What's more frightening than impossible sorcery? Ordinary objects magically become guns

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Washington Post @washingtonpost
Opinion: Ordinary objects magically become guns — as soon as a black man touches them https://t.co/3r9X1Y9702

It does not matter what it was to begin with. A wallet. A pipe. A cellphone. It makes no difference. The phenomenon remains the same every time.

In the morning, it is very clearly a cellphone. Anyone who looks at it can see it.

In the afternoon, it is still very clearly a cellphone. It sends texts. It makes calls. Its screen lights up.

But in the evening, the transformation occurs. A police officer sees the cellphone, sees that the hand holding it belongs to a black man, and suddenly, quite without warning, it becomes a gun.

This keeps happening...

read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2018/04/05/ordinary-objects-magically-become-guns-as-soon-as-a-black-man-touches-them/?utm_term=.441dfe4feeef

[comradebillyboy]

1. Perhaps police academies could teach cops what guns

actually look like.

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2. perhaps the shoot first and ask questions later policy isn't serving the community well?

yes, i recognize that the police are there to protect us, and
yes, i recognize that waiting until someone else shoots first can be dangerous and sometimes even fatal.

but the policy of shooting at center mass until you're out of bullets the instant you even fear someone *might* have a gun and *might* use it is a recurrent source of killings of innocent americans at the hands of their government.

this is completely unacceptable.


i think the entire way the police interacts with the community needs to be rethought. police seem to be constantly putting themselves in positions where they feel justified in using lethal force and that has to stop. i think basic traffic stops need to be rethought. most of that could be done by text these days without the officer even leaving the police car. much safer than walking up to the driver's door.

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3. »

[dalton99a]

4. "Suspect's finger looked like a gun barrel and I feared for my life"

"DA announces no charges for officer in shooting"