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What concerns me regarding these killings - and others - is the use of deadly force by police on trivial legal matters. A traffic tickets should not result in death. Passing a fake $20 bill should not result in death. Selling a cigarette outside a store should not result in death. These are trivial matters. Police officers should direct their energy to serious matters.

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Is it me or Monday or is that another young black man ( just a boy at 20) was killed yesterday by police at a traffic stop in MN, or that a black Army Officer was also brutally assaulted in another traffic stop in VA, or because there was another school shooting in Knoxville today, all the while 100 of our most populated cities are 50% to 100% hospital’s ICUs are full of Covid; that I need a letter from a American to explain how bat shit crazy things have become. I’ve come to the conclusion that I hope our generals realize, We have climbed the wrong mountain. In the Information Age, our country’s survival depends less on missiles, stealth bombers, air craft carriers, and ageis warships, but more on protecting the health of our citizens, insuring the health of our planet, and the quality of information that guides our behavior to either our destruction or salvation. 🙏 Dr Richardson, this Monday I needed another letter.

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I have a whole lot of thoughts, feelings, emotions, and opinions about the situation in which law enforcement finds itself in today. I spent the better part of yesterday grappling with conversations with friends regarding Daunte Wright's killing and the course of the trial in George Floyd's murder when I wasn't trying to unstick (unsuccessfully) a stuck rotor in my tuba in preparation for resuming rehearsals in a small ensemble that I play in (and this particular issue wraps around to the pandemic, but I digress).

When I read about Kim Potter, the third officer on scene of this traffic stop who was a 26 year veteran of the agency, and how she made the decision to use her taser on a man who had pulled away from the officer handcuffing him, and ended up shooting him instead, my thought was "that could have been me." I retired after 28 years with my agency, 26.5 years on patrol. I'm that particular demographic (or was nearly 8 years ago). The thing is, that would have never been me, for any number of reasons (training, experience, disposition are the ones I can come up with on this sleepless morning.)

Elsewhere in the comments, there are some things that stand out for me in this regard. One commenter said (paraphrased) "well, just do what they say, and there's no problem" and another said (again paraphrased) "just handle your traffic tickets and you don't get warrants." There was also the "failure to comply with lawful order/respect authority" rationale. What many people don't understand is that the two new situations in the news today (Daunte Wright and Caron Nazario) are archetypes of Black people's experience with law enforcement officers. Both vehicle stops were initiated for infractions that are minor violations of vehicle code (registration issues which have been impacted by the pandemic). In both cases, the police response was enhanced due to the officer's "perception of risk/danger", particularly in Nazario's case. Stopped for a minor traffic violation, and the event escalates. In one case, a warrant is discovered for another traffic violation, and when the subject pulls away (from a poorly performed attempt at custody, but I again digress) a negligent use of force leads to death. In the other, a communicated concern of the driver "I'm scared to get out of the car" is met with "you should be" and physical force is used to extricate the driver from the vehicle.

I guess what I am stumbling around to is this: white people have no flipping clue what the experience of Black people is with law enforcement. None. Stop to think for a minute; Daunte Wright was 20. How many times do you suppose he had been stopped by law enforcement? At least one, that we know of (hence the traffic warrant). What about his friends? What was his social group's experience with the predominantly white officers of the PD? How about Caron Nazario? His event took place in December, and yet it is only coming to light 4 months later. His conduct at the stop leads me to believe that this was not the first time he had been contacted by law enforcement while operating a motor vehicle. There are so many more.

I have gotten to an uncomfortable place with my former profession. It is not the honorable service that I thought it was; the service of community. It has become something else, something that I really don't recognize any more.

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I find it impossible to avoid a sarcastic comment, having to do with the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Perhaps we should have an investigation into how the police utility belt is arranged, and more standardization and training, to avoid this kind of "human error." Perfectly understandable, of course: I never know whether I put my car keys in my right pocket or my left. I understand how embarrassing it would be if I kept something lethal in the other pocket, like a nuclear detonation fob, and accidentally ... well, you know. </sarcasm>

Having gotten that out of my system, what astonishes and saddens me is the barefaced arrogance of this police action, on the very same stage as the Chauvin murder trial, atop the dry powderkeg that is Minneapolis. You'd think the police would have the plain animal good sense to go to ground under these circumstances: to stop picking at the scab with dirty fingernails, to stop poking the bear with a stick, to stop ... oh, make up any Posthumous Darwin Award behavior.

