The Rainbow Bridge Traveled Too Soon

[wyld_dandelyon]

I went to a memorial service on Sunday. It was a beautiful day, and a beautiful service, but it’s hard to write about. It wasn’t someone I was close to, though only because we hadn’t met until recently. I liked him. I knew he was gay and that he enjoyed dancing, though he wasn’t graceful or strong. I knew he was having hard times, since he

Comments

[msstacy13]

The truly disheartening thing is the consistent inconsistency of these situations.

[wyld_dandelyon]

It is sadly not so inconsistent that people of color, queer people, and people with mental illness who have encounters with the police have bad outcomes. Our officers need training in dealing with all of these issues. Leaving things to random chance whether an officer has enough knowledge and holds him or herself to a higher standard than their bosses demand is causing untold tragedies.

[msstacy13]

Well, yeah; the inconsistency of getting shot by police
is pretty consistently in favour of white folks.

Unsure

[ext_2970102]

From what I have seen of police encounters with people with swords, most have ended badly, so I'm not sure that his not being white was as large a factor as we might think. Of more concern is the lack of training for police officers about those with mental illness. Militarization of police forces have reinforced the 'us vs them' thinking that can lead to such tragedies. Not enough has gone into training officers to be flexible in their thinking and to look for non-violent solutions.

Re: Unsure

[msstacy13]

I think you're right about swords being equally dangerous regardless of whiteness; I was thinking of these situations in general.

Re: Unsure

[wyld_dandelyon]

Swords, in the hands of someone with sword fighting skills, can be quite dangerous. In the hands of an amateur, not so much. Even in the hands of an expert, they're not a distance weapon, and a gun is

Re: Unsure

[wyld_dandelyon]

Police militarization troubles me, as has the consistent push to incarcerate more and more of our people, to allow seizure and retention of property not just as evidence or after a conviction, but upon nothing more than an officer's suspicion.

[kelkyag]

My sympathies on your loss.

Where to even begin addressing the issues around the young man's death ...

[wyld_dandelyon]

Yeah, there's so many different things that affected this situation and that we, as a society, need to improve on.

[seekerval]

So sorry to read of this young man's sad situation and death. My condolences to you and his family and friends.

So many deaths that should never have happened...

[wyld_dandelyon]

Thank you. And yeah.