We have all seen on the news the terrible scene that played out in the streets in Minnesota when George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old black male, was arrested by the Minnesota Police for attempted forgery at a convenience store. The action was caught on video as George Floyd, handcuffed and pinned to the ground face down by an officer who pressed with his full weight with his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck for more than 8 minutes. We watched and heard George Floyd crying out that he couldn't breathe. We heard him calling for "Mama". We watched as his body went limp with the officer still holding him down. This will be a scene I shall never forget.
As nurses, we see the horrific effects of racism in our hospitals and community every day. We cannot remain silent as yet another black man has died at the hands of police...
Quote
George Floyd's last words were "I can't breathe.” George Floyd died shortly after arriving at the hospital."
Nurses jump into action when they hear someone say "I can't breathe", instead of standing there watching them die. Their goal is to save lives, not kill people
Quote
In the case of George Floyd, Minneapolis Police took no care or life-saving measures. Instead, they left him pinned down to the ground until paramedics arrived. Police ignored the pleas of George Floyd and he died.
Nurses care for all patients, regardless of their gender, race, religion or other status. We expect the same from the police. Unfortunately, nurses continue to see the devastating effects of systematic racism and oppression targeting people of color in our communities. We demand justice for George Floyd and a stop to the unnecessary death of black men at the hands of those who should protect them.
As a nurse, or as a compassionate human, how has this horrific event affected you? We have seen protests (some peaceful and some that have erupted into riots), vandalism, looting, and more. What is going on in your community? What actions can nurses take?
Let us stand together and let our voices be heard. Post your comments below.
She was literally thrusting s knife while she was being shot. Her sister can say whatever she wants after the fact, but when she was killed, she was actively attacking another person with a knife.
would you feel better about the situation if she was shot only after fatally injuring another party?
She was literally attempting to stab someone. She was in the act of plunging the knife at someone’s face when she was shot.
be objective here. The police officer showed up, asked what was going on, and immediately the situation escalated. He shouted several times for the parties to stop, and when an aggressor had another person up against a car trying to stab someone he used force; this wasn’t a situation motivated by race, it was a situation caused by someone attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to another person.
As I mentioned before, it appears the problem started in the home prior to the call. CNN mentions the drama in the home. The girl was 16, while all the other people there including the she was trying to stab were all over 18 more like 20 and think was about 30ish. From the CNN article it appears that she hated being there and the cops were called to that foster home before. The police that shot her is not the issue. What happened for her to go into such a rage to the point that she runs out with a knife. To say it was just over a dirty room. Nope, something is missing with that conclusion.
That foster home and the foster parents should be investigated and all adults in that home.
She was literally attempting to stab someone. She was in the act of plunging the knife at someone’s face when she was shot.
be objective here. The police officer showed up, asked what was going on, and immediately the situation escalated. He shouted several times for the parties to stop, and when an aggressor had another person up against a car trying to stab someone he used force; this wasn’t a situation motivated by race, it was a situation caused by someone attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to another person.
A whole lie. He shot her after being on the scene for 10 seconds.....literally 10 seconds! I'm going to mute you now because you keep making up lies on demand. I can't.................
Dude, I usually appreciate most of your posts and contributions to this site, but in this instance you’re refusing to be objective and instead are using your race as a reason to project and ignore facts.
in 10 seconds, the situation turned from people yelling to someone being a split second from being stabbed. Race has nothing to do with it... the police officer should have shot Ma’khia whether she was white, black, brown, yellow, green, or gold as she was imminently threatening another person. In that instant, the situation escalated to the point where deescalation by other means would have likely lead to the death of her victim.
The person she was going to stab had been abusing her and her sister for a while. All you're doing is exposing yourself and how you feel about nonwhite people. Yep, I think I'm going to exit this conversation with you. I've avoided it for a few days to cool off and after reading through what's been going on since I left, it's clear I need to just not speak to you about this. I'm sure I'm going to break the TOS on AN because I don't process gaslighting and ignorance too well, especially when it's people being willfully obtuse and inherently racist yet trying to be witty with it. I won't do it.
