“Active shooter” at Target

“There’s a shooter in the store. There’s a shooter in the store.”

The caller had been asking someone, anyone to tell her what was going on so she could relay the information to 911.

The 911 operator, the caller — both remain fairly calm given the circumstances and the confusion.

Police arrive and make arrest. No gun is found and the not so “active shooter” is arrested for disorderly conduct.

He was protesting the retailer’s transgender bathroom policy, saying things like “America is going to hell.” Witnesses said he also suggested everyone in the store was going to hell. From the 911 call and witness reaction it sounds like many shoppers thought he might try to send them to hell that day.

I posted the story on the Facebook page of the newspaper I work for and something surprising happened; people verbally crucified the caller. “She should be locked up for filing a false report.” “She put a man who was simply exercising his first amendment right to free speech in danger.”

Would they have taken his side if he was an unarmed Muslim man screaming prayers to Allah in Target?

The people angry with the caller are the same people who fear their little girls will be assaulted if a transwoman is allowed to use lady’s room. The same people who will fight to the death for their second amendment rights so they can protect themselves and their families against perceived threats. The same people who would probably shoot a perceived threat if they were standing in Target with those little girls when a man began announcing that everyone in the store was going to hell.

Do they decry the treatment of the protester and the 911 caller’s misinformation because the man behind the mayhem was white? Is this a race issue or is it religious? The protestor was screaming scripture and carrying a Bible. Had he been holding Quran they’d be calling for his head.