Another Way Of Looking At Things, Longform, News & Politics, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized / 14 Apr 2021

Deeper Intentions and the Life of Daunte Wright

At the very same time the trial against Derek Chauvin is unfolding in Minneapolis, another Black man, Daunte Wright, has been killed by a police officer in nearby Brooklyn Center.  George Floyd, as is well known and viscerally horrifying, was killed by Chauvin as the now-former officer pressed down on his neck for nine and one-half minutes, ignoring pleas for mercy and for justice.  The intention to use force was clear. The trial will determine if nine and a half minutes of application of such force can be equated to murderous intent or, possibly, the less severe charge of manslaughter. In Brooklyn Center, however, there is every reason to believe that now resigned 26-year veteran Kimberly Potter did not intend to use deadly force, On the body cam video, she is heard yelling “taser, taser, taser” before reacting with horror that she had in fact drawn her gun and shot Daunte Wright rather than discharge her taser after he jerked away from her. In her case, the question will be for many how someone could be so negligent as to mistake a gun for a taser.  My question, however, is how a man’s life could be seen as so negligible that the procedures used to apprehend him while driving would be both so haphazard and confrontational that a deadly scenario would so easily come into play. The intentions of a system that chooses to place officers in a role of constant and heightened conflict and makes every bias more dangerous, is more relevant than the intentions of Kimberly Potter. Chances are pretty high that Kimberly Potter did not say to herself  I am going to shoot this man because he is a Black person. Chances are also pretty high that as she approached the car she was particularly concerned that…

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