I won't do a person defending a woman about to stab another woman. You can't be serious.
Have you been at home where the family or couple is always fighting and you can cut the tension/hate with a knife. You have to talk in whispers to the one sane person in the home least someone will explode. You are quick to leave or rarely get out of your car.
Now imagine being the minor child in such a home, or worst yet a foster kid. I'm not talking about normal parents arguing. I mean violent threatening violence, hole in wall, and sirens at the homes nightly violence.
The cop did nothing wrong. He came in as the lava exploded out of the volcano.
_____
Not comparing the victim to a dog. Just an analogy. A person abuses a dog. When the dog breaks and attacks someone, don't blame the person who shoots the dog as it lunges at the victim. Blame the person who triggered the dog with months of abuse.
But again, police are no fools. They know - here comes that 80% again- that 80% of gun owners are law-abiding citizens who keep them for self protection against the same bad guys that the cops have to worry about. Or, perhaps they are hunters. Perhaps both. I am a gun owner. I strongly believe in the right to bear arms. The 20% are the criminals, and the inept, unstable, mentally ill or other variables that might apply and mean they should not own a firearm. Yet many of these are illegal firearms. If you take away legal firearms, the 80% are now potential victims of the 20% who will still get firearms illegally.
Police in NZ do not routinely do not carry guns.
3 August 2015
Since 1941, 29 people have been fatally shot by police
Do you accept that Police work must be so much harder in the USA due to this gun law?
"The right to keep and bear arms is protected by the Second Amendment to the Constitution since 1791,[208] and most state constitutions also guarantee this right".
According to criminal justice and policing experts, police have good reason to be fearful. The US has a tremendous amount of civilian-owned guns — far more than any other country in the world. Based on recent estimates, there are more firearms in America than there are people. That presents a constant potential threat to police.
“Police officers in the United States in reality need to be conscious of and are trained to be conscious of the fact that literally every single person they come in contact with may be carrying a concealed firearm,” David Kennedy, a criminologist at John Jay College, told me. “That’s true for a 911 call. It’s true for a barking dog call. It’s true for a domestic violence incident. It’s true for a traffic stop. It’s true for everything".
Police going to work everyday must know that behind all these incidents lies what seems to be a constant fear that a gun may be present.
Facing the constant fear of been shot everyday must be traumatic.
"Initial reactions to trauma can include exhaustion, confusion, sadness, anxiety, agitation, numbness, dissociation, confusion, physical arousal, and blunted affect. Indicators of more severe responses include continuous distress without periods of relative calm or rest, severe dissociation symptoms".https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207191/
This trauma related to knowing there may be a gun present must increase the likelihood of police shootings.
Which would be somewhat negated by better trained officers and gun control. I'm pretty sure that most police officers are republicans and do not want gun control efforts.
I also think that they are not on a contract basis so if they can't hack it, they can leave but you will probably find that they are quite often wannabe tough guys and so insecure, that in situations where they can reduce tensions by backing off, actually escalate situations to appease their egos.
There's also the fact that they actually applied for the job and in the list of dangerous jobs, actually come in maybe around 7th or 8th?
Research seems quite firmly established in that social inequity in society is linked with crime in lower socio economic groups.
It is better to seek to address social inequity than to blame individual police officers who work daily in societies full of injustice and hate. Injustice and hate that is created through social inequality.
When you live in a society full of guns - the idea of not having a gun seems implausible.
I live in a society where police don't need to carry guns. They don't need to carry guns because people (inclusive of criminals) do not (on the whole) carry guns.
gere7404, BSN, RN
662 Posts
She was literally thrusting s knife while she was being shot. Her sister can say whatever she wants after the fact, but when she was killed, she was actively attacking another person with a knife.
would you feel better about the situation if she was shot only after fatally injuring another party?