Ep. 5: Rest in Power Walter Wallace Jr.
CONTENT WARNING: Murder, Police Brutality
Host of Self Inventory, Brandon Chastang discusses the murder of Walter Wallace Jr. and how this tragedy could have been avoided if this mental health crisis was evaluated differently by the police.
Listen:
Self Inventory is a podcast produced by Brandon Chastang and Studio D Podcast Production. You can listen anywhere you get your podcasts. If you’d like to support the show, please subscribe, leave a review, and tell everyone you know about Self Inventory.
Transcript:
Brandon Chastang: [00:00:00] A self inventory report is the type of psychological tests in which a person fills out a survey about personal interests, values, symptoms, behaviors, and traits. Self inventories are different from tests in that there is no objective, correct answer. Self Inventory is a podcast where we investigate the issues of society that don't seem to have any correct answer.
Brandon Chastang blends together history lessons, current events, and talk with people of all backgrounds to provide us as a society with a self inventory in order to move forward. We need to look at where we've been and where we are now. It's time for a self inventory.
Now listening to Self Inventory podcast. I'm your host, Brandon Chastang, AKA B McFly and yes, B McFly stands for Being Motivated Comes From Loving Yourself. 2020 has been the worst year that I've ever seen witnessed in my life. Not too long ago, Tuesday. So Tuesday was the 27th of October, a young man by the name of Walter Wallace Jr. was not killed, he was murdered.
Okay. That's a difference by two Philadelphia police officers. So allegedly Mr. Walter Wallace Jr. was going through a mental health crisis, it was said that he has mental health issues. Autism. He's 27 years old. Police were called not once, not twice, but three times.
And from my knowledge, they mentioned that yes, he has mental health issues. The police were called because he was going through a crisis. And for those who don't understand mental health, these crisises could be severe. They could be moderate. It may, sometimes people may get physical, they may do self-harm or they may cause harm to others. Doesn't make it right.
But you have to understand what does mental health mean? And when you look at a police officer, the only thing that the community is thinking about is what they have written on they shirts, on they badges, on they police cars, to protect and serve.
Well in this case, from what I've seen, Walter Wallace Jr, Mr. Walter Wallace Jr, what I've seen in the video, he was walking aggressively. I seen people trying to stop him like his mother. I really couldn't see what was in his hand, but it appeared to be a small pocket knife. Now we all know what a small pocket knife looks like. Allegedly that's what he had in his hand. So was he harming anyone?
No. Was he running towards anyone? No. Was he causing harm on himself? No. Was he breaking anything? No. What he was doing was walking towards the police officers. The police officers were backing up, telling him to put the weapon down. They telling people to move out the way in the process, Mr. Walter Wallace Jr. was not being aggressive.
And what I mean by aggressive, right. He wasn't charging. He wasn't, you know, he wasn't even yelling. He wasn't screaming. He wasn't like. I don't even think he even mentioned something like I will kill you anything like that. The last resort was the police officers were saying, move out the way. The police officers already had the guns in their hand.
Now, if the police officers already had the gun in your hand, and you're telling Mr. Walter Wallace Jr. put the weapon down, put the knife there, whatever it is that you took, you had more than enough time to switch your weapons to something a little bit more harmful. You want to know why? Because he wasn't aggressive towards the police officers.
Once, if I'm a police officer. Once I see what you have in your hand, now I have to make a decision on, okay, what I'm use. You got a gun in your hand, then I will expect you to use your gun, right. But if you have a bat in your hand, okay, depending on the circumstances. Right. It depends on the circumstances.
If you have a machete, your knife in your hand, it depends on the circumstances. But if I'm watching, watching this video and listening to what people were saying, you, the police officers have more than enough time to say, well, you know what? This is a little pocket knife thing. We're telling him over and over again put it down, we're backing up.
We're talking, even if you talk it to this guy for more than two minutes, you have enough opportunity to say, let me put my gun up and let me grab my taser just in case he started coming towards us aggressively. It's two police officers. You guys shot him. Not only did you shoot him, right?
You shot him. I don't know. I got count it again. I don't know if it was 14 shots all together. 10 of them hit him. I don't know if it was 12 shots altogether and 10 of them hit him. Hit Walter Wallace Jr. or 10 shots, the officer's let off 10 shots and all 10 shots hit and killed, murdered Walter Wallace Jr. Not only did you guys shoot him, but you shot him in places that wasn't even necessary.
I think all the shots were waist and above. Now, you didn't have to shoot him. Right. Cause like I said earlier, you have more than enough time to pull out the taser gun. You even could have did hand-to-hand combat, with your, with your, you could have used the baton with a pocket knife. Okay. But the one thing that I do understand is that you did not have to murder Walter Wallace Jr.
This man was a husband/boyfriend, I suppose. And he had children from my understanding. He just had a newborn baby. So I just want to send my love, my sincere condolences to his family. He was shot, killed, murdered in front of his family, his mother. And it's just a tragic moment. You know, Philadelphia is not known for police officers killing-
police brutality yes. But killing, murdering? The Philadelphia is not known for that. The family is saying that they don't want the police officers to be charged with murder. They're actually saying that the police officers weren't properly trained. For me, they know right from wrong, just like any other civilian would know right from wrong.
I can't make the family feel the way, change the way they feel. But from looking at the video, this was murder. That's just how I look at it, how I view. The man was 27 years old. How many, this is not about black on black crime. Okay. Cause again, black on black crime is not a result of being born. And to say, I hate you.
I hate black people. Being born into a family that hates other black people, that the first thing you supposed to do when you see black people is harm them. No. Black-on-black crime is different from police brutality, racism, white supremacy. It's totally different.
Now, times out, it's saying if you hate black people and you are of a different race, the first resort is to do something harmful. That's the first result and white supremacy is controlling almost every business, every resource that we need in America. I want you guys to understand that this is why we need each other even more now. This is why we have to unite. And this is not just about black people uniting, right?
This is about, this is about love. Love is in, love comes in the form of everything in every body, no matter what color you are. And the more people that unites, the more that we can show that racism is not it. Police brutality is not it. White supremacy, none of these things would matter when we unite and love one another.
So again, I send my sincere condolences to the family of Walter Wallace Jr. You just had a newborn, he already had children. And this is, this is a tragic moment. Thanks for listening.
Self Inventory is a podcast produced by Brandon Chastang and Studio D Podcast Production. You can listen anywhere you get your podcasts. If you'd like to support the show, please subscribe, leave a review and tell everyone you know about Self Inventory.