There are questions yet to be answered in that tragic, shooting death of 17-year-old Javon Dawson in St. Petersburg. But this much we do know. There was a graduation party chaotic enough for the cops to be called to disperse it. And there were “celebratory” gun shots fired in the air.
A St. Pete police officer said Dawson had a gun, didn’t obey a command to drop it and pointed it at the officer. If true, that’s a death-wish trifecta. But an inquiry is underway, as it should be.
Given the prevalence of the “stop snitching” culture, witnesses have been impossible to come by so far. But the officer’s version is in dispute — notably by the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement. They know a white cop killed a black kid, and that’s enough. And when in doubt, call a press conference and plan a demonstration.
Regardless of the inquiry’s outcome, the key query is this: since when do you “celebrate” anything — outside Iraq — by firing a weapon? Bullets, wherever fired, have a way of landing. On occasion they still have enough velocity to kill.
Next week local TV stations will begin running a public service announcement made by the St. Petersburg Police Department that reminds viewers that “If you shoot a bullet in the air, it can seriously injure someone on the way down.”
Who would have thought you would need a PSA to make that point? Somewhere Sir Isaac Newton is shaking his head in bewilderment.