More information has come to light about Walter Wallace Jr, the man who approached Philadelphia police while brandishing a knife, and whose seemingly justified death at their hands has ostensibly sparked the latest round of rioting. As the local ABC affiliate in the city reports, Wallace was an “aspiring rapper” whose “central themes” in his music were guns and shooting people. We are also told that he rapped about social justice, though it is not clear how someone can be fascinated with shooting people while simultaneously concerned with social justice.
Wallace has a lengthy rap sheet. He had a prior arrest for assaulting a police officer, though it’s not known whether the officers responding to the 911 call shortly before his death knew about that incident. Perhaps more noteworthy is his 2017 conviction for robbery and assault. Reportedly, that crime involved “kicking down the door of another woman and putting a gun to her head.” If this sounds familiar, that’s because George Floyd was convicted of doing almost exactly the same thing, except in his case he forced his way into a woman’s home and put a gun to her stomach rather than her head. Wallace’s actions are also reminiscent of Jacob Blake, who allegedly broke into a woman’s house, raped her, and then stole her debit card and her vehicle.
If you’re keeping track at home, that makes three recent BLM martyrs with a history — in two cases confirmed, in one case very credibly alleged — of brutalizing and abusing women. We could also add to the list Ricardo Munoz, the man shot by Lancaster police after charging at them with a knife. He had several previous convictions, the worst one being a recent spree where he stabbed four people including a minor and a 22-year-old woman. Though he did appear to be an equal opportunity felon, stabbing men and women alike.
All of these men have been performatively mourned. The names of at least two of them have graced the helmets of NFL players. They have been memorialized as heroes of their community. Joe Biden infamously visited with the credibly accused rapist Jacob Blake’s family, and spoke with Blake himself on the phone. Last night, Biden tweeted about his “heartbreak” over the death of Wallace and lamented “the emotional weight of learning about another Black life in America lost.” Of course, black lives are lost every day in America, but Biden, like every other elected Democrat, is quite selective in the losses he chooses to publicly mourn.
And while we are implored to “say the names” of these men, and celebrate their lives, and weep over their deaths (or injuries, in Blake’s case), their female victims are erased from the discussion. Their names are not mentioned, or allowed to be mentioned. Their suffering does not count. Nobody ever stops to ask how they must feel to see their abusers lauded in this way. Nobody asks for their perspective. And if they were to offer it, they would be shouted down, or worse. This is what BLM and the Democrat Party think about women who do not fit neatly into the script, do not cooperate with the program. Mostly, they think nothing of them. They do not acknowledge their existence. We are expected to follow that lead, making the violent criminals into victims but never speaking a word about the victims of the violent criminals. It is by this silence that the Left crafts and maintains its narrative. So, we should not be silent.
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The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.