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Ma’Khia Bryant Police Shooting: Media and Activists Try To Stoke Racial Tension With False Narrative

Ma’Khia Bryant Police Shooting: Media and Activists Try To Stoke Racial Tension With False Narrative

“Columbus Police killed an unarmed 15yo Black girl named Makiyah Bryant. Another child lost! Another hashtag,” George Floyd family attorney Benjamin Crump tweeted before more facts were known.
Posted by Wednesday, April 21, 2021 at 06:00pm
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On the same day that the guilty verdict was announced in the Derek Chauvin trial, a police shooting happened in Columbus, OH. It prompted the Usual Suspects to rush to the Twitter machine to give their all-too-predictable hot takes well before more facts were known.

Before we get to their reactions, many of which aged very badly, here’s a quick rundown of what happened via local news station ABC6:

Columbus Police said at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, officers responded to 3171 Legion Lane. The caller said females were there to stab them and put their hands on them, according to police.

Columbus Police said dispatchers were unable to get information about weapons at the scene.

Officers arrived at the scene at 4:44 p.m.

Body-camera video from a responding officer shows [shooting victim Ma’Khia] Bryant appearing to try to stab two females when the officer fired, striking her.

Watch the graphic bodycam video of what happened below, which appears to back up the PD’s version of events. It’s set to slow-motion to show the sequence of events that led to the shooting.

Early reporting on the incident from “news” outlets like the Daily Beast relied heavily on statements from Bryant’s aunt Hazel that the video ended up proving false:

Before more facts were known, protestors arrived at the scene of the shooting. Some carried signs you typically see at Black Lives Matter demonstrations:

And as per the norm, the initial reactions from the left revolved around playing the race card:

Vice President Harris’ sister Maya also weighed in:

There were many others as well, as Ian Miles Cheong documented in an extensive thread:

https://twitter.com/GeorgeTakei/status/1384685445548740611

Benjamin Crump, the attorney for the Floyd family, declarws that Bryant was “unarmed”:

It was a familiar tactic he uses, and he was called out on it:

And there were others for who the facts, once known, still didn’t matter:

Then there were the “hey, why not let these gals stab it out” hot takes, which were truly bizarre:

Perhaps much of what’s wrong with how the left reacted to the story can best be explained by reading NPR’s explanation on how media reporting on police shootings can often be wrong:

And that, I submit, is a huge part of the problem.

— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —

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Comments

UserP | April 21, 2021 at 6:08 pm

I will not waste my time following this trial. I already know how it will end. Anybody who is still a policeman needs to quit right now and go into another line of work before this happens to you.

    Ironclaw in reply to UserP. | April 21, 2021 at 8:43 pm

    There are still places where decent people live and we treat our police officers well. Those places aren’t the ones run by democrats.

      UserP in reply to Ironclaw. | April 22, 2021 at 9:04 am

      No one can say with one hundred percent certainty that a white police officer will be safe if, in the line of duty, they end up killing a black person. No matter where it happens, it will become national news and his name and picture will be known to everyone in America and people will come from all over to demand “justice” for the black person and the police officer and his family will be in jeopardy.

        UserP in reply to UserP. | April 22, 2021 at 9:22 am

        Whether procsecuted or not, their life will be hell and they will feel like they are in the grip of an ironclaw.

        UserP in reply to UserP. | April 22, 2021 at 10:40 am

        This could even happen in Podunk ND where every single resident is a Republican and there no democrats within 500 miles. A black activist comes to town, causes trouble and the white policeman is called on to protect his own life or the life of another person. Within 24 hours everyone in America will know who he is, where he lives and all the intimate details about his life, Joe Biden, Maxine Waters, Kamala Harris, CNN, Oprah and hundred of others will demand justice. Activists will come to town to protest and threaten and his life will be a living hell and he will wish he had never been a policeman.

          UserP in reply to UserP. | April 22, 2021 at 1:15 pm

          Or perhaps you are right and I am wrong. In that case CNN, BLM, black activists, politicians, race baiters and critical race theory propagandists will say: “That is one the places where decent people live and they treat their police officers well. That is one of the places that isn’t run by democrats. So we won’t make any trouble there. We don’t care if black people die in that town. Let the wonderful white policeman alone. Killing a black person in that town is okay with us..”

          And everyone will live happily everafter.

