Ma'Khia Bryant's Journey Through Foster Care Ended With an Officer's Bullet

[WhiskeyGrinder]

Ma’Khia Bryant is the girl whom police shot the day the Chauvin verdict was announced.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/08/us/columbus-makhia-bryant-foster-care.html

When her grandmother was kicked out by her landlord, the siblings went into foster care and spent two years cycling through short-term placements, arrangements that dissolved one after another.

(snip)

Service agencies offer far less support to family members who agree to take care of children in need: The per diem allowances paid to licensed foster parents are often 10 times greater than the public assistance paid to relatives. A grandparent can become licensed as a foster parent, but it can take as long as six months, said Anthony Capizzi, an Ohio family court judge who took part in a comprehensive review of the state’s family services in 2019.

Ms. Hammonds did not have that long to wait.

“I was worn out,” she recalled. “I was doing all the laundry, all the cooking, and I was working a part-time job at the time. And it was difficult because these children came from a lot of dysfunction.”

Then her landlord found out that the children had moved into the apartment and told her she would have to move. She scrambled, placing the older girls at a summer camp and the younger two siblings in temporary foster care. When the camp ended, she had few options.

[sheshe2]

1. Our system is broken.

There is no support. None.

Different circumstance, yet I know this from being a 24/7 primary care person along with my sister. You have to fight for everything and while they themselves are good and caring the 'system' rules. No words.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

13. If we want to give more money to social services in an effort to reduce police involvement,

we need to address the white supremacy and trauma those services propagate as well, otherwise we're just pissing money down a hole.

[Kali]

2. so horrible

why not a tazer if he was too chicken shit to tackle her?

[Treefrog]

8. He saved the other girl's life, and you call him a chicken shit?

No doubt you would have tackled and disarmed her, right?

[Kali]

64. seems concerned citizens are capable of doing so, would I?

I have waded into a few fights in my time, nobody was armed so I can't honestly say if I would, but then I am also not a trained "peace" officer.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142741044

[MarineCombatEngineer]

15. You have no fucking idea of how dangerous it is to tackle someone with a knife.

NONE.
When I did a 2 year stint with the Marine SecForces, we were trained not to physically engage someone with a knife, it's a hell of a way to get injured or killed, we were trained to drop them, and a taser is about useless beyond 15 feet, it might not penetrate the clothing or if the person is hopped up on adrenaline or drugs, it probably won't have any effect on them.

The officer, IMHO and my experience, was fully justified in using lethal force to save the life of the other girl.

[Treefrog]

26. Thank YOU!

We sure have some tough guys on this forum, at least behind a keyboard.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

27. Yep,

a bunch of keyboard kommandos.

[Treefrog]

32. It's funny that I have a picture of them in my mind when I see one of those posts.

Boxers, belly, bag of chips.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

44. Perfect description.

[BGBD]

35. Oh come on!

I've seen it in 100 movies. He could have just gave her a judy chop and bam.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

43. LOL.

Yep, seen it many times in the movies so it must be true in real life.

[StarfishSaver]

45. Funny how police - and teachers and social workers and nurses manage to do it all the time

Yes, it's dangerous. But assuming that it's impossible or crazy for a cop to ever even consider disarming or subduing someone with a knife and the only possible way this child could have been stopped from hurting someone is for her to be shot dead on the spot is just foolish, at best.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

47. You really think this officer had the time to charge the girl,

tackle her and disarm her before she plunged the knife into the other girl?

He had a split second to make a decision to save the life of another girl, IMO and my experience, he did the right thing.

And those other examples? How many were in the process of stabbing someone else?

Very few, if any, I suspect.

[StarfishSaver]

51. I don't know and neither do you

We're both making assumptions. I'm making an assumption, based on history and practice, that the cop was not justified in killing this child and I won't believe he was unless an in-depth, impartial investigation proves otherwise. I don't believe police are entitled to a benefit of the doubt.

You, on the other hand, are giving him that benefit of the doubt, and assuming that he was justified and that the dead girl was at fault.

