A man who counseled troubled people. A man who confronted drug dealers. That being the case, we find ourselves grappling with a stunning irony. Namely, that a revolutionary who once carried arms in the fight for black liberation might have gunned down two men who are, themselves, black. It wouldn't be a surprise, though.
Violence pledges allegiance to no ideology.
It has a way of overflowing boundaries, subsuming even righteous causes. It has a way of becoming an end unto itself. Which is not to say that violence can never be an instrument of social justice. The Civil War, to name but the most obvious example, argues otherwise. And no less imposing a pacifist than Martin Luther King once said that Adolf Hitler's evil was so monstrous that he, King, would have put aside his pacifism to fight it.