    LukeHandCool in reply to UserP. | April 22, 2021 at 3:15 am

    That’s why big, Democrat-controlled cities will eventually only be able to recruit people who you wouldn’t want to be police officers for their police departments.

    With the lawlessness that’s being encouraged, good, decent people who would love to be officers in a well-functioning society, will reject the option of law enforcement and go with other career options.

    You’re going to end up with more sketchy, bad-ass types of guys as officers who shouldn’t be officers. These activist groups are just making things much worse. One very nice, older rookie officer I got to know (starting the career in his forties) , soon left LAPD and joined a small police department in a nice area with much lower violent crime rates and a supportive community.

    Veteran officers I’ve talked to have said they would definitely no longer recommend becoming a police officer to young people.

r2468 | April 21, 2021 at 6:11 pm

When do they get the 26 million and can we sentence this officer along with Chauvin to save time. /sarc. It is a never ending saga. So sad for everyone involved.

p1cunnin | April 21, 2021 at 6:16 pm

Meanwhile in Chicago, where are the marches and protests for the seven year old girl who was shot to death in the backseat of her father’s car at a McDonald’s? She had her whole life ahead of her, too. Oh yeah, wrong optics and narrative. Because narrative matters, not reality.

OldProf2 | April 21, 2021 at 6:24 pm

The protesters obviously don’t care when black people kill other blacks, which has happened everywhere they’ve defunded and demoralized the police. Look at the numbers in Chicago, New York, and Minneapolis.

So do the BLM supporters think that the officer should have let the girls fight it out, and then just call the coroner for the loser and take a statement from the winner? Most cops would quit the job if the politicians in charge said they should not intervene in knife fights.

If the cop hadn’t fired at the aggressor, who refused to drop the knife and continued her attack, then the young woman in pink would have “looked like a jigsaw puzzle With a couple of pieces gone.”

jb4 | April 21, 2021 at 6:26 pm

Jen Psaki, press secretary for President Biden, played the race card as well.

https://nypost.com/2021/04/21/jen-psaki-baselessly-and-disgracefully-racialized-the-killing-in-columbus/

    NavyMustang in reply to jb4. | April 21, 2021 at 6:47 pm

    I watched the video of the shooting. I would love to put that clown Psaki in the same situation and see how she does.

    That cop had about half a second to decide shoot/no shoot. He did a great job. I know. I’ve been in similar situations where I had just as much time to decide. Luckily I didn’t have to use my firearm.

    I don’t even see this going to trial.

      lc in reply to NavyMustang. | April 22, 2021 at 8:57 am

      Every single one of the people quoted above need to take a ride with inner city police for a minimum of a week, full shifts. Add the simulations on timing it takes for an attacker to reach them and what their reaction is.
      But they are cowards and won’t do it. The results wouldn’t fit their narrative.

      Address the root causes of black crime like fatherless homes, welfare cycle dependency with lack of work skills and direction, etc. etc.
      Why was this teen in foster care?

        Dathurtz in reply to lc. | April 22, 2021 at 12:50 pm

        I see a lot of the bad stuff in society. One day I was talking to our SRO about some of the crazy stuff we had seen and he invited me on a ride along. Holy crap people suck. It was like seeing a parallel world. If I was a cop I’d be cynical and jaded by week two.

    Observer in reply to jb4. | April 22, 2021 at 5:21 am

    Blacks are only @ 13% of the U.S. population, yet they commit over 50% of the violent crimes in the U.S. The reason that blacks have more interactions with the police than white people do is not because “racist” cops are unfairly targeting blacks, it’s because blacks commit so many more violent crimes than white people do! Blacks venerate thugs and “gangsta” culture. Trayvon Martin was not killed because of his skin color; he was killed because he wanted to be a “gangsta” (as his phone contents showed) and he needed to practice his street fighting skills. He saw a fat, doughy, pasty guy (Zimmerman) who looked like an easy mark out alone in the dark one night, and he decided to jump him. Similarly, Mike Brown of Ferguson, MO, didn’t die because he was black. He died because he’d punched a cop in the face and tried to take his gun, and when Brown started charging at the cop again and the cop ordered him to stop, the cop had to shoot Brown to protect his own life. And this teenage girl in Columbus didn’t die because she was black, she died because she attempted to stab two women with a large knife in front of a cop. The cop ordered her to stop, she ignored him and continued attacking others, and the cop had to either shoot her or watch while she stabbed and possibly killed someone.

