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It's not terribly surprising that between the "opening up" of businesses, and the protests that started late last week, the number of cases of the virus have doubled in the state this week. Some folks just believed/wishfully thought that reopening meant it was all over, and that the signs in the stores that have opened asking customers to wear masks are political correctness as Trump puts it. I guess I don't mind young adults taking risks, but it does bother me that parents are taking their kids to the stores again with no protection. The initial disease doesn't seem to be serious for the vast majority of kids, but the later symptoms some kids have come down with weeks later ought to scare any parent.
Warning: Because of the following content, I'm turning off comments for this post. It is intended as an honest statement of what I've seen and what I understand now (right or wrong) for future reference not as a start of a discussion of any kind.
Years after the events in Ferguson, MO, what seems to have happened then is that Michael Brown went into a store with a few friends to buy some cigars. It is unclear whether the cigars were out in the open or a clerk got them out. It is clear that the clerk, a fairly young black man, realized that Michael was too young to legally buy tobacco products and an argument ensued. I do not know whether Michael tried to pay for the cigars or not. Whatever happened, Michael left the store with the cigars, and the clerk called the police. The police station sent out an ambiguous message to the nearest policeman, who soon found Michael and his friends and confronted them. Instead of listening to what the officer was saying, basically to stop where he was, Michael began nervously circling the officer and pulled the cigars out of his pocket. The policeman assumed what he saw was a weapon; Michael's buddy thought the spread out cigars were Michael trying to raise his hands. They were both wrong. The policeman panicked and shot Michael several times killing him. His buddy spread the word that Michael had called out, "Don't shoot." There is no evidence that ever happened in the clear video of the events. (The buddy died a couple years later, apparently killed in neighborhood drug violence.) On the one hand you have a poorly informed, and poorly trained police officer assuming the worst about a big, black kid and on the other you had a different black kid embellishing what was already a terrible situation.
What happened last week in Minneapolis appears to be something even worse. ( Read more... )
Warning: Because of the following content, I'm turning off comments for this post. It is intended as an honest statement of what I've seen and what I understand now (right or wrong) for future reference not as a start of a discussion of any kind.
Years after the events in Ferguson, MO, what seems to have happened then is that Michael Brown went into a store with a few friends to buy some cigars. It is unclear whether the cigars were out in the open or a clerk got them out. It is clear that the clerk, a fairly young black man, realized that Michael was too young to legally buy tobacco products and an argument ensued. I do not know whether Michael tried to pay for the cigars or not. Whatever happened, Michael left the store with the cigars, and the clerk called the police. The police station sent out an ambiguous message to the nearest policeman, who soon found Michael and his friends and confronted them. Instead of listening to what the officer was saying, basically to stop where he was, Michael began nervously circling the officer and pulled the cigars out of his pocket. The policeman assumed what he saw was a weapon; Michael's buddy thought the spread out cigars were Michael trying to raise his hands. They were both wrong. The policeman panicked and shot Michael several times killing him. His buddy spread the word that Michael had called out, "Don't shoot." There is no evidence that ever happened in the clear video of the events. (The buddy died a couple years later, apparently killed in neighborhood drug violence.) On the one hand you have a poorly informed, and poorly trained police officer assuming the worst about a big, black kid and on the other you had a different black kid embellishing what was already a terrible situation.
What happened last week in Minneapolis appears to be something even worse. ( Read more... )
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