Zaevion Dobson is being viewed as a hero after saving the lives of two teenage girls. Dobson, his brother and two teenage girls were sitting on a porch in Knoxville, Tennessee when violence erupted.
A group of men were seeking retaliation from a recent shooting and decided to target any person in the vicinity. Unfortunately, Dobson and friends were in plain view when gunshots were fired from a vehicle. Dobson, a high school football player, noticed the gunmen and threw his body in front of his two female friends. When the shooting stopped, the young women weren’t wounded, but Dobson was lying motionless. They soon discovered that Dobson was shot in the head and he eventually died from his wounds.
The men who shot Dobson were reportedly seeking revenge after Lisa Perry, 46, was shot in the back when gunmen shot into her home multiple times. Perry’s son, Brandon Perry, decided to take matters into his own hands. He drove to the neighborhood where Dobson lives and reportedly shot at the first group that he saw. Perry was shot and crashed into the side of someone’s house. He was arrested along with several other men.
The young women who were saved by Dobson are copping with the fact that he protected them and eventually lost his life in the process. Speaking to WVLT, the young women could not hold back their emotions while discussing their friend’s selfless act. It’s now time for the Black community to be as selfless as Dobson.
The violence in Black communities will only stop when those who are committing the crimes take a moment to think about the effects of their actions. The person who shot Lisa Perry sparked a chain reaction that ended with a teenage boy dying over stupidity. Even the most hardened criminals must live by a code. There is nothing cool or gangster about shooting recklessly into a crowd. But when discipline escapes those who operate on a street level, whether it be gangs or drugs, they become worthless figures who are only taking up space within the Black community.
At this point, young leaders who are powerful in protest against the establishment have to be powerful when confronting gang members or criminals who fail to live by a code. The same emotions that are used to aim at despicable police officers who kill unarmed Black men must be used to rid the neighborhoods of the leeches who contribute to nothing but death and disease.
Some often use the notion of Black-on-Black violence as a way to deflect from the atrocities of bad policing. There is no need for taxpayers to be forced to fund the salaries of people who purposefully shoot and kill unarmed Blacks without repercussion.
But at the same time, if the Black Lives Matter movement has a desire to stand up for all Black people, that must include standing up against worthless criminals who are killing kids for ridiculous reasons.
