So the Urban League and other professional victims are outraged at the, "brutal, " treatment with the kid at ERHS who evidently did not sustain an injury.
Well, here are some other suggestions for outrage:
ERHS ranks #286 in the state in academic assessment proficiency with a math proficiency of 14 percent of students and 25 percent in reading. Perhaps the League should be outraged at that.
A man was murdered on Lyerly Street the other day and the lady with him was injured. Where's the outrage?
Three teens are arrested for the murder of a 21-year-old on Sept. 6. Hello, Urban League.
A gun is found in a student's backpack at Howard on Sept. 20. Perhaps that is the reason the ERHS SRO wanted to check the student's backpack.
We just remembered the seven ladies shot a year ago at a block party, including the two killed. One year later, not one person has come forward to offer information. What say you, Urban League?
Perhaps the League should follow the example of Batty Battle, the chairman of GRIEVE and herself a victim, who tries to keep alive the memory of those murdered on our streets. Keep up the good work, Mrs. Battle, and those who join with you.
Douglas Jones
Ooltewah
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There's all kinds of hurt. There's physical hurt like the one the middle school female athlete received after a basketball game when there was an altercation between her and another female player from the opposite team and she had her head slammed into a set of lockers by a cop monitoring the premises, opening a gash barely missing her eye. I crossed paths with that very same teen years later in her early to mid 20s and she was still sporting the scar that barely missed her eye nearly 10 years before.
I can't say what emotional or psychological damage may have been caused because those types of damages aren't visible and often manifest themselves in other ways. Either they turn inward and become self destructive or they blow outward on society. As a veteran, surely 'someone' knows about PTSD and even supports those infected with it. Well, PTSD doesn't only happen to military veterans.
When it comes to children and learning, you have to consider the environment they're being taught in and what's actually taking place in that environment. I witnessed it all and more. No one learns in a toxic environment. Any toxicity at the hands of adults often spreads and infects the students.
When it comes to shootings, especially where there's no suspