The shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, in Columbus, Ohio has sparked protests despite the police releasing a videotape that appeared to show Bryant moving to stab another girl. The incident has strikingly similar legal issues to the shooting of Adam Toledo in Chicago. The parents of Bryant insist that she dropped the knife just before being shot, the same situation raised in the Toledo shooting. The videotape does appear to satisfy the standard for the use of lethal force under Tennessee v. Garner and other case law.
Police told local media that, at 4:32 p.m., officers were dispatched to the address after a caller reported that a female was trying to stab other individuals. The videotape shows Bryant moving toward the other female with the knife before being shot by the officer.
Various media outlets like NPR posted misleading accounts of the shooting, which fueled anger in the city. NPR later corrected its original account:
The Daily Beast was criticized for its coverage, including a quote from “local Columbus activist K.C. Taynor of Exodus Nation” that “the latest police killing made it impossible to celebrate the Chauvin verdict. It’s another murder. They’re animals. They treat us like animals.”
Here is video with the The body cam footage around 6:35.
The knife if shown laying next to Bryant.
The site Heavy reports that Franklin County Children Services confirmed that Bryant was a foster child. Her aunt, Hazel Bryant, told The Dispatch that her niece “got into an altercation with someone else at the home” but that Bryant dropped her knife before being shot by a Columbus police officer.
On its face, the videotape would offer strong support for a justified shooting claim.
The Columbus Police manual states “Sworn personnel may use deadly force when the involved personnel have reason to believe the response is objectively reasonable to protect themselves or others from the imminent threat of death or serious physical harm.” That language is derived from Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985), when the court addressed the Fourth Amendment protections afforded a fleeing suspect and held that an officer may not use deadly force to prevent escape unless “the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.”
Tennessee v. Garner addressed a fleeing unarmed suspects and found the state statute too broad:
The use of deadly force to prevent the escape of all felony suspects, whatever the circumstances, is constitutionally unreasonable. It is not better that all felony suspects die than that they escape. Where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others, the harm resulting from failing to apprehend him does not justify the use of deadly force to do so. It is no doubt unfortunate when a suspect who is in sight escapes, but the fact that the police arrive a little late or are a little slower afoot does not always justify killing the suspect. A police officer may not seize an unarmed, nondangerous suspect by shooting him dead. The Tennessee statute is unconstitutional insofar as it authorizes the use of deadly force against such fleeing suspects.
In Graham v. Connor, the court held that the question of whether an officer used excessive force “requires careful attention to the facts and circumstances of each particular case, including the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and whether he is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight.” However, the Court ruled unanimously that the “reasonableness of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, and its calculus must embody an allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second decisions about the amount of force necessary in a particular situation.” (The ABA discussed these and other cases in a recent posting).
In this case, Bryant was in close proximity and moving toward the other person with the knife. This was a direct threat of lethal force made against another person and the officer can claim that there was little time or space for “de-escalation” efforts. The shooting is likely to be found to be justified under the governing standards for the use of lethal force.
There are many disturbing aspects to this story. It is, of course, tragic that a young woman lost her life. But it is also upsetting that so many media outlets rushed to report false and misleading accounts of the event–“unarmed 15-year-old girl,” “shot with no warning,” etc.–clearly contradicted by the evidence. Politicians from the White House on down made things worse by immediately framing this as yet another example of a person of color killed by our nation’s supposedly systemically racist police.
From a broader perspective, I am far more angered by those on the left who say the police officer should not have intervened at all. Senior Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett, for example, tweeted that the officer must be held accountable because he dared to shoot “to break up a knife fight.” After all, others noted, teenagers have engaged in knife fights for “eons.” The stupidity of such statements astounds. Knives are extremely dangerous and the third most common weapon used in U.S. homicides. Participants in knife fights aren’t guaranteed to get back up like actors in a choreographed rumble between the Sharks and Jets after the curtain goes down.
Even more horrific than their ignorance, however, is the gross indifference to the value of black lives that these comments reflect. Is it really better to let a black woman with a knife murder an unarmed black woman than for a white policeman to stop the attack through the use of deadly force? Is a black-on-black homicide, no matter how depraved, better than a white-on-black homicide, no matter how justified? Such callous disregard for African-American humanity might help explain why the thousands of shootings in inner cities every year–mostly by and upon young men of color–get virtually no attention while a very small number of tragedies get endless media coverage if they advance a narrative of white oppression and racism. It is time to act as if black lives, like all lives, really matter by protecting black victims of crime, regardless of the race of either the perpetrators or the police officers.
DB:
“There are many disturbing aspects to this story. It is, of course, tragic that a young woman lost her life.”
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Where’s the tragedy in a murderer being stopped before she completed the act? The tragedy is the outright lying to divide and torment us by woke celebrities Iike Leadhead James and the Sleepy Joe Biden Band. Oh and btw princess here didn’t lose her life; she forfeited it.
You obviously didn’t read past the second sentence since I make many of the same and additional points.
DB:
Read it all. I still question why you say it’s a “tragedy.” You didn’t back off that throw away, see-I’m-good-and-sensitive line. Personally, I find it an act of heroism by the cop and one less criminal to deal with.
Media rushed to report misleading reports. DB, you just don’t understand the ratings game. The more views the higher the advertising dollars. The headline, “Cop does his job” just doesn’t bring in the big bucks for CNN, MSNBC and the rest of the fake news media. They make money in the process of saving the world. Great work if you can get it and your conscience allows.
Sadly, yes, ratings seem to matter more than accuracy or fairness. Little wonder trust in media is so low.
“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”
– George Santayana
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“If all earthly power were given me,” said Lincoln in a speech delivered in Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, 1854, “I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution [of slavery]. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia, to their own native land.” “…he asked whether freed blacks should be made “politically and socially our equals?” “My own feelings will not admit of this,” he said, “and [even] if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white people will not … We can not, then, make them equals.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Naturalization Acts of 1790, 1795, 1798 and 1802 (i.e. four iterations)
United States Congress, “An act to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization,” March 26, 1790
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That any Alien being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof
________________________________________________________________________________
January 1, 1863
A Transcription
By the President of the United States of America:
A Proclamation.
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
*** Note
Secession is not denied or prohibited in the Constitution, and secession is fully legal and constitutional, and secession is distinctly not “rebellion.”
Lincoln had no authority, power or legal basis to issue a proclamation or to confiscate legal private property.
Plans had existed since 1714 for the compassionate repatriation of freed slaves to Liberia, establishing and acknowledging their status as non-citizens.
Non-citizens in the country without legal basis are illegal aliens.
Deportation is required for illegal aliens.
Lincoln willfully, deliberately, repeatedly and egregiously violated an Act and numerous Articles and Sections of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, constitutionally requiring his impeachment and conviction.
#BLM and their cronies don’t want the rule of law, evidence and proper legal procedures……….they want the right to act like animals and to riot, burn, destroy without restraint..
from the article “List of (50) cities (that are the most dangerous in the world) by murder rate”
only 4 us cities on the list
all are democrat run cities and have been for decades
#9 St. Louis – last republican mayor 1953
#11 Baltimore – last republican mayor 1967
#16 San Juan – last republican mayor 1945
#34 Detroit – last republican mayor 1962
ITS SOMETHING IN THE WAY THAT THE DEMOCRATS ARE GOVERNING
THIS WONT GET ANY BETTER UNTIL DEMOCRATS GET BETTER
DEMOCRATS WONT GET ANY BETTER UNTIL THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA DOES THEIR JOB AND FORCES THEM TO
Oh, and I am wound up today! Too much coffee! Sooo, I think that is a KIA Picanto there in the background picture and if so, isn’t that sort of a Massive Foreshadowing of what was to come??? I mean, think Greek here, and Oracles and stuff. . . Somebody has to notice stuff like this and it might as well be me!
Killed In Action???
An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm
There once was a chick named Mah’Khia –
And, I see ya, but don’t want to be ya!
A cop gunned her down,
And she sprawled on the ground,
Right there beside of a KIA.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
OT: U.S. intel community walks back claim Russia put bounties on American troops in Afghanistan, report
U.S. intelligence had “low to moderate” confidence that Russia put bounties on U.S. troops last year.
Trump is no longer in office so I guess the US intelligence community can walk back that claim.
If I recall some like Anonymous the Stupid attacked Trump with that claim.
Diversity (e.g. racist) indemnity is a fallback position when political congruence (“=”) is a factor. So, how will diversitists reconcile when each party is people… persons of black, or will they indulge liberal license and their Pro-Choice religion to justify avoidance? Will the focus shift to people of white, alleging Jew… White privilege, in a bid for shared/shifted responsibility?
Oh, and something else to think about. Suppose the cop didn’t kill Knife Chick. Suppose she was still walking the Earth. She is 16 years old, and Trayvon Jr. hereinafter, KickBoy, looks at least to be 16 or 17. What kind of jobs are these two losers suitable for in the future???
Would you want Knife Chick tending your parent in a nursing home? Would you want her babysitting your kid. How about KickBoy? Can you see him in an office setting somewhere??? Do you see either of these two being good students and getting good grades in school? I don’t.
These violent savage black youth and millions others just like them will be lucky to find a menial wage job somewhere. Maybe screwing up orders at MacDonalds until Robots replace them.
This is what we get from pussyfooting around and trying to build Black Esteem while ignoring the multiple train train wreck that is Black America. All to promote a Democratic Party Narrative.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
So, would you accept a Black male 13 y/o who admits stabbing his friend in the abdomen so hard that the knife blade, hitting the large showy belt buckle so hard that the blade of his knife broke, becoming a world class neurosurgeon? Think Ben Carson MD The nutrition a child or teenager has access to affects behavior. Dr Carson was from a religious denomination that doesn’t permit their children access to junk food. His mother was unmarried but only because the father was a bigamist, so not present in the home for guidance or financial assistance. Her church members picked up the slack. There are solutions out there and throwing cash at the problem is often useless. I won’t go into the history of our CIA importing heroin and crack cocaine to destabilize the Black population other than to suggest dismantling the CIA would be a start to solving this issue. As if they didn’t show their hand with their behavior in the 2020 elections.
This is what the rhetoric and Stupidity of Anonymous the Stupid leads to.
https://twitter.com/justericthomas/status/1384659451752353794
I’d have no problem with the officer putting a round into that fine gentlemen seen trying to kick the victim in the head as she lay on the ground, as well. That head kick was every bit as lethal as the knife.
@mespo,
That would be excessive force and would result in the officer going to jail.
It was a clean shoot and you will start to watch the protesters die down because the police did in fact release the body cam footage which showed the knife in the hand when the officer shot.
Counter this w the night prior, a 13yr old girl stabbed to death another 13yr old girl in Cincinnati, OH
And of course two 15yr boys shot each other in a different part of Columbus.
LeBron deleted his tweet, but still won’t mitigate any potential litigation if the officer or his family are harmed over this.
Personally I wouldn’t have shot because I would have been afraid of hitting the girl in the pink sweats.
Aninny:
“That would be excessive force and would result in the officer going to jail.”
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Your knowledge of the law of self-defense, transferred intent and the alter ego rule/reasonable belief rule is truly underwhelming. Briefly stated you or your alter ego may use reasonable and up to deadly force when confronted with force likely to cause death or serious bodily injury. A kick with shoed feet to the head qualifies as lethal.
I was more worried about the little dog. It’s a miracle that it wasn’t killed in the middle of this mess!
I don’t know how we reconcile any of this. The election of 2020 ushered in a madness the likes of which we have never seen, do not know how to cope with, and I pray that it is not too late for a turnaround. The rule of law may not end up being enough.
James:
“The rule of law may not end up being enough.”
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Then it’s the State of Nature, as Hobbes would say, which inexorably leads to the Rule of Law among those bright enough to see its utility.
The writings and the acts of the American Founders were effected in the light of day and were and are displayed for all to see.
The American Founders gave their enterprises, estates and lives as disciples of the cause of freedom; not monarchy; not oligarchy; not anarchy; not diversity; not collectivism; not communism.