The difference is that I'm not pretending to be objective while you and others defending the cop are taking sides and pretending that you're being objective and "not jumping to conclusions" when you doing just that.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

53. We'll just have to agree to disagree,

and my experience in LE tells me that what I've seen so far from the video, the officer acted in good faith, I would have done the exact same thing in the exact same situation, as I was trained to do.

It's foolhardy to engage someone with a knife physically, that is an excellent way to get injured or killed, we were trained to drop them if another life is at stake, which is pretty clear in this case according to the video.

[StarfishSaver]

63. Your argument about it being foolhardy to engage someone with a knife as an excuse for this shooting

might make sense if police never engaged with anyone with a knife but instead shot every person they encountered who wielded a knife. But that's not the case. As I said, police - and others - regularly engage with people with knives, so the fact that she had a knife is not enough, in my view, to justify shooting her on the basis that the cop had no other alternative because knives are so dangerous.

As for your certainty that he did the right thing based on what you saw in the video, the police and city aren't early as sure as you are. If it were that cut and dried as you seem to think there would be no need for an investigation. Or if the investigation would have been wrapped up just based on the video and everything would have been closed out now. But that's not what's happening. Apparently, the people who know far more about this than even you with your law enforcement training think this case is uncertain enough that a rather in-depth investigation is warranted. They clearly are not as willing as you are to jump to the conclusion that it was justified.

[Kali]

65. I hadn't seen the distance until you mentioned it, so I don't know all the facts

but given the propensity of cops to just shoot Black people you will have to forgive the obvious conclusions drawn by me and others.

[Celerity]

16. A Taser would not have worked in this split-second action, the cop saved the girl in pink's life

Don Lemon and other CNN shows had a series of experts on that said a Taser was highly unlikely to work in this situation, almost all of the experts were also PoC as well. They went into great detail why a Taser was not a good option in this tragedy.

The consensus was that the cop saved the girl in pink's life. Funny how her (also a PoC) life is left out of equation by some.

Link to tweet

[MarineCombatEngineer]

18. ...

Funny how her (also a PoC) life is left out of equation by some.

IKR?
It's sad to see such disregard for the girl in pink who was just a split second away from a very serious injury or death, the video is very clear on just how close this would have been a murder or attempted murder.

IMHO, the cop was left with no choice in that split second he had to prevent a knifing.

[Treefrog]

33. I saw that Lemon show. Very well explained.

It was obvious to me even before seeing that show, but it was good to see how many stood behind that cop who obviously saved the girl’s life.

[Kali]

66. maybe not, we likely won't ever know that

I haven't seen any other analysis, has anybody posted links to that? I don't have teevee and news sites/cnn bogs down my computer. I get almost all news here on DU, that is where I saw the original body cam video.

[StarfishSaver]

3. This is heartbreaking

This was a frightened, broken child, yet the police and countless people who should have more empathy, saw her as just a threat who deserved to be shot down in a driveway.

[NickB79]

5. Fuck that girl in pink, right?

Who was literally a second away from getting a knife in her throat.

[EX500rider]

46. "..and countless people who should have more empathy"

Is empathy good at blocking a knife thrust? I did not know that. And childhood ends at 12, she was a large adolescent.

[StarfishSaver]

48. Calling this teenaged girl "a large adolescent"

speaks volumes - especially in light of the fact that the grown woman in the situation is consistently referred to as "the girl in pink."

I have no doubt that if the bullet had hit the woman instead of "the girl in pink," the people trying to justify the killing would be calling her something completely different.

[EX500rider]

50. "Calling this teenaged girl "a large adolescent""

Is certainly more accurate then calling her a child.

Old enough to get married in 26 states.
Old enough to drive. (children are not allowed to drive)
1 year away from being able to join the military. (also no children allowed)

[WhiskeyGrinder]

49. "She was a large adolescent."

Christ, this fucking place.

[StarfishSaver]

52. They're not even pretending anymore

It's disgusting.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

54. They don't feel they have to. Shameful.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

55. Do tell us what is shameful about telling the truth?

She was an adolescent by legal standards.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

56. "Childhood ends at 12"? Only for Black kids.

