An Unnecessary Death in New York: Police Killing Highlights Flaws of 'Zero Tolerance'

[sysop]

In downtown Manhattan, police officers shot and killed an African-American man in August after he had walked across Times Square waving a kitchen knife. His last moments tell the story of a broken law enforcement system in New York City.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-861783.html

[onegai-shimas]

yes. The subject is a tragic one, a sad one. It might seem cold, to mention it as a (first) reaction to the news, but when I realized that an article in spiegel-online, that some RSS feeder brought to my smartfone .. touched me. Some man, that I never heard of before behaved ... well, strange ... and was shot by policemen & women, that I do not know either. All that happened in a place half way round the world.
And the story touched, because ... it took a couple of seconds to realize the reason ... because the article belongs into the top quality percent of journalism. This level of journalistic craftsmenship has become rare.
Thanks for that.
And it might be a sign, that the times they are achanging.... I am obviously one of very few to notice and the only one to take the effort to give this feedback.

It's just the USA's new flair for social hygiene, a return to Victorianism, order and ordure. The tourists were all well-scrubbed with expensive bars of soap and their camera lenses were cleaned with alcohol. Everyone was sanitary, and a potential germ was eradicated. They were attracted by blood, which seemed strangely human and possibly dirty. Afterwards, everyone went to their condos and hotels, brushed their teeth, and washed their hands.

[jas88]

Another of those cases where either doing something utterly trivial or even doing nothing at all would have saved one or more lives: if he had simply dropped the knife, things would have been very different.

Like the Russian (Aeroflot 593) and French (Air France 447) airliners which crashed with pilots clinging desperately to controls in situations they didn't properly understand, simply letting go would have allowed the situation to calm down (the Aeroflot Airbus still had a working autopilot that would have levelled off automatically; the French one may or may not have recovered from the stall otherwise, but certainly didn't with the pilot fighting it).

From the talk of hating the police and his previous drug offences, it does sound as if he wanted a fight; when they have guns and you don't, that can really only end one way unless you're bright enough to give up.

[democratsramshield]

I quoted this Spiegel story in my blog diary at the Daily Kos. While I must confess to being disappointed in the lack of reaction my article received, I am hopeful that it has changed some minds. To that end I'd like to invite you to read my blog at the link below and to provide feedback at my email address below.
democratsramshield@yahoo.com

Here is the URL address for my blog about the tragedy of Darrius Kennedy as being intertwined with the history of racism dating back to slavery in the United States. A history which we Americans to date sadly have never owned.
Additionally like 59 million Americans, Darrius was medically uninsured and therefore unable to access mental health services. Therefore sadly I'm afraid that Darrius' tragedy will not be the last such tragedy in the United States. The truth is we Americans need the help of people of conscience from around the world. To that end please read my article at the link below. Thank you!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/1...ing-of-Kennedy