They were speaking the truth to you; unfiltered by the insidious prevarications of the ostensibly empathetic, power-seeking charlatans and deceivers.
It’s time.
It’s long past time.
______________
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
– Declaration of Independence
I’ve read at least 6 accounts of this and, with the exception of one or two commenters – not the reporter, no one has mentioned the fact that they guy who’s yelling “You shot my baby” had kicked the girl who fell in the back of her head.
In some instances that can bring attempted murder charges.
Professor Turley tells use that the shooting is likely to be found justified. Do you really think it will matter to Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Maxine Waters, BLM or any if the other millionaire race baiters. Why would they waste another opportunity to pad their checkbooks. The suckers are the white wokesters and the black community.
yes
Anonymous the Stupid, Al Sharpton created race riots over a phony claim of race in NY. That is in part how he got started.
@Thinkitthrough
Since your post LeBron James put up a tweet threatening the officer and then deleted it.
Nobody cares about the rule of law anymore.
Now you know why sensible people legally own guns.
“Since your post LeBron James . . .”
I am a life-long Lakers fan. Because of his race-baiting and his irrational condemnations of the police, I am now a former fan.
Oh Mugabe would be so proud of how the white politicians who lack fidelity have turned 17% of the population into their army.
Amazing how some folks can look at unedited videos of an event and are too blind to see or too stupid to grasp what really happened.
Cops get called about someone threatening others with a knife.
They show up…several of them and well yes….there is someone with a knife and behold. she violently attacks two people with that knife.
One victim falls to the ground only to. be kicked in the head by a second assailant and the second victim falls back and escapes the first attempt by the Perp to stab her…..and as the Perp begins a second attempt….a Cop shoots the Assailant.
What is hard to grasp here….the entire encounter happened in less than 20 seconds…lots of violence….a deadly weapon being wielded by a very aggressive person…..and a young girl in serious danger of being killed.
WTF would you have the Cop do….write a Memo…file a Report about a stabbing that resulted in a serious injury or death…..how would you have the Officer deal with the Perp with the knife AFTER she killed the girl?
Good Shoot….well done….go home with a clear Conscience Officer….you saved the life of that young girl that was being attacked.
Let’s see some attention paid to the environment that taught that dead girl that it was just fine to resort to violence and murder.
The Cops are not the bad guys…..it is the Perps that cause these tragedies….blame them for what happens….not the Police who are summoned to the scene.
Ralph, the only reasonable thing for the cops to have done was to get back in the police car, drive away and let them have at it. Let the coroner sort it out.
That is not fair to the person being attacked.
Dear Prairie Rose, unfortunately today “ fair” is only a place were pigs go to win blue ribbons. Will there be any fairness for the cops?
Thinkit,
Integrity means they aim to secure equal protection under the law for all people in their jurisdiction.
And the Law of Self-Preservation means that integrity is not a suicide pact.
Those stripping the police of moral authority have created an impossible alternative faced by law enforcement: Your professional integrity *versus* your freedom and justice. Don’t blame the police if, in effect, they go on strike.
“Let the coroner sort it out.”
Or next time, have the 911 operator tell them: “Call your local BLM activist.”
Suicide by cop is the first thing that comes to my mind.
I doubt it. There’s something about black women that produces an uncontrollable rage over such simple things as a fast food order taking too long. Look at the videos all over YouTube of them tearing up and shooting up fast food restaurants over some minor annoyance. Last week, two black female Correctional Officers (!) in Maryland got into an argument with the employee at a drive-thru window, so they drove their car into the Taco Bell! That’s right, they were C.O.s who left for lunch and returned in handcuffs! I don’t know if black females have much higher testosterone levels than other females, but I’m amazed at the level of violence they engage in and their willingness to physically fight males, including cops.
@Ralph,
But you forgot something…
Broad daylight.
Cops are on the scene when the girl comes out charging with the knife.
Her rage is so focused on attacking that she ignored the presence of the police.
The Democrats are telling cops that they have a choice, either shoot the bad guy and be charged with racism or refuse to protect persons of color… and be charged with racism.
