Miracle Bynum

Written by Miracle Bynum & Consulted with Thurgood Moses

“Three shots in the back, how do you justify that?” The people of Pittsburgh are protesting and mourning the shooting of Antwon Rose. This took place on Tuesday June 19th. Antwon was shot and killed fleeing from a traffic stop.

 

Q: How do you feel about the whole situation with the Antwon Rhodes Shooting, and what are your thoughts on the protesting that follows?

 

A: Andrea Hawkins (age 49) expressed that that police officer definitely shouldn’t have shot Antwon Rose. Her husband Aaron (Age 56) then said that “this was a race thing” , and if the young man was white he would’ve most likely only been tased. Andrea says that “there are other ways to handle that”. They both believe that the police officer needs to be reprimanded.

    • They both agree with the reasoning behind the protesting, yet they believe the physical actions that people are pursuing are “too much”. Stopping traffic endangers the people, and is somewhat unnecessary.

A: James Elsesser (age 63) doesn’t agree with the shooting of Antwon Rose. He thinks that the police need to look into the fact that he ran. He wasn’t a threat and all he did was run, but the police officer shot him. Then again he believes this whole thing is a “cause and effect”.  He definitely says the whole thing was wrong, but if Antwon wouldn’t have run then he wouldn’t have been shot.

    • James agrees with the protesting, but he says that they need to be a lot more peaceful. Even though the protests aren’t violent they are causing lots of traffic.

 

A: Rhonda Rocers (age 62) seemed to be very touched by this travesty. She kept responding in saying it was just sad. Rhonda is friends with Antwon’s mother, so she is devastated. She continued in saying they were losing these young boys for no reason, and that officer used his authority to take advantage.

    • In terms of protesting Rhonda says there are “other ways to handle protesting” and blocking the parkway way not necessary. The one point she stressed a lot was that “something has to come out of this, and they need to put down the guns”.