“A large group of protesters swarmed a Mobil gas station near 8 Mile and Southfield in Detroit,” wxyz.com reports. “They demanded to see surveillance video, also calling for a store clerk to be fired, after he pulled a toy gun on young boys last week.” That video remains unreleased. The cops say they’re investigating and the media report somehow neglects to mention that the protesters blockaded the gas station. Meanwhile, “The mother tells us her two sons, 14 and 11, were inside the store last Thursday, when the clerk accused the boys of stealing chips. Their family says the boys did not steal anything.” The unnamed clerk spoke to the media . . .
The clerk admitted to pointing a toy gun at the boys, trying to scare them.
The owner of the gas station fired the clerk Friday night, after protesters would not leave the store for hours.
The clerk says, “I did it for a reason I can’t explain. I’m sorry to the mother, the father, for everybody.”
Question: why can’t he explain it? More to the point, should the protesters have accepted the boys’ protestations of innocence at face value? Or should they have waited to see evidence or, I dunno, the official police report? While we’re at it, should the police have arrested the protestors for interfering with the gas station owner’s business?