    And Psaki is also wrong about something else: despite blacks’ disproportionately high rates of violent crime, government crime statistics show that cops are slightly less likely to shoot and kill a black suspect than a white suspect. If the police in this country were as raaaaacist as the left insists, that would not be the case.

    The truth is that blacks’ issues with cops are primarily caused by blacks’ own dysfunctional life choices. “Raaaaacism” is just the convenient, and phony, excuse they use to obscure that ugly fact.

guyjones | April 21, 2021 at 6:26 pm

The Chauvin verdict will be forgotten in about five minutes, as the vile Dhimmi-crats move on to their next outrage/grievance.

    Paddy M in reply to guyjones. | April 21, 2021 at 6:33 pm

    Yet, people still think that the mob can be appeased. Looking at you, Greg Gutfeld.

      guyjones in reply to Paddy M. | April 21, 2021 at 6:39 pm

      What did Gutfield say that made you criticize him in this regard? Just curious; I hadn’t heard anything about him.

        Paddy M in reply to guyjones. | April 21, 2021 at 6:46 pm

        Gutfeld basically said he was glad Chauvin was found guilty on all counts whether he actually was guilty or not, because he didn’t want his neighborhood looted again.

          healthguyfsu in reply to Paddy M. | April 21, 2021 at 7:29 pm

          I’m pretty sure that’s sarcasm directed at placation of the mob. I’d hope most of his listeners, not being crazy leftists, would pick up on that.

          Gutfeld is a master of sarcasm.

          guyjones in reply to Paddy M. | April 21, 2021 at 8:24 pm

          Damn, that’s pretty selfish thinking! Thank you for the explanation.

          jb4 in reply to Paddy M. | April 21, 2021 at 9:32 pm

          My recollection is that Gutfeld’s neighborhood was looted last year in one of the riots and he was angry about it on the air on more than one occasion.

          4rdm2 in reply to Paddy M. | April 22, 2021 at 5:59 am

          That is pretty dishonest criticism of blindingly obvious sarcasm.

          Fat_Freddys_Cat in reply to Paddy M. | April 22, 2021 at 8:05 am

          As others have said, Gutfeld was being sarcastic. It isn’t apparent if you read his statement in print, but if you watch him delivering it on-air it’s pretty obvious.

lhw | April 21, 2021 at 6:28 pm

Who the heck would want to be a police officer these days. You wake up in the morning and go out the door not to know if you will not come back in because you are either dead or in jail. Not for me.

George_Kaplan | April 21, 2021 at 6:28 pm

I love NPR’s statement – “Some facts reported by the media may later turn out to be wrong.”

Total get out of jail free card. Propaganda, what propaganda?

    guyjones in reply to George_Kaplan. | April 21, 2021 at 6:38 pm

    It’s totally farcical. These media outlets are so eager to jump on the Party bandwagon and spread their propaganda at light-speed, they issue pre-emptive warnings that their reporting may not be factually accurate.

guyjones | April 21, 2021 at 6:31 pm

Look at the stupefying idiocy of the vile Dhimmi-crat narcissists. The execrable Kathy Griffin, like the rest of the vapid Hollywood twits, must opine on the situation in order to proffer her “wisdom” — let the black kids fight it out with knives; no police intervention necessary!

And, what would have happened if a cop had stood by, while one kid murdered another with a knife? Predictable cries of “racism,” for the officer’s lack of intervention.

You cannot win, with these fools.

Paddy M | April 21, 2021 at 6:32 pm

“Teenagers have been having fights including fights involving knives for eons. We do not need police to address these situations by showing up to the scene”

I burned myself on this hot take. So dumb.

    SeiteiSouther in reply to Paddy M. | April 22, 2021 at 10:05 am

    Yes, Bree. Bastard swords and dirks were a common sight on the playground when I was growing up. *eyeroll*

    How a grown woman got through life with brain processes like this is beyond me.

    Say what you will about Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo, they actually said “let’s wait until more facts come out.” They both saw the body cam footage and basically agreed that the cop made the right call.

    They also addressed the WHY NOT TASE HER! Cuomo said they don’t always work and not at that distance.

    I’ve also seen people say, WHY NOT RESTRAIN HER?!?!! HE’S A “TRAINED” OFFICER!

    Dude, if you’ve seen wounds inflicted by a knife, you’d know why. Hand to hand restraint, when a suspect is armed with a knife is VERY DANGEROUS. And ballistic vests are designed to stop bullets, not knives.

