The most stunning part of this is not that @GlennKesslerWP considers a black kid playing with a toy "armed," although that's certainly bad enough.
It's that he doesn't even seem to get what makes shootings of unarmed black children by police a social problem in the first place.
It's that he doesn't even seem to get what makes shootings of unarmed black children by police a social problem in the first place.
Kessler seems to think if the rate of unarmed black kids being shot by police is not high enough that it can be expressed per 100,000 people, it can't possibly be a "frightening level" as @BetoORourke said.
He misses the point. Beto wasn't talking about a quantitative hazard.
He misses the point. Beto wasn't talking about a quantitative hazard.
By @GlennKesslerWP's standard, lynching was never occurring at a "frightening level" either. "Only" 4,000 people were lynched in the South between 1877 and 1950.
The point of terrorist acts like lynching isn't the body count. The point is that it makes everyone else obey.
The point of terrorist acts like lynching isn't the body count. The point is that it makes everyone else obey.
Police shootings of unarmed black children are modern lynchings. They are designed to make black children feel scared going out of their neighborhoods or engaging in public activity.
There are literally classes in inner city schools now where kids are taught how to not get shot.
There are literally classes in inner city schools now where kids are taught how to not get shot.
The idea that you could be following the law to a letter and still get shot by the people charged with protecting and serving the community is more than a terrifying fear, it's an imprisoning one.
It means you can't go about your business or be as free as you would be otherwise.
It means you can't go about your business or be as free as you would be otherwise.
THAT is what @BetoORourke was getting at. Even one incident individually is a "frightening level" because the point isn't body count, it's the racial terror.
That @GlennKesslerWP doesn't grasp this, but works as a "fact-checker" for the nation's foremost paper, is disturbing.
That @GlennKesslerWP doesn't grasp this, but works as a "fact-checker" for the nation's foremost paper, is disturbing.
