Tag: Assault

What Foster Care Creates

Ma’Khia Bryant

Because police are so quick to shoot first and ask questions later, we will probably never know the whole story of why this 16 yr old black girl in foster care became so distraught or if she had grabbed a knife to threaten others around her or why she would have felt that threatened. The question remains – was there not a better way to subdue her – than to simply shoot her dead ?, even as a jury was rendering a guilty verdict against Derek Chauvin for the malicious killing of George Floyd. There is something not right about how policing is done in these United States.

I can have compassion for this young woman, acting out in hate, as it bubbles up from within her. No doubt she has not had an opportunity to do any true inner spiritual work nor for that matter have the law enforcement officers that encountered her. They become identified with their sense of grievance or their work. I sorrow that this young woman will now never have a chance to find her true self, not the wounded damaged self she was at the time of her death.

The continued killing of people that didn’t pose a threat at the time they were killed is something we need to ferret out of human consciousness. These families are grieving – all of them affected by gun violence, including that delivered by law enforcement.

According to Bryant’s family, it was the 16 yr old victim who called the police for help when a group of “older kids” threatened her with assault. It is never clear that she was actually holding the knife that was later seen on the ground near her. What is clear is that Bryant is fighting with another girl when the officers arrived.  She then approaches a second girl and throws her against a car parked on the driveway. The officer shouts “Get down!” three times, pulls out his gun and shoots in Bryant’s direction at least four times and she falls to the ground.

An investigation is going to be held into the exact nature of these events. It was the officer who shot her that claimed she had the knife. Maybe she had taken it away from one of the other girls during the altercation. Hopefully, the truth will win out. Only an edited version of the body cam footage has been shared. The complete video is expected to be released today, which is Wednesday.

Bryant was in foster care under the custody of the Franklin County Children’s Services. The home is located on Legion Lane where she got into an altercation with someone else also living at the home and where she was ultimately shot dead by police.

One Way The System Is Broken

I read a heartbreaking story today and I want to share it because not only does it illustrate something that is really not just but also that love is real and true and people can and do change.

So this woman was adopted at age 5. Her mother’s rights were terminated voluntarily because she had failed to complete her “plan”.  The woman was placed into foster care – twice.

At the time, her father was incarcerated on assault charges. Other than the fact that he had lost his temper and gotten violent, she doesn’t know anything more about the circumstances.  What she does know is that he did not get violent with her mother or any of his children.  I too understand inheriting a temper, I got my father’s much to my own surprise when I discovered that well into my 50s.

Back to my story.  The father did NOT want to give up his rights. He wanted to parent the child himself, when he was released. He wasn’t serving a particularly long sentence.  However, his rights were forcefully terminated because he was in jail.  Sadly, he was released a few months after she was adopted.

At some point, the father spoke to a caseworker.  He learned there was a prospective couple planning to adopt his child.  It is said he made threats to harm the couple planning on adopting his child.  He threatened to forcefully take his child back if he had to.

So it is said that for this reason, the adoptive parents chose a closed adoption.

Sadly, her dad maintains to this day that she was “kidnapped”.  This is an understandable perspective.

Turns out, her dad lived close by her entire childhood even though she did not know him. He remarried a few years after his release.  He went on to have 4 more children who he successfully parented. A portrait of her hung in their bedroom all the years of her childhood.  They even had a small cake to celebrate her existence on her birthday each year.

This just feels so very sad . . .