I got a petition from Color of Change today re: Tony Robinson's shooting. I couldn't sign it which surprised me. I tried to explain to them thusly:
I listened to all of Ismane's statements today. He is a black man who is a law enforcement officer also. He did not deny structural racism. We in Madison find that obvious. But not every officer killing is criminal; and that's his ruling. Which makes sense to me. I can say that and still think most police shootings are not justified. Putting them all in the same basket is a mistake; meaning many are criminal on the side of the police and most are not justified, but not every single one.
If you separate this petition into 2 different ones, I'd sign one and think about the other. This way I cannot sign. It implies that every cop who kills is a killer cop.
That seemed insufficient:
Shrooms, THC, and Xanax. That is a strange combination. It doesn't explain the behaviour. BUT... One possible side effect of Xanax is aggression. If shrooms are used for a spiritual journey, quiet and dark are usually part of the setting. So if Xanax (typically used to curb anxiety or prevent panic attacks) brought on not calm but aggression in conjunction with shrooms, then the real culprit is the ignorance of our society that equates drug use with drug abuse and does not encourage knowledgeable explorations. Where was the person who was supposed to keep this youth safe? To keep him away from the world and possible misinterpretations/interactions, etc? To keep him from mixing natural substances and synthetic pharmaceuticals? To warn him of the possibility of paranoia from the shrooms? Or from the weed, if the strain used had that propensity? Maybe this youth did not know he needed that aide. If people should be prosecuted, it should be for denying access to this information by the criminalization of natural substances.
Ignorance we can change. Stupidity is way more problematic.
So I will be accused of ignoring structural racism by diverting to the idiocy of the repercussions of the war on drugs. I don't see this youth as a victim so much of racism, but more as the victim of cultural ignorance (both society's and his). Yes, this shouldn't have happened: but for many reasons.
And police are indoctrinated to consider drug use criminal. But not all criminal activities are bad, just as not all legal activities are good. So the police training regarding drug users is terribly biased, unhelpful, and in this case, dangerous. His friends called 911 knowing he needed help; which probably meant being shot full of tranquilizers, not 7 bullets.
Racism, yes, but there are so many other forms of stupidity to counter also.