My biggest concern is that we as a society have become unable to have nuanced discussions. Things get painted with extremes, grouping unrelated situations by skin color, and inaccurate labels are the language we speak.
Make no mistake about it, George Floyd was murdered. You can see my post from the other day breaking down that case for details.
However, Daunte Wright wasn’t George Floyd.
Ma’khia Bryant wasn’t George Floyd.
They were people, they were beloved children & family members, they mattered to people. But George Floyd, Daunte Wright, and Ma’khia Bryant all died under very different circumstances - and none of them can be classified as “police violence.”
George Floyd was murdered. GF was cooperative; police force was beyond unreasonable and downright assault. Those actions were not sanctioned, he was not operating within his authority as a police officer. He was promptly stripped of his badge & pension, and has been convicted of murder. That is exactly the way the justice system is supposed to work once a crime has been committed.
Daunte Wright’s death is a terrible tragedy. Period. That officer did NOT intended to shoot him - she was as shocked as anyone. I realize that makes no difference to the grief and loss Daunte’s family is experiencing, but it does make a difference when he is used as an example of law enforcement’s inherent racism. When he was standing beside the car with his hands behind his back being handcuffed, nobody was pulling any weapons - nobody needed to. But then he tried to escape and drive away. Believe me, police stop white people when they try to evade arrest too. Had Daunte been white, he still would have been a man with a weapons warrant who was trying to flee custody. Tazing him was an appropriate action. Shooting him was a heart-wrenching tragedy.
Is having a weapons charge justification for killing a person? Absolutely not, not if they are not a threat in that moment. That is why his death is a tragic accident and not a justified shooting.
Ma’Khia Bryant was in the middle of trying to commit a violent attack when she was shot. When someone is an imminent threat to others, police have the duty to protect people from that threat. Not just the authority or the right to shoot, but a sworn duty/ promise to protect. Her family grieves her loss every bit as much as we all grieve the loss of beloved people in our lives. I’m not minimizing a single tear they shed. Their grief is real.
As real as their grief is, she was equally as real of a threat to the people she was attempting to stab. Police don’t enjoy taking someone’s life. That’s not why people join the police force - in hopes of one day shooting themselves a real live negro. That was a traumatic event for that officer, too. He will live with that burden - and he accepted that burden in order to care for and protect her community.
You don’t have to pick a side - minorities or law enforcement. You can support both, because despite the misleading headlines everything is not about race. Let’s start seeing all the different colors of the world, have the nuanced and difficult discussions, and weed through the political agendas to find and examine the truth, no matter how ugly or surprising that truth might be.
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