Officers showed up at the home and found a man struggling with a woman over a knife. An officer opened fire and struck the man, killing him at the scene. Only later did they discover the man who was killed lived at the home and was struggling to fend off the woman who had broken into his home.
Police say Brandon Durham, 43, had called 911 and reported multiple people outside his home shooting, then told the 911 operator that someone had entered his home through the front and back doors and he was locking himself in the bathroom.
He also told the 911 operator that he was home with his 15-year-old daughter, according to police. Officers kicked open the door after arriving on scene and hearing someone screaming as well as damage to vehicles parked outside the property, police said.
As a person of color, we do not trust the police.
This is why.
I’m the whitest white guy who ever whited, but I don’t trust the police for the same reasons.
About a year ago I had a very disruptive neighbor. Every night he would bring tons of women over and play loud music, and yell over the music with the people he had over.
Then, in the daytime he had a girlfriend, who worked nights. Every day she’d come over and they’d yell for hours and hours. She had a legitimate reason to be angry at him. He was the father of his child. He never married her, and in the 6 months he’d been a father he got 2 other bitches pregnant. Her words, not mine. On top of that, he was calling off work to invite MORE bitches over, and making up the lost money by pawning her jewelry. Which only got him $23 because the pawn dealer ripped him off. She says it was real gold, real diamonds. And the jeweler convinced him to sell for $23.
On top of that, he wouldn’t even let her and his son move in with him because it would “clash with his business”. Essentially he was just giving excuse after excuse after excuse.
Why she didn’t just leave him, and sue for child support, I don’t know. He was clearly using her. He didn’t love her. They fought daily. Neither of them were happy. And as they fought, the baby cried and cried and cried.
I asked him to keep it down. Others in the building asked the same. His indoor voice was louder than most peoples “onstage without a microphone” voice.
In short, for 8 months it was a daily struggle to sleep.
But I only complained to the landlord. Never the police. When my sister found out, she couldn’t imagine what I meant by “This isn’t something to be resolved by the police”.
My sister is a Karen. A real bad one. She wants all her problems to go away with a complaint from her to someone else.
But she never stops to put herself in others shoes. I restrain myself from saying I “hated” that neighbor. Only because I reserve hate to be powerful and meaningful. So I don’t hate him. However I do think he was highly inconsiderate not only to his girlfriend/son, but also all around him at any given time.
A real “main character” complex.
Still though, I didn’t call the police, because I didn’t feel his inconsiderate behavior prompted a risk of death.
IF (any that’s a big IF), If police could be trusted to arrive, handle citizen resolution in a fair non-violent way, then yes, I’d have called the cops. I certainly felt it was a job they SHOU LD do. It just didn’t feel like a job they COULD be trusted to do.
And none of my family/white friends could understand why. All of my black friends did.
I understand your motivations, but I think that guy would still have found his tires running flat on a regular basis. And his power going out. And any other petty things I could think of to make his life worse.
I hate that guy, whether you say it or not. He is bringing unwanted, unloved children into a world where they will always be at least a step behind their peers, and without any understanding of why their world is so hard. And the reason is THAT GUY. So fuck him. He deserves what he gets.
I never call the police for shit like that either. Some big animal is standing in the road? Sure. Car accident? Sure. If they’re already at the scene I’ll talk to them.
I’ve never seen anything get better in a heated situation because the cops showed up.
I grew up in complete chaos though. I seen my dad get beat half to death by them when I was a kid, followed a few years later by my brother being tackled and kicked at the bottom of our stairs.
My brother was a beast though, so I’m not sure anyone else could have controlled him that night.
He somehow survived being the beast he was and he’s a good father and a contributing member of society these days. Better than me actually.
As a European, I am sorry that the US police is incompetent and dangerous like this that you cannot trust them to handle these kind of situations and have to be afraid that someone gets killed. In other countries this would be standard case to call the police for, although they could only handle the disturbance aspect if there is no direct indication of violence or abuse
It sounds like there was child abuse happening. Imo, you made a mistake not calling the police.
Woosh af. Bullets dont solve child abuse social workers and crisis response do
Sounds like OP did neither. While I dont trust cops at all, statistically, it would have been better to make the call because they more often than not don’t shoot people. And actually, yes, bullets would solve the child abuse problem, just not in a way anybody would want. Can’t abuse a child if you’re dead.
I’d absolutely roll the dice for the child’s safety over the piece of shit parents life.
Never call the police why we all need to be armed. Seriously dude called for help and was killed in by the people who was supposed to protect him.
What they do to the lady who had broken in?
From the article:
I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up charged with felony murder because of the cop’s escalation, though.
100%, ultimately she is the cause, and also, you KNOW the police ain’t stepping up to take their own accountability.
Pretty sure gender also came into play.