It's been well known for some time that adults tend to view Black boys as larger and more threatening than they actually are and than white boys of the same age. Research is now finding that the same goes for Black girls. Using the phrase "large adolescent" about a Black girl to imply danger and irrationality is a dogwhistle. You can read more here if you're interested: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/us/makhia-bryant.html

[StarfishSaver]

58. "Ma'Khia Bryant was a child"

“The way that she has been talked about — because she is a big girl — people see her as the aggressor. They don’t see her humanity. They have adultified her.”

A 2017 report by the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality found that, because of layers of gendered racism, adults tend to view Black girls as more threatening, more aggressive, more mature and less innocent than white girls of the same age, robbing Black girls of the freedom to be children.

The report found that Black girls as young as 5 years old are held to adultlike standards and, in turn, receive harsher punishments for their behavior: Black girls are more likely to be suspended or arrested at school than their white peers, often for minor infractions, like using their cellphones or throwing tantrums. In another report by the same researchers, one girl recalled that in elementary school, during a game at recess, she had thrown a ball and it had hit another girl in the face. She was then accused of assault and battery. Others shared that if they spoke up in class, they were labeled sassy or outspoken, while their white peers were seen as intelligent.

Though Black boys also face the same adultification bias, the experience of Black girls has been and still is largely overlooked.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

60. As young as FIVE.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

61. That's not what I said,

I said that she is an adolescent by legal standards, I never said anything about childhood ending at 12.

[raging moderate]

4. Service agencies should have helped the grandmother.

Since her only problem was financial, they should have fixed that for the family and kept the kids with her.

[LisaL]

7. Per the article, foster parents are expected to have full time jobs.

So who is supposed to be watching foster children? In fact foster mother was at work when the incident took place.
While foster parent is working, foster kids (many of whom are presumably already troubled) are left unsupervised.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

14. Exactly. That's where things really went off the rails.

[GulfCoast66]

6. So please don't slam me after my first paragraph. But read the second.

I watched the video. Real time and slow motion. I don’t see how the cop had a choice. He rolled up. Saw what we all saw and the a woman about to ram-jam a long knife into a weaponless person with no further ability to flee because of the car. I say woman because the cop had no idea of her age or family status. He only knew what he saw. To far away for his taser to be effective or even accurate. And tackle her? He was 20 feet away. Has anyone here been in a fight or seen a stabbing? I have. By the time he got to he she would have stabbed that other girl 4-5 times. Or more. And that knife could was easily long enough to reach the heart or liver resulting in a fatal wound. And do really expect cops to wrestle adults in rage who have a big knife? Life is not TV. A 6-8 knife will kill you quickly.

It was not the cop who failed that girl. It was America. We obviously are cool with 20-25% of our population living in poverty. Not DU members, obviously. Sure all hell not me. But Americans at large. Because the news makes it look like the only poor Americans are people of color. Which is bullshit. All those Hilljacks, Hillbillies, rednecks and white trash dying of opioid addiction and Meth are peas in a pod with the young lady who was killed. But of course because they are white the are victims. Well, so was this young lady. A victim of a system where she had no choices. Until we decide that one of the roles of government is to eliminate abject poverty this will continue to occur. I’m not optimistic it will happen in my lifetime.

[StarfishSaver]

9. I hear you and appreciate and agree with most of what you said in this very sensitive post

but I'm not nearly as quick as you are to assume the cop had no choice. Cops are trained in choices and I find it hard to believe that shooting this child dead within seconds was his only one or that it would have necessarily been the choice made by most cops in the same situation had this girl been white.

You asked, "And do really expect cops to wrestle adults in rage who have a big knife?" My answer is yes, or at least possibly. Not because it's tv but because cops aren't average people who have "been in a fight or seen a stabbing" but are (or are supposed to be) professionals who are trained to disarm and subdue angry, armed people without killing them and often do. So are teachers and nurses and social workers, who also manage to do this. https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/injured-idaho-middle-school-shooting-suspect-captured-77534058

Maybe, in this particular instance, the cop had absolutely no choice and that will come out in the investigation. But given what we know about police training and what we know about the tendency and pattern we cannot ignore of police using lethal force against Black people when it is neither warranted nor necessary and their assumptions that Black people are larger, older, scarier and more dangerous than we really are, I'm just not willing to jump to the conclusion that this cop was justified in shooting down this Black child within seconds of pulling up to the scene based on an assumption that she was so dangerous she needed to be taken down like a rabid dog.

