If the Ohio shooting of the teenage girl is not justified, then no shooting is justified...

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97. sorry i'm just not keen on anyone delivering death based on two seconds of information.

growing up, my younger brother used to needle my older brother, typically by poking him in the shoulder repeatedly despite many requests to stop. eventually my older brother would have enough and smack my younger brother.

then, of course, my younger brother would instantly cry to mom and dad and my older brother would get in trouble.

there are many situations where cops can walk in at the wrong time, not knowing the whole story, and get a picture that's off, either in some small degree or wildly so, possibly even completely opposite to what it initially appears.

today my older brother is a good person, a popular teacher, many friends and a pillar of the community. my younger brother has since been diagnosed with a laundry list of mental illnesses, tried to kill an emt, and is known to the secret service for other things he's done. yet, had the police walked into our house at the wrong moment, they might well have killed my older brother.


there's just got to be a better way than to go from arriving on scene to killing someone in a matter of seconds. little to no warning, no attempt to use anything even slightly less lethal, just an instant solution that is highly likely to result in someone's death when they entire situation could be a misunderstanding or an act or just one person having a bad moment in a bad day.

the police should be trained to diffuse situations, or at least to try, so that one person having one bad moment doesn't result in someone's death.


killing someone wielding a knife can't be the only way to resolve this sort of situation, or many others.


what we have simply isn't working if it results in the police unable to resolve situations without killing people.

by and large, the african-american community *fears* police more than they look to them to secure the peace and safety, and if that's the case, the police have failed.

there's got to be a better way.