Yeah, I have a huge problem with the expectation that black people are supposed to stop other black people from criminal activity here. Why? Because they share the same ethnicity? I've certainly got no special powers to prevent another white guy from smashing something up. I mean, I'd give it my best 'hey man, that's not cool', but I'm not going to put my life on the line for the benefit of local businesses.
It's a country where the police can't seem to police themselves even when watching a fellow officer commit murder. And citizens are supposed to police themselves? They're not the ones who are actually (or supposedly) trained in de-escalating dangerous situations.
If this was just about this one death, I don't think there'd be riots and protests given the swift firing and likely impending charges. But it's not just about this death. A lot of people in these communities find themselves in stressful, unnecessary situations with law enforcement on a regular basis, with risk of injury or imprisonment or even death. That's the really ####ty situation that needs to be fixed, and not even swift and thorough convictions of these cops will fix that problem. Until that changes, every highly visible death like this one is going to be a lightning rod for all that justifiable anger.
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