What if young men had just listened to the police?

Joe Shoemaker, Lambertville
What a terrible few weeks it has been for America and, in particular, young African American men. While it is easy to speculate after the facts, I can’t help wonder what the outcome of those police shootings would have been in all these recent stops if only these young men would have listened to the police.
I wish Eric Garner in Staten Island would have just let the cops handcuff him; he would be alive today.
Why couldn’t Mike Brown and his friend in Ferguson just get off the street when the officer advised them to; Mike would have been alive today.
When the police confronted John Crawford in Ohio and demanded he put down his stupid bb gun that looked like an assault weapon, he refused to.
Ezell Ford in California and Kajieme Powell in St. Louis were said to have suffered from some kind of mental disorder; too bad the police officers in response in both cases had no idea.
I trust America has learned much from these sad shootings. I hope that when young African Americans, yes, and all young Americans, are stopped by the police, they will listen and cooperate with those police officers. Their’s is a tough job.
Life is worth living.