The police long ago lost any any right to benefit of the doubt that their actions were justified before an investigation (as evidenced, among other things by the fact that DOJ is now looking into the Columbus PD's patterns and practices of excessive force against Black people) and this child deserves at least for people to consider that she was more than a dangerous thug who needed to be killed without a second's thought.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

17. re: "It was not the cop who failed that girl. It was America."

I have read many stories of heroic folks who grew up in foster care or institutions and went on to miraculously better circumstances through shear single-minded determination. Of course things could have gone differently for Ma'Khia. We need better family support systems and more intervention before circumstances escalate as they did.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

19. +100. nt

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. This article is not about a cop shooting and killing Ma'Khia. It's about how the system kept

traumatizing Ma'Khia and her family until she went into crisis, and the fact that people in this thread can't let go of having her story end with her "unavoidable" death just goes to show that the first cop y'all need to abolish is the one living in your heads.

[ChazII]

11. Whatever happened to the girl/woman

in pink?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

12. Tionna Bonner, the adult who had originally pulled a knife on Ma'Khia and her sister?

She's staying with family in another town because she's receiving threats.

From the 911 call:

“It’s 3171 Legion Lane,” Ja’Niah told the dispatcher. “We got Angie’s grown girls trying to fight us, trying to stab us, trying to put her hands on our grandma. Get here now!”

[ChazII]

20. Thank you. Somehow I missed getting her

name. The stories that I kept seeing referred to her as the woman in pink.

[LisaL]

21. It's because msm wasn't naming her, especially considering she is getting death threats.

Of course NYT just decided to go ahead and publish her name.

[ChazII]

22. I read two articles which gives her name and age

as 22 years old and that she was a former foster child. Again, thank you for your help.

[BGBD]

23. Any

Proof she pulled a knife, other than saying so on a 911 call?

I haven't seen a shred of proof from anyone that she did any of those things

[StarfishSaver]

24. What proof to you have of anything that happened not on the video other than what someone said?

People are quick to believe what some people say in these situations when it comes to justifying police behavior (including accepting at face value the cops' version as gospel) but when it comes to giving any benefit of the doubt to the person killed by police, we get "what proof do you have other than she said it on a 911 call?"

[BGBD]

25. A witness

[StarfishSaver]

28. OK. Right

What Ma'Khia told the dispatcher can't be believed but whatever your "witness" said is proof positive.

As I said ... OK. Right.

[BGBD]

34. She also

Said there were other people there.

So why haven't they backed up that story? Why hasn't the other women been charged with assault for "putting her hands on Grandma."

I'm asking questions about information we don't have. You have spent weeks trying to make us not believe our own eyes.

[StarfishSaver]

38. You have no idea who has and hasn't "backed up" any stories since you are not involved in the

investigation.

But, nevertheless, it is clear that you assume that some stories are worth accepting at face value and others can't be believed unless you think they have been "backed up"- even though every bit of information you are getting is coming from pretty much the same source - either the cops or the media - and nothing has been "backed up" in any meaningful way.

And the more you argue, the more you make clear the biases and assumptions that police in this country feed and rely upon to cover and justify their behavior.

[BGBD]

40. No stories

Are worth accepting at face value. That's why cops wear cameras.

The only person with bias here is you. If you can watch that video and come away with the things you argue about it then that much is crystal clear.

[LisaL]

36. Ma'Khia isn't the one who called 911. It was her younger sister.

NT

[StarfishSaver]

39. OK. Not Ma'Khia. A witness.

A witness who some seem to have concluded is not to be believed while other witnesses are speaking the gospel truth.

[BGBD]

41. No

It doesn't change that its a single source of information.

Regardless, the girl in pink was not a threat at the time of the shooting. She was standing in the side walk holding a dog. That's on video.