It’s good to be the king, especially if you’re a corrupt Democrat. All the hypocrisy and blow you could want, right guys?
If you were to write a Mission and Vision statement for the Democratic party based on their leadership practices at all levels of government, what would they look like?
We are all familiar with the DoI and the founder’s vision for our country. Are those self-evident truths even self-evident any longer? We are all created equal, with natural rights, and the security of those rights is the only reason government is to exist. That is the baseline, the foundation on which every individual since was elected to office. Our constitution is essentially our national mission statement. As with all mission statements, it is to guide the government on what they shall do, how they shall do it and who they shall do it for. Oaths are taken to assure the people that those elected are committed to that original vision and mission. Yes, that is an idealistic view. So, what is the realistic view?
Is there any evidence to prove the Democratic party governance practices are not antithetical to their constitutional mission? Who or what is leading their party? Given what they are doing, how they are doing it and who their are doing for; what is their vision?
Yes, the American Dream. our national charter, the national mission statement is Pro-Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
I believe the Democrats’ vision is to keep Wall Street and the tech monopolies happy…
and Wall Street’s and the tech monopolies’ vision is to keep Beijing happy.
Beijing should be very happy right now.
Diogenes,
That’s certainly another way to arrive at the answer; begin with understanding what the PRC’s vision for America is. Then, as far as a mission statement; what would the PRC want American leadership to do and how would they go about doing that? Beijing has got to be licking their chops.
Yes.
Puppetmasters
I’m sorry, but this was a clearly lawful use of force.
This 16 year old was so lost, so out of control, that she tried to murder 2 girls right in front of 3 police officers. She tried to stab one girl, who fell on the ground. That tall guy then kicked the girl while she was down. Then she spun and tried to stab the girl wearing a pink track suit. That girl cringed away on the car, curling up against the knife. If the officer hadn’t shot Bryant, it would have been the girl in pink lying on the ground in a pool of blood. Bryant had her right there against the car.
Her mother had the temerity to describe her daughter’s kindness? Her daughter was the type of person to try to stab two unarmed girls, and she was hanging out with a guy who would not only kick a girl hard in the stomach or side, but do so while she was lying down. Her daughter was a violent attempted murderer.
That cop didn’t target Bryant because she was black. He drew and fired his sidearm in order to protect the black girl she’d pinned against the car and was trying to murder.
If he hadn’t acted, and that girl in pink was murdered, then the world would be outraged that he just stood there and did nothing. The message would be that girl in pink’s life mattered, but cops don’t protect black people. There is no winning. The tragedy is that a 16 year old girl would try to stab two people.
If shooting someone while she was in the act of stabbing someone else, who refused his repeated commands to stop, isn’t a lawful use of force, then nothing is. If there are riots or protests over this, then all the cops of these Democrat states should just quit now. I guess people can just call these kids instead of 911, if they liked how they handled disputes better than law enforcement.
You can’t stab someone. You’ll get shot by a cop if you move to stab someone when he tells you to stop.
Is this really a question?
This tragic incident was a grisly reminder of black-on-black crime. Stop making criminal behavior laudable and making martyrs out of criminals.
“I pledge obedience to the mass delusion….” In matters of religious fervor, facts don’t matter. Now we know, neither does the rule of law.
Here is a cheery note
Americans trust their physicians (58%) >>>> the news media (16%)
An Uncertain Public — Encouraging Acceptance of Covid-19 Vaccines
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2100351
What about their lawyers? 70 percent rank lawyers average to very honest/ethical!
Estovir, how much ever trust they have in physicians it has fallen from earlier years. Today a reduction in trust is reasonable. They are no longer the same.
Estovir,
“Safety-related issues are consistently the top reasons for hesitancy”
They didn’t bother to ask whether people doubted the efficacy.
Stop a black person from killing another black person or feed and educate your family and put away a small amount for your retirement after 30 years of service to your community. The liberals all talk about controlling the police but they never talk about a solution to the murders in the black neighborhood. No way they would bring up a problem that they are responsible for. It would hurt their bank accounts and their collections at the voting booth. Can’t have that.