I watched the video of the Tulsa officers shot by a non-compliant driver during a traffic stop. I'm tired of pretending like this type of "things quickly go bad because some jackass doesn't want to get arrested" isn't exactly why I don't feel bad for Jacob Blake.
THREAD:
I don't know what the officer saw before he shot an irate, non-compliant Blake as he stormed toward his vehicle. But I know what flashed through my mind the first time I watched the video.
I saw Deputy Kyle Dinkheller being executed. I heard his screams.
I saw Daniel Clary grabbing his gun through his driver's side window and almost two Pennsylvania state troopers.
I saw Mario Hobson so desperate to avoid getting arrested on felony domestic violence warrants that he opened fire on officers from a car filled with children.
I saw this Arkansas officer getting shot at point blank range by a guy in the back seat.
I saw Officer Quincy Smith somehow surviving getting shot in the face by this guy, a friendly reminder why cops tell you to keep your hands in plain view.
I saw Deputy Riley Jarecki going from "guy being difficult" to getting shot at in a fraction of a second.
I saw these LAPD officers getting shot out of nowhere by a guy on probation who really didn't want to go back to jail for being in illegal possession of firearm.
I saw these Tulsa officers getting fired on by another man who really didn't want to go to jail that day.
I saw this punk reaching back into his car to grab a gun. Thank God that officer was on his toes.
I saw all of these images flash in my mind and a hundred more. And now I will see the video of those Tulsa officers being gunned down.
I'll see it every time I have to watch a video of a non-compliant, angry person ignoring clear police demands.
This matters. I'm tired of people pretending that every police shooting victim is Breonna Taylor sleeping innocently in her bed. I'm tired of a one-sided conversation on policing where the civilian's actions aren't scrutinized, or the officer's legitimate fears acknowledged.
Of course I want a world with well-trained cops who are held accountable for their unreasonable or unjustified actions. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't also understand how our own actions provoke a certain - and often not unreasonable - sense of heightened alert by officers.
So please, if you can stomach it, watch these videos. Watch the Tulsa video. And then never again try to tell me that Jacob Blake's own actions didn't play a significant role in getting him shot, regardless of whether you think the decision to shoot was ultimately unjustified.
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The investigation "identified several critical failures and other breakdowns" during the response and refers to "cascading failures of leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy, and training that contributed to those failures and breakdowns."
The most significant failure? First responders treated a clear active shooter scenario--where generally accepted practice is to "immediately engage the subject...if necessary, bypassing injured victims and placing themselves in harm's way"--as a barricaded subject scenario.
Can we take a minute to appreciate how many women have protected themselves and others with firearms in the last two or so weeks? It's basically a highlight real of just how important the right to keep and bear arms is for us, too. Tip of the DGU iceberg, but important:
📜📜📜
Aug. 11, Tucson (AZ) - A woman living by herself fatally shot a would-be intruder who kept trying to break into her home despite knowing she was armed.
Aug. 11, Pottstown (PA) - A woman shot and wounded the father of her child after he assaulted her, leaving various injuries. He not only had an active restraining order against him, but also had active warrants for violating that restraining order.
(1) She was 30 weeks pregnant, which would have been illegal in most states pre-Roe [and most of the world], and is 20 weeks past the FDA's approved usage timeline for abortion pills.
(2) She wasn't charged under the abortion law. She was charged with concealing the remains.
(3) Her mother is charged with *performing* the abortion after 20 weeks, as well as with performing the abortion without a medical license.
(4) Doctors lose their licenses all the time for far less egregious things than prescribing abortion pills at 30 weeks.
(5) Survival rates for babies born at 30 weeks are somewhere between 95-98% in developed countries. The baby has vocal chords, fingerprints, fully developed lungs, and even eyelashes. It can open its eyes and blink. It can grasp the umbilical cord with its tiny hands.
Case in point - a Richmond teenager was fatally shot in Nov. 2021. Limited info, except for a March 2022 article detailing that his family was upset no arrests had been made. That could mean many things, including a lack of suspects.
But at some point between Nov. 2021 and today, the police determined this shooting was actually a justified homicide. They either told no one, or no one cared enough to report it. Can't find a public disclosure of that determination. If it exists, it flew under everyone's radar.
This is some Orwellian doublespeak. You don't "enshrine freedom" by literally limiting the scope of your existing freedoms, which are already enshrined. And you can't "leave the Second Amendment intact" while cutting out its heart and removing its soul.
The Second Amendment, like the rest of the Bill of Rights, protects what citizens may do by telling the government what it cannot do.
Newsome's amendment turns this on its head, mandating what government MUST do in order that peaceable citizens may NOT do certain things.
It's like saying "we're keeping the 1st Amendment intact" with a new one criminalizing unpopular speech, limiting freedom of religion to just The Big 5, and requiring those under 21 to get parental consent for internet use.