Makiah Bryant - Unbelievable

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

We’re in a weird place right now, man.

I guess we’ll see how municipalities across the country adapt to their citizens’ needs. I have no idea what things will be like in another 5, 10, or 20 years from now. It’s disorienting.

- Doc

[Morley]

We’re in a weird place right now, man.

I guess we’ll see how municipalities across the country adapt to their citizens’ needs. I have no idea what things will be like in another 5, 10, or 20 years from now. It’s disorienting.

- Doc

We are, indeed.

I have to admit, everything else being equal, if someone was going after my child with a knife, I would hope the police would shoot.

[canpakes]

America is more hostile to white men than any foreign country.

Maybe you'll take a page or two and list all of the unique outrages that you've faced in America because you're a white man. I can't wait.

I’ll get some popcorn ready.

Owing to the amount of time that I expect it will take ajax to respond with a believable list, I’ll be starting the corn plants from seed.

[Chap]

I have to admit, everything else being equal, if someone was going after my child with a knife, I would hope the police would shoot.

Well, yes, if at the time that is the only way to stop serious injury or death being inflicted by the person with the knife.

On the other hand, spending money on large numbers of (it often appears) not very well trained people going around equipped and prepared to kill people about to injure or kill innocent others may not, by itself and in the long run, be the best way to reduce the overall number of injuries or deaths inflicted on the innocent.

In the case we are currently discussing, it appears that Ms Bryant was in some kind of non-parental care (Franklin County Childrens' Services, If I recall correctly). If there had been more resources and trained personnel to deal with her obvious anger and violence issues, maybe that terrible scene we saw would not have been acted out?

This is not a 'call to defund the police'. If we have no other way to reduce the effects of our sometimes lethal rage on one another than having people trained to kill us before we can kill others, then that's the way we probably have to go. But there are other cheaper and probably more effective ways of improving matters. Here is the view of a highly experienced police officer in charge of part of the UK with a high level of poverty and crime:

Tackle poverty and inequality to reduce crime, says police chief
Retiring head of Merseyside force says if he had £5bn he would spend 20% on policing and 80% on cutting poverty

Cutting poverty and inequality is the best way to reduce crime, a police chief has said, calling for more money for deprived areas to thwart criminals’ attempts to recruit those left desperate by deprivation.

In an unusually frank interview for a senior officer, given to mark his retirement as chief constable of Merseyside police, Andy Cooke said that if he was given £5bn to cut crime, he would put £1bn into law enforcement and £4bn into tackling poverty.

Cooke, who has started a new role with the inspectorate of constabulary, said that in his experience most criminals, including those committing serious violence, were not inherently bad.

“The best crime prevention is increased opportunity and reduced poverty. That’s the best way to reduce crime. So there needs to be substantial funding into the infrastructure of our inner cities and our more deprived areas.

“Why do people get involved in crime and serious crime? It’s because the opportunities to make money elsewhere aren’t there for them. And never more so than in our inner cities and in our more difficult to police areas.

“We need to reduce that deprivation and the scale of deprivation that we see in some of our communities, because if you give people a viable alternative, not all but a lot will take it.”

He said children educated at “some of our tough schools” needed something to look forward to other than a life of crime, and that opportunities for apprenticeships needed to be increased. “If we don’t do that, then policing will always be on the back foot,” he said.

Asked what he would do if he were given £5bn to cut crime, Cooke said reducing inequality and deprivation should be the priority: “I’d put a billion into law enforcement and the rest into reducing poverty and increasing opportunity.

“Plenty of entrepreneurial skills get lost in our inner city communities or get directed into the wrong things.

“If you give [someone] a legal opportunity to actually earn money, a legal opportunity to actually have a good standard of living, a number of people would take that because they know they can sleep in their beds at night … they don’t have to worry about what’s happening with the kids and what’s happening with their families and the doors going through at seven in the morning.”

Cooke’s route from chief of Merseyside to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services mirrors that of Bernard Hogan-Howe, who eventually became commissioner of the Metropolitan police.

Under Cooke, the Merseyside force gained a reputation for tough policing. It was a keen user of stop-and-search powers, and he was the first commander of Merseyside’s Matrix unit, set up to tackle gang crime and violence.

But he said the police, courts and criminal justice system could not simply scare people into not offending. He said such an approach taken in the US had led to “ridiculous prison sentences as deterrence, and all they end up doing is building more prisons, and you don’t see reduction in firearms crime or a reduction in murders over there”.

Tough enforcement and social and economic justice need to go hand in hand, he said.

“The solution is building community cohesion,” he said. “The solution is building the opportunities for young people, and levelling up the playing field. It’s such an unequal playing field we have at the moment with job prospects, and with opportunities for the future. There’s got to be some levelling up.”

Cooke’s views about the relationship between deprivation and offending comes after 11 years of Conservative government, which critics say has widened inequalities. Police chiefs usually keep such views private.

He also said aspiration needed to be boosted to prevent hopelessness cascading from one generation to the next. “It’s linked to deprivation issues, but because Liverpool particularly, is so predominantly white working class, there are low levels of attainment, there are low levels of academic achievement and low levels of aspiration, and aspiration is one of the key problems.”

The aspiration gap had to be closed, he said: “There is a massive gap. If your father hasn’t got a job, and your grandfather hasn’t got a job or if those jobs are particularly poorly paid … what’s the aspiration to achieve?

“Some families do [achieve]. It’s not right across the board. Some families do it, some individuals do it. But vast swathes now, they’ll go to school, they’ll leave with no qualification and they’ll have no prospect of gainful employment. Something’s got to change in relation to that.”

Cooke’s replacement is Serena Kennedy, the first female chief constable of Merseyside.

