Pirate's Cove

What you have here is this reflexive liberal defense of anyone shot by a police officer, no matter what they did. They aren’t rational, and they want to gin up more racial strife. And, of course, in today’s narcissistic society, people have to make everything about themselves

I could have been Ma’Khia Bryant
Like Ma’Khia Bryant, I was exposed violence at a young age. I needed help, not bullets.

I held my breath for weeks awaiting the verdict in the Derek Chauvin murder trial. The moment the conviction came in, I exhaled and was overcome with relief. Finally, a police officer was going to be held accountable for killing a Black person in America.

But it was only a few minutes afterward that a headline sent my world spinning into disarray again. Police had shot and killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant at her home. According to her mother, Ma’Khia had called the police herself for an attempted stabbing, but when the officers arrived on the scene, Ma’Khia was brandishing a knife and they opened fire, striking her four times. She died shortly after.

The morning after Ma’Khia’s death, I could barely get out of bed. The heavy, haunted feeling had returned. And with it, a single thought: I’d been in Ma’Khia’s position before, dealing with violence in my own home, and I could’ve easily wound up just like her.

If it was Ma’Khia who called the cops, and that is only being said by the family (you know, the one she was taken from and placed in a foster home) at this time, as that information cannot be released at this time, then why was she attacking people with a knife, even as the police rolled up and told her to stop? Perhaps screed writer Tiffanie Drayton could put herself in the place of the girl in pink, who Ma’Khia was attempting to assault with a knife.

I’m not sure about you, but, I can’t put myself in her place: I’ve never attacked anyone with a knife. I’ve never attempting murder. Perhaps Tiffanie has. If so, she should rethink her life choices.

Already, people are viewing the body camera video of the teen wielding a knife and using it to rationalize or justify the police’s deadly use of force against Bryant. Yet police treated Kyle Rittenhouse, a white teenager carrying a far deadlier weapon openly in the streets after killing two people, with kid gloves, not arresting him and even giving him a water bottle. For such people, only the “perfect” victim is worthy of justice, and to them, images of Ma’Khia with a knife prove she deserved to die.

This has nothing to do with Rittenhouse, who appeared to be defending himself from multiple Antifa attackers. Ma’Khia was attempting to murder someone in front of a police officer.

They don’t understand that the victimization of Black lives begins far before the police ever even get involved. Ma’Khia, like far too many Black teens, was a victim of systemic racism before she ever decided to pick up that knife. She was in foster care at the time of her death, a reality that Black children are far more likely to face than their white counterparts, and kids in foster care are often exposed to high levels of violence. Though it is unclear how she came to be in that predicament, we do know that Black children are more likely to come from impoverished and single-parent households and have family members who were swept into the carceral system. This leads to an increased likelihood that Black children will be exposed to abuse or violence in their adolescence.

None of that is an excuse for assaulting another person with a knife. And, perhaps the black community should look at themselves to see why this is happening, rather than attempting to blame others. That’s a hard truth that too many people don’t acknowledge in their own lives.

What we are fighting for when we say “Black Lives Matter” is not just an end to police killing Black people with impunity but an end to the circumstances that result in altercations that lead to violence. Calls to abolish the police are often met with debasement, but they are sensible. Communities of color need more programs that support youth and single mothers, and promote employment, education, and access to safe neighborhoods. The truth is that by the time the police are summoned, many possible interventions were not available that should have been. And far too often, police do not show up to protect and serve in communities of color.

Someone called the police. Maybe Ma’Khia, maybe someone else. They didn’t just show up. They were not the ones who started the violence, they were the ones who ended it, stopping Ma’Khia from stabbing another black girl. Does her life not matter? Just look at the newer video

https://twitter.com/scuba2024/status/1385285882668793862?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1385285882668793862%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fsarahd-313035%2F2021%2F04%2F22%2Flives-were-saved-footage-of-makhia-bryant-shooting-from-another-angle-blows-a-massive-hole-in-blms-narrative-video%2F