It's almost like they WANT to provoke a race war. Nah. Couldn't be that. (Dang, I guess the sarcasm wasn't entirely out of my system.)

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Two thoughts. In any other job, an employee would be fired & might permanently lose their license or reputation to practice that job if their mistake made in their profession or trade led to the injury or death of another person.

CPAC's 2021 meeting stage ceiling depicted in lights a Confederare flag with cross and stars. NRA's Wayne LaPierre rallied his mostly white audience with advocacy of gun ownership and use to take laws into your own hands.

Heather's historical review of pre Civil War words and events captures the foundation of today's political, racial & professional situation. However, then the words and actions were fundamentally clear and to the point. Today, tools like tasers & guns, and stage sets & speakers indirectly carry the message and are the excuses.

Our nation & humanity have and continue to pay a high price for not learning & living the essence of our religions & democratic ideals.

I have broken just about every law & infraction that black men may break & pay with their lives. But A) I seldom get stopped in traffic & never have been confronted in my home by police and B) I mostly get warnings or on occasion a ticket. No police ever held as gun on me, pepper sprayed me, cuffed me, pushed me to the ground or knelt on me though I have sometimes questioned the officer about his/her reason for stopping me, and did not always have all requested documentation with me.

White people get a free pass. Black people are judged & found guilty before they are ever confronted. We have trained this into our white dominated society, and the Great Mandala keeps on turning as Peter, Paul & Mary once sang.

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Can I just say you’re amazing? To pull these together in such a well-wrapped package, six days a week, throughout all that has occurred since you started your letters awes me. Every time. Thank you.

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Jeez, is any police department worth saving? I'm horrified by the power we've allowed police to have because we've not held them to account for shooting people in the back, shooting them during a no-knock warrant, killing people by handcuffing and depriving those same people of oxygen, killing people by handcuffing and throwing them into the back of a van with no way to protect themselves and on, and on. We've allowed them to be dressed in their warfare outfits, given them rubber bullets and pepper balls to attack protesters. I'm beyond mad. There is something wrong here. Doctor Richardson is right, the police have removed the rights of some people to have a fair trial...what's more, they've determined they are entitled to dole out the death penalty for traffic stops or a fake $20. bill.

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Also, 76 years ago today, FDR died. For the majority of Americans fighting in World War II, he was the only president they could remember. The average age of Americans fighting at that point of the war was 22; for the majority, the first time they had been able to vote for president was the previous November, when the absentee vote of servicemen gave him the strongest personal majority he got in all four elections. 76 years ago today, the president whose acts created the world most of us grew up in, died.

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This is gross stupidity. A routine traffic stop turned into a homicide because four cops didn't try to deescalate a volatile situation, and acted like a gang of stormtroopers with a black teenager. Whatever started this thing had nonlethal exit ramps all along the way, and all of which were ignored. Stupidity and stubbornness are no excuses. The kid who got shot might have been stupid and stubborn, but he's a kid, not a cop. The cops, all four of them, were expected to act professionally and not lower themselves to the level of a scared and angry kid. Worse yet, there was a senior officer on scene, and she was the one who shot and killed the kid by mistake. This was Mayberry from the depths of Hell.

Then, this female officer added to the mayhem by pulling her firearm and shooting the kid under the misapprehension that she was entitled to use a taser to subdue him after the cops escalated the quantum of fear and anger. He's dead. She's distraught. The world knows about it. And we now have 'George Floyd 2.0'. The officer who did this is said to be a 26 year veteran of the Brooklyn Center PD. Really?(!) She couldn't distinguish between a taser and a Glock semi-automatic pistol? She's carried that pistol or one like it on her hip for all those years, and she cannot distinguish between a handgun that weighs about two pounds (1 kilogram) and an electrical device that weighs maybe a bit more than a large cell phone. C'mon. Get real!

The taser is holstered on her nondominant side, typically the left handed side of her waist. Interviews with experts say confusion is rare; but there's no reason whatsoever that requires a taser to have a pistol grip. I have several TV remotes that would fill the bill nicely, like a flashlight.

Tasers have an effective range of only a few yards. Unlike a pistol, it's designed for close combat within a meter or two of arms length. Certainly not much more distance. It's not a device you can aim with any degree of precision; and if you do need to aim it, they can easily be equipped with a laser pointer, a technology we've had for decades.