    People are being intellectually dishonest about this occurrence, despite the fact that video evidence proves otherwise.

    Lastly, LeBron James needs to just shut his mouth.

guyjones | April 21, 2021 at 6:36 pm

Look at the vile Dhimmi-crats’ utterly perverted and warped sense of morality — more outrage expressed for a teen killed by police in response to her willfully-made decision to murder/grievously wound another teen, with a knife, than for the 66-year-old Uber Eats driver who was murdered by two black teen girls, a few weeks ago.

And, we always hear from the Dhimmi-crats about the “conversation” black parents have with their kids, about law enforcement encounters — where is the conversation about the epidemic of lousy parenting in black communities, that produces sociopaths who believe that using a gun or a knife is the manner in which to settle disputes? That’s a conversation the Dhimmi-crats don’t want to have. Denzel Washington does, though. He knows what’s up.

    alaskabob in reply to guyjones. | April 21, 2021 at 7:17 pm

    Looking back on “Midnight Basketball” …. the solution to teenagers being out at late hours rather than at home studying or sleeping. The 13 year old kid hanging with gang members at 3 AM and mother (brood mare) not knowing his whereabouts for 3 days prior… Society needs and demands structure and they are getting the wrong message and blame others for their problems.

texansamurai | April 21, 2021 at 6:51 pm

lord–what a moment–from the video, appears the officer acted with the intent to save the life of the girl in pink–could there be any better motive than to save an innocent person?–in an instant only

am so grateful and thankful to all of our countrymen who have the courage to put on a badge and go in to work every day–because of you and your dedication, our country (overall) is a much safer place to live–am far from perfect myself so will never demand that of you — your courage and commitment is humbling–thank you

CommoChief | April 21, 2021 at 6:56 pm

Not the best journalism on display. Knife wielding suspect being shot by LEO in response to a 911 call specifically about a knife wielding suspect doesn’t seem like a huge story.

Ben Crump is an effective hustler but not a credible person. His self serving falsehoods aside the cam shows the suspect shove one girl, while a man kicked the same girl, all captured on body cam so literally right in front of this LEO.

Then knife girl shoves another girl and raises her knife while ignoring LEO commands. A knife is a deadly weapon. Deadly force justified. End of story for the rational.

The irrational will of course focus on the age of the girl which the LEO couldn’t possibly know. They will claim the LEO should have used a taser or better yet waded in to fight and subdue someone with a knife.

Biden may be out on this one though, he said shoot in the leg as.I recall. Maybe the LEO will state he attempted just that but hit the torso instead?

    Milhouse in reply to CommoChief. | April 21, 2021 at 7:53 pm

    Whatever Ben Crump says, I automatically assume the opposite is true. Any witness or expert paid by Crump I automatically assume is lying. Including that doctor who supposedly did the second autopsy of Floyd (or whatever it was that he actually did and called it an autopsy).

n.n | April 21, 2021 at 6:59 pm

Stoking diversity, equity, and inclusion to breed a progressive consensus of adversity. Baby Lives Matter (BLM)

DaddyO | April 21, 2021 at 7:00 pm

The video shows the lack of respect given when the police show up ( they were called to the scene). Love how the media , politicians & lawyers pretend that the person killed wasn’t doing anything wrong.

    NYBruin in reply to DaddyO. | April 21, 2021 at 7:53 pm

    And what about the bystander who drop kicks the girl on the ground? Isn’t that a crime anymore??

buck61 | April 21, 2021 at 7:29 pm

yet the real shouls be but you’ll never see, columbus police officer saves black teen from possible deadly stabbing attempt

Romey | April 21, 2021 at 7:35 pm

The local _______ lives matter should get their own emergency number and response team and they could come to the aid of the missing guided ‘youts and thus save countless lives. A small portion of the damages awarded to survivors of “police brutality” could pay for this.

    healthguyfsu in reply to Romey. | April 22, 2021 at 12:05 am

    This is actually a great idea. We should just get a police force to respond only to black people’s bullshit staffed by black people. Let’s make sure they are all wearing body cams so we can put them through the armchair QB ringer that they put current cops through.

    n.n in reply to Romey. | April 22, 2021 at 1:16 am

    Black Lives Matter. Brown Lives Matter. White Lives Matter. Some, Select Lives Matter. Diversity par excellence, One step forward, two steps backward.

thad_the_man | April 21, 2021 at 7:41 pm

At the moment Bryant was shot, she was about to slash the young lady’s throat. Why doesn’t the young lady whose life was saved come forward and defend the officer.

