And this is a pretty big issue with a lot of these cases. There is so much information that is either being left out of the media reports or hasn’t been accounted for due to the ongoing investigations. Heck, we’re still finding out important information about the Breonna Taylor investigation. And yet, we have already destroyed a city and in the court of public opinion this one is over.
On a separate note. Let me say, the situation can be very tragic and sad without being race/hate related. It can be tragic without being blatant disregard for life. Not saying that’s the situation here, that certainly needs more understanding. But, in some of these situations, as the story unfolds, it’s less race and hate related than how it’s initially portrayed.
The difficult reality is that there is and will be violent confrontations with police officers and civilians. And that includes civilians of all races. In a perfect world that’s not the case. But we don’t live in a perfect world. Should we strive to be better? Most certainly. Should we burn, loot, riot and destroy cities because of it? That doesn’t solve anything.
Lastly, it seems like too much of a coincidence that this is coming up again in an election year. Especially given the numbers. They don’t suggest this is a negative trend, at all. According to the Washington Post database of fatal police shootings, in 2015, 38 unarmed black people were killed. That’s compared to 14 in 2019. In fact, they’ve gone lower every year since 2017 and at this rate will be lower for full year 2020 (currently stand at 8). Seems like a positive trend. If you include all police killings it was 258 black people killed in 2015, 250 in 2019, and 123 so far this year.
Now, of course 0 is the right number. But, in the absence of 0 being realistic, does that trend warrant this response? And WTF does that have to do with the election. Trump wasn’t the President in 2015.