Instances of confusion have occurred, a recent example of which occurred in Oakland California within the past two years. An officer with the Bay Area Rapid Transit System mistook his sidearm for a taser electric dart projector and shot and killed someone he was attempting to subdue. The officer was tried and convicted of involuntary manslaughter, and he served a prison sentence.

Now that we know that misidentification is possible, an entirely different design is called for, possibly equipped with an audible signal that alerts the user (and the intended target) to either chill out or take the consequences. We're going to find out more about this officer in the days ahead, and my prediction is that little if any of those disclosures will be flattering to her, or to her employer.

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This is, unfortunately, one of the most timely, moving and compelling posts you've written. Every American should reflect on the juxtaposition, as you described it, of police acting as "judge, jury, and executioner" and "the fundamental American principle of equality before the law and their right to due legal process... Mr. Floyd and Mr. Wright had the right to due legal process... [if] police officers could condemn them to death without the due process of the law, we need to revisit exactly what sort of government we have." I tweeted excerpts here https://bit.ly/3wZwxLx

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The issue here is that the police are domestic terrorists. As a young gay man in sf I was routinely harassed and humiliated by them. In Oregon I had equally nightmarish experiences. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be black in this environment. My heart breaks anew every day.

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I read that the Democrats had to back off of requiring a background check on gun sales and transfers between family members because Joe Manchin said, “Law-abiding gun owners aren’t going to sell their guns to strangers. That’s how we’re taught. We’re not going to loan guns to strangers or even to family members who aren’t responsible. We’re not doing that, so don’t take all my rights away.”

That is so ridiculous to me.

Somehow, our lack of movement on gun safety measures is related to all these killings of Black men and women by law enforcement. We have so far to go in our race to become human.

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I was thinking about Richard Engel’s special on the January 6th insurrection which aired Sunday night on MSNBC and was surprised by the three women among the insurrectionists he featured. Two of the women had served in the military as had a lot of the male insurrectionists. I found this article on the role of women in white supremacy. It talked about women in the KKK and there is a photo of them circa 1920 in Lancaster County!! A friend of mine, definitely not a white supremacist, who grew up in Lancaster County had just told me her grandfather had been a Grand Dragon of the KKK. She watched a program on the Klan Sunday evening. Seeing these women in Klan garb is rather startling to me. Twisting my mind, I'd say. We the People, All of Us This Time!

https://www.vox.com/2021/1/15/22231079/capitol-riot-women-qanon-white-supremacy

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Can’t sleep either. Great passionate, clear write up. In Alabama, our racist state govt will not accept Medicaid (& 12-13 hospitals have closed over the years). They discriminate equally against poor whites in this case. A small black group in Montgomery (capitol) got 12 to 13,OOO signatures on petitions for Medicaid some 10 yrs ago....nothing!! They more recently put body bags on steps of capitol. I just asked my (radical) young Unitarian minister if she & other spiritual leaders would MEET with our woman governor (need her signature alone) to, as the “Christians” these Alabamians claim to be, PLEASE finally grant healthcare to her constituents. We’ll see... Thank you again for YOUR passion as well!

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My patience and conscience are equally tried. I know the 17,985 police departments in the USA cannot pay huge salaries. My town and the town closest to it have fewer than half the number of personnel they are authorized to have. Caught between Scylla and Charybdis, most police departments do what they can do to protect their citizens by hiring as many people as possible.

Do we have to settle for someone with 26 years experience who mistakes their firearm for their Taser? Do we have to have multiple officers in multiple vehicles, emerging from said vehicles with weapons drawn to arrest someone for a misdemeanor, and after to execute a warrant for failing to appear in court?

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What is so deeply disturbing is that a huge percentage of these deaths at the hands of police are (a) Black (b) for trivial offences (c) non life threatening (d) people suffering from mental illness. The Police do not shoot to disable, they shoot to kill (or they are terrible shots). Defunding is one answer - ie taking away responsibility for the approach to mental health issues, etc. Overall, training seems to be seriously at fault. As a White man, I have no fear of being pulled over by a traffic cop. Other races are trained from childhood how to respond - submit, don't antagonise, don't talk back, do *exactly* as they say...If ever there were a definition of White privilege...

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