[Morley]

I have to admit, everything else being equal, if someone was going after my child with a knife, I would hope the police would shoot.

Well, yes, if at the time that is the only way to stop serious injury or death being inflicted by the person with the knife.

On the other hand, spending money on large numbers of (it often appears) not very well trained people going around equipped and prepared to kill people about to injure or kill innocent others may not, by itself and in the long run, be the best way to reduce the overall number of injuries or deaths inflicted on the innocent.

In the case we are currently discussing, it appears that Ms Bryant was in some kind of non-parental care (Franklin County Childrens' Services, If I recall correctly). If there had been more resources and trained personnel to deal with her obvious anger and violence issues, maybe that terrible scene we saw would not have been acted out?

This is not a 'call to defund the police'. If we have no other way to reduce the effects of our sometimes lethal rage on one another than having people trained to kill us before we can kill others, then that's the way we probably have to go. But there are other cheaper and probably more effective ways of improving matters. Here is the view of a highly experienced police officer in charge of part of the UK with a high level of poverty and crime:

In the US, I'm afraid that we're in something of an institutional feedback loop that training isn't going to resolve. I have a first degree relative who is a police chief in a pretty good-sized American city. He can't hire the quality of people he'd like to, because law enforcement is a high-stress job with an increasingly bad reputation. As lousier candidates become policemen, and they do a worse job policing, and the situation degrades even more.

Left-leaning calls to defund the police parallel rightwing moves toward privatization of prisons and security systems.

K-12 education has a similar problem. We're decimating the public institutions that make democracy work. Frankly, I don't see a way out of it.

.

[Icarus]

What nearly happened to him?

Being convicted in the media and serving as a sacrifice for America's history of racism. And yet Rusten apparently chose to go back to being a policeman. I think he's crazy. He'd be more appreciated as a hired gun defending an oil company's interest in Iraq. America is more hostile to white men than any foreign country.

So by saying it nearly happened to him, you admit that it didn't happen to him. And the reason it didn't happen to him is because the media reviewed the evidence. I watched all the news shows the following day and every single one of them pointed out that the girl was armed with a knife and in the process of attempted murder. Some guest on CNN actually called him a hero. But being the typical white supremacist that you are, you're going to bitch and moan about something that didn't even happen.

No one is "convicted in the media" like you pretend happens, unless we're talking about the fake media that is OAN and FOX. CNN reports the facts as they're available.

[Icarus]

In the US, I'm afraid that we're in something of an institutional feedback loop that training isn't going to resolve. I have a first degree relative who is a police chief in a pretty good-sized American city. He can't hire the quality of people he'd like to, because law enforcement is a high-stress job with an increasingly bad reputation. As lousier candidates become policemen, and they do a worse job policing, and the situation degrades even more.

Left-leaning calls to defund the police parallel rightwing moves toward privatization of prisons and security systems.

K-12 education has a similar problem. We're decimating the public institutions that make democracy work. Frankly, I don't see a way out of it.

Then maybe we should double their pay to ensure quality candidates. The calls to defund the police aren't what you think. It is about reallocating resources away from the billions we spend on militarizing the police, and putting it towards other services that actually help people.

[Morley]

In the US, I'm afraid that we're in something of an institutional feedback loop that training isn't going to resolve. I have a first degree relative who is a police chief in a pretty good-sized American city. He can't hire the quality of people he'd like to, because law enforcement is a high-stress job with an increasingly bad reputation. As lousier candidates become policemen, and they do a worse job policing, and the situation degrades even more.

Left-leaning calls to defund the police parallel rightwing moves toward privatization of prisons and security systems.

K-12 education has a similar problem. We're decimating the public institutions that make democracy work. Frankly, I don't see a way out of it.

Then maybe we should double their pay to ensure quality candidates. The calls to defund the police aren't what you think. It is about reallocating resources away from the billions we spend on militarizing the police, and putting it towards other services that actually help people.

Kevin, I heartily agree that more pay and more prestige, as well as higher levels of required education for applicants, would make a huge difference. It's just not going to happen. When state legislatures fund police and education, they want better equipment and more technology. They hope that giving money for mandatory seminars will solve entrenched problems.

"Defund the police" is a defused and cloudy message that means different things depending on who you're talking to. At the very least, it's a crappy slogan. I'm all for police reform. Please let it happen! I'm all for education reform. God, please! But US legislatures don't have the will for, nor will they put the money into, fundamental change. Prison reform and education reform are prime examples. The legislative answers have largely been a move to publicly funded privatization or money for new technology. Not that I'm pissed or anything.

.

[Morley]

When more money is put into policing, it typically goes toward hiring more officers. It should go into hiring fewer, higher-paid, better-educated officers. American law enforcement is largely a blue collar profession with an authority complex weaned on Dirty Harry. It's a huge lift to change something like this. Unfortunately, I don't see the will to do it.

.

[ajax18]

“ANGER does any of us any good and that includes myself! Gathering all the facts and educating does though! My anger still is here for what happened that lil girl. My sympathy for her family and may justice prevail!” posted the NBA star.

“I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police. I took the tweet down because its being used to create more hate -This isn’t about one officer. it’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY,” he added.

NBA legend LeBron James issued a public statement to the Columbus, Ohio police officer who shot a teenager Tuesday night after she allegedly attacked another minor with a knife; telling the cop “You’re Next.”

James deleted the message after users on social media complained about the veiled threat.

“Ma’Khia Bryant, a young Black girl, was shot and killed by a Columbus police officer Tuesday afternoon while yielding a knife and attempting to stab another female, and her death has since sparked national outrage,” reports WKYC.

“The Akron native and current Los Angeles Laker has since received nearly 5,000 replies to his tweet, many arguing about whether or not the shooting of Bryant was justified,” adds the news outlet.