Baltimore Meltdown: How Easily Witnesses Can Cause Yet Another Riot Under Analysis

Out of nowhere we are treated to breaking news about yet another Baltimore police shooting only days after the Freddie Gray funeral and riot. Since the turmoil there has been only temporarily mitigated after a few days of curfew enforcement began, the waters are still roiling with unrest, agitation, and hostility. This appears to be something that will cause the Md Nat'l Guard to put those boots back on again: So a very cool, calm, Mike Tobin from Fox News is reporting that he actually witnessed a young African American man get shot in the back by a Baltimore policeman on the street in broad daylight. Mike's eyewitness testimony references a handgun that fell when the African American started running away from the policeman. The on site testimony of a different supposed witness was a lot more emotional in what she thought she saw. She even started crying and was visibly distraught: Sounds pretty horrific, doesn't it? This young woman sounds ready to lead the charge herself against City Hall and beyond. But then we hear the correction. It turns out that this young African American wasn't shot in the back, and that he was provided hospitalization at the taxpayer's expense just to check him over for possible injuries. No one was shot: It's these kinds of things, which happen every day across America and the world, which make you appreciate the act of giving pause before rushing to conclusions. Especially if you're also the type to start swinging a bat and throwing Molotov Coctails. But when you see things like this that even dispassionate eyes see incorrectly, the type of witness who rushes past the facts to design the response...it's hard to imagine a great outcome for Baltimore anytime soon.