You just want to believe the story that you feel helps your case of her being a scared kid. There are other stories that don't and you aren't even considering them.

If she pulled a knife and tried to attack people in the house there is going to be a charge. All we have to do is wait and see. Until then, you should take that story as fact.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

29. Again, this article is not about a cop shooting and killing Ma'Khia. It's about how the system kept

traumatizing Ma'Khia and her family until she went into crisis, and the fact that people in this thread can't let go of having her story end with her "unavoidable" death just goes to show that the first cop y'all need to abolish is the one living in your heads.

[StarfishSaver]

30. I hear you

But the fact that she was killed by a cop can't be separated from her story. She was marginalized, abused and treated as invisible, invaluable and suspect until her last seconds - and beyond.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

31. It's true -- and tbh this was more at posters who are obsessed with knife angles, "witnesses"

and so on. I restarted this thread last night because I had used the story to push for one of my hobbyhorses -- cop abolition -- and folks could not. let. go of the "girl in pink" when I wanted to zoom out and look at the ways we can liberate so many systems from carceral thinking. I wanted to eliminate the cop in the story so participants didn't get distracted by trying to insist the loudest that his actions were "justified." But you're absolutely right -- social services are intertwined with the PIC, which is why people are able to see a cop shooting Ma'Khia as something that makes sense. Thanks for the course-correction.

[StarfishSaver]

37. I really appreciate you posting this OP. It is very thought-provoking

I hope those pushing back as you describe are in a minority, albeit a vocal and prolific one, and that many more people are digesting and thinking about what you took the time and care to write.

(And, of course, we all know that if "the girl in pink" had been the one who was shot, folks would be singing an entirely different tune ...)

[WhiskeyGrinder]

42. .

I hope those pushing back as you describe are in a minority, albeit a vocal and prolific one, and that many more people are digesting and thinking about what you took the time and care to write.

That's all I ask -- that people take a minute to think of a different way, because a different way is possible.

(And, of course, we all know that if "the girl in pink" had been the one who was shot, folks would be singing an entirely different tune ...)

YEPPPPPP.

[Kali]

67. sorry

I was still in react to the shooting mode when I first replied and hadn't gone into the trauma she and so many have suffered at the hands of the foster "care" system. my gut reaction that it was a horrible tragedy remains.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

68. No apology necessary -- someday I'll learn you can't put rules on a GD thread. ;)

[Solly Mack]

57. My niece is 12 years old and 6 feet already. Incredibly tall parents. I'm the shorty in the family.

Everyone towers over me.

I worry already that people will see her height and her skin hue and decide she is an adult or deserves whatever happens to her. Trying to erase her emotional level and maturity level by believing her developmental level must be the equal of her physical appearance, coupled with the implicit bias held by others about skin hue - studies have shown that white people see black children as older than they actually are - and not only older, but more dangerous, less innocent.

I read this thread and know my worry is not baseless at all.

I didn't need to read this thread to know that though.

Still, a great sadness came over me.

My niece is fortunate in family and resources. It takes a village and we're one generous and loving village. Mother, grandmother, aunts and uncles, great aunts and great uncles, all there. All ready to step up and step in. None of that protects her from the racism in America though.

Not everyone is that fortunate and the foster/court system, rife with outright racism and implicit bias, all too often turns into a bottomless pit of disaster. All too predictable disaster that some would claim made it the norm, just the way it is - but I see the acceptance of multiple layers of injustices and apathy.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

59. I am glad for the community your niece has, and I am sorry that even that is not always enough.

[Solly Mack]

62. It is a bone-deep paralyzing fear. Knowing you can't protect them from racism.

Her brother is 6'4" and 15.

I'm in tears now typing this...because I can't stop what I can't stop and knowing that causes anger but that anger only intensifies the fear and that only causes more pain.

I hate it when people say it is not fair.

We already know it's unfair. We've known that for years.

Don't tell me it's unfair as if those words are an expression of concern.

They aren't.

It's an expression of acceptance of the circumstances that create the unfair treatment and outcomes.