately in any way.