HERO, TO ZERO, AND BACK

The video showing the police shooting a 16 year old black girl instantly went viral, for all the wrong reasons. Predictably Lebron James wanted this Cop prosecuted. Joe Biden said it was another example of systemic racism. But now people are seeing the actual video and they are seeing other videos from a different angle.. Unlike the Derek Chauvin video, this one provides pretty good insight into a lot of things. Some of them were noticed by the MSM, finally, and some were not.

One thing that is obvious is that police were called to deal with a situation that was beyond chaotic. Another is that the usual suspects automatically blamed the police, with zero regard to the facts. A black girl was shot, nothing else could possibly matter.

Here is a picture of the crowd that gathered in Columbus, shortly after this shooting:

Ma’Khia Bryant: Ohio police release body camera footage in shooting of 16-year-old (yahoo.com)

Here is the video of the actual shooting. CBS, unlike NBC, showed the full video and did not edit out the knife.

Police in Columbus, Ohio shoot, kill teenager Ma’Khia Bryant and release bodycam video – CBS News

Anyone watching this video soon realizes that the police officer shot that girl because she was about to stab another young girl. What is astonishing is how fast things moved, how little time he had to react and the skill he used to shoot her and not the girl who was the intended victim. If you watch video shot later, you will see that police tried to save her life, after shooting her.

This is so obvious that even Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo on CNN noticed it.

https://www.newsweek.com/don-lemon-chris-cuomo-defend-officer-shot-makhia-bryant-1585708

They didn’t rush to judgement on the police officer.

“Tasers don’t work the way guns work,” Lemon said. “Not at that distance,” added Cuomo. “And not with that amount of time.”

Lemon added: “If the woman in the pink was my sister, niece, wife, whatever … you have to make a decision. Is one life on that scene more valuable than another?

“And if someone is trying to take a life on that scene, do you protect the life of the person trying to take the life or do you protect the life of the person whose life is an imminent danger at that moment?”

People where shocked that Lemon and Cuomo reported objectively, for a change. Talk about a miracle.

But they didn’t notice something else. Look at the homes. They are well maintained. This does not exactly look like the hood. Look at the cars. They are all nice cars, in good condition. This isn’t Beverly Hills, but it also isn’t exactly the projects. But the White House couldn’t resist making this racist anyway.

“She was a child,” press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday. “We’re thinking of her friends and family in the communities that are hurting and grieving her loss. We know that police violence disproportionately impacts Black and Latino people in communities and that Black women and girls, like Black men and boys, experience higher rates of police violence. We also know that there are particular vulnerabilities that children in foster care, like Ma’Khia, face.”

I don’t where Jen Psaki gets the evidence that police violence disproportionately impacts Black and Latino women. The facts, from all available sources, present a very different picture. The following statistics come from an interview of Heather McDonald on Newsmax TV. She may be wrong, but this is a lot more realistic that what we are getting from the White House.

She reports that 10% of white homicide victims were killed by cops, but only 3% of black homicide victims were killed by cops. Yet the homicide rate for blacks victims is 13 times higher than whites. So, who is killing all those black victims? It obviously is not the police. There is systemic violence, but it is not done by cops, it is the result of black on black crime. The problem, ironically, may be the lack of cops. The dumbest and most irresponsible response to this would be to defund the police and make it harder for them to do their job.

There were reportedly 18 unarmed black men killed by policy last year. Now perhaps this is low, perhaps this undercounted some people, but it is no where near what people have been led to believe. If you watched CNN, you probably were expecting something like 18,000 deaths.

I hope a lot of people watch this video. If the police had not arrived and taken swift action, someone else probably would have died. In fact, several people might have died.  Perhaps this will help people have a real conversation, an honest conversation. Yes, there are bad cops, just like there are bad preachers and salesclerks and even insurance agents. But we need cops. We desperate need effective policing.

One good thing that happened is that Lebron James shot his mouth off, again, and stepped in it big time. He posted a picture of the hero officer, with the caption: “You’re Next.” The National Fraternal Order of Police responded with the following:

National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)

@GLFOP @KingJames , with his vast resources & influence, should educate himself and, frankly, has a responsibility to do so, on the facts before weighing in. This is disgraceful & extremely reckless. The officer saved a young girl’s life. No amount of gaslighting will change that fact.

One thing is certain, most of the people on the scene thought the officer was a hero. BLM and people like Lebron James and Joe Biden quickly labeled him a zero, before they knew any of the facts. Now that the facts are coming out, more people are realizing that he really was a hero. It is about time. We all would benefit from more facts and far less hyperbole.

TDM