Dathurtz | April 21, 2021 at 7:48 pm

So…did the man who kicked that downed girl in the head get arrested?

NYBruin | April 21, 2021 at 7:55 pm

Why aren’t they upset about a society that breeds 16 old murderers?

MajorWood | April 21, 2021 at 8:14 pm

The policesystem isn’t broken and doesn’t need to be fixed. What is broken is the ghetto mentality, and honestly, having lived in balmer, I do not think it is fixable, but the Left will spend Billions trying and failing, while taking their 10% cut off the top.

Everyone focuses on pink girl, but the first girl fell back onto the ground to avoid the knife that was swung at her first (4m30s mark in the slo-mo video). And this was when Ma’khia was looking right at the police.

Black Knives Matter

The Friendly Grizzly | April 21, 2021 at 8:31 pm

Now is the time for police to take full refuge behind the Supreme Court decision saying they are not obligated to provide any protection to the public.

Let them stab each other. Let the “Reverends ” sort it out.

Wahrheit | April 21, 2021 at 8:51 pm

Perhaps it would have been better for the girl in pink to have suffered a Traumatic Abdominal Wall Injury with Evisceration – Disembowelment. Considering the size of that knife, that very well could have happened. The girl in pink and her guardians should be voicing their gratitude to the LEO who saved her life, but…crickets.

    jmare in reply to Wahrheit. | April 22, 2021 at 9:02 am

    Watch the video again. The girl was aiming for the head and neck. At least, that’s what it looked like to me.

4fun | April 21, 2021 at 10:47 pm

Apparently the lamestream liars missed the other stabbing that resulted in a death of a 13 year old murdered by a 13 year old. Wonder how they missed it…..just kidding.

Breaking911
@Breaking911
·
1h
Cincinnati police say a 13-year-old girl has been charged with murder in the stabbing death of another 13-year-old girl.

daniel_ream | April 22, 2021 at 2:16 am

The early tweets all insist the knife-wielder is the one that called the police. Has that been verified or is it more narrative-mongering?

    MajorWood in reply to daniel_ream. | April 22, 2021 at 12:33 pm

    I am waiting for the 911 call to be released. I too doubt that Ma’khia made the call. I suspect it is being held in reserve by the police to be released when tensions mount again so as to take the wind out of the protests, at least as they are viewed by rational people who can think.

      healthguyfsu in reply to MajorWood. | April 22, 2021 at 3:10 pm

      I think it was the foster family mom that made the call.

      It really doesn’t matter regardless. Calling the police does not give you carte blanche to attempt murder on others.

scrubone | April 22, 2021 at 6:17 am

I can’t believe Twitter kicked me off but keeps these idiots on there.

Moochie | April 22, 2021 at 8:06 am

Why do the police even show up for these incidents? Let the joggers do what they do. It is in their nature.

Fat_Freddys_Cat | April 22, 2021 at 8:09 am

Another gross stupidity I’m seeing on social media is that the police could have fired a warning shot or done some sort of ninja kick to disarm the girl. The nonsense coming from sofa samurai who have never had to directly deal with real life violence is painful.

No doubt any day now Joe Biden will say “well he should have just set his phaser to stun like Captain Kirk does”.

smalltownoklahoman | April 22, 2021 at 8:18 am

Some of those takes man! When one is so invested in something they can’t let it go no matter how bad it makes them look!

jmare | April 22, 2021 at 8:58 am

Is it just me, or does anyone else see the inevitable ironic result of all this outrage over “racist” police? I think eventually, cops will respond to calls, see that black people are involved, and just drive on rather than risk life and liberty to serve people who hate them, resulting in truly racist policing.

Neo | April 22, 2021 at 2:41 pm

In Defense of Teenage Knife Fighting

By Charles C. W. Cooke NRO
Since when do we need the cops to intervene in the recreational stabbings of our youth?

I haven’t decided if this story is satire.

Security video

https://twitter.com/scuba2024/status/1385285882668793862

REDACTED | April 22, 2021 at 8:35 pm

Cop shoulda harpooned her ass

more fitting weapon

CaptTee | April 22, 2021 at 9:48 pm

Should a lawyer who broadcasts an inflammatory lie be disbarred?

I think so, but I am not holding my breath for it to happen. Yes, I question the integrity of the legal profession.

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