Dashcam footage from East Oakland shows a white pickup truck driver fire a gun into another vehicle after running a red light. The incident left a bullet hole but no injuries. Commentary emphasizes how honking and trying to prove a point can escalate confrontations, and why de-escalation and empathy matter more than being right.
Listen, you guys, I'm gonna need my people to be out here safe, smart, and practicing your high-level emotional intelligence. Listen, situational awareness will tell you that more now, more than ever, we are living in a time where emotions are fragile amongst humans. And when I say fragile, I don't mean fragile like a flower. I mean fragile like a bomb. You never know when you run into somebody if your actions be the thing that set them off. Now I'm not saying we got to run around here scared on eggshells, but we do have to be mindful and we want to factor in the things that we can do to minimize it. Now in this situation I'm about to show you, I'm not saying that the person who honked their horn was wrong at all. Uh, rightfully so, actually. But when you think about somebody who is already in motion and you honk your horn at them, what do you think that that's gonna do? Most of the time, honking a horn agitates someone. And the way that this guy jumped out and responded— And that was that moment he needed to unpack all that emotional baggage I was talking about the other day.
This is dashcam video recorded in East Oakland. A driver approaches the intersection of 98th and San Leandro Street. He's got a green light, but a man driving this white pickup truck goes into the intersection. There is honking. That driver blocks the intersection, and then this— the driver opened fire at the vehicle, leaving this bullet hole in the side of it.
And I know what some people will say. They'll be like, you know, forget that, can't Ain't you letting people do X, Y, and Z? And I get it, but unless you training every day, meaning ready to go the distance with somebody when it comes to fighting, unless you riding around with your pistol in your lap and you ready to use it and serve the time, or—
Right.
Because there's 2 parts to it.
Maybe you—
maybe they say you get away with it, right, for whatever reason. You still got that on your conscience, right? You still got a body on your conscience if it comes to that. So you got to be mindful of what can happen out here in this world the way things are. And the best thing to do, right, what they say, an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of a cure, right? Like, let's stay ahead of things, you know what I'm saying, by simply You know, being in a position where we are practicing our emotional intelligence, you know, kind of like here, you know what I'm saying, where this guy just basically walked through me while I'm on here on this camera, uh, recording, right? Didn't say excuse me or nothing, you know what I mean? And that's just how people are, right? So for me, clearly something going on with him because I ain't no little dude and you just gonna walk past me, not say excuse, walk through me. And I say, excuse me, I don't know what's going on with the guy, so I'm gonna let him go on about his business. And I suggest that you get in the habit of letting people go on about their business. And one of the takeaways I want you to have from this video is get in the habit of stop trying to prove your point, because a lot of times we get stuck in a moment trying to prove a point. And I want you to think about that for a second. Because really, that's all you're trying to do is prove a point. You want to prove somebody is wrong. You want to prove that you this and that. Like, let all that go if you're trying to be here for the long game.
First, it looked like just his fist, um, but when he got out of the car, I saw something that was underneath his fist, so I figured it's got to be a hammer.
But look closely. This is no hammer, rather what appears to be a handgun with an extended magazine clip. No one was hurt, but when the man who recorded this video tried to file a police report, He was unsuccessful.
And what's really some of the takeaways from this? Really, it has a lot to do with using your situational awareness, right? Being able to be observant, right? In a moment's notice, make a quick assessment. Should I engage or should I give it some space? Should I respond now or should I respond later? That's the basis of situational awareness. You should be practicing it all throughout the day. And then your ability to manage your reactions. We don't have any control over what happens, but we do have control how we manage, how we respond to the things that are happening. And so with emotional intelligence, you have to be intentional. You have to get up every day, check your mood, your attitude, your energy. You got to be prepared for life to switch up on you at any given moment and practice how you're going to manage the way you react to the, to the things that you have no control over. All right, you guys, peace out.
I was literally kicked off a Southwest flight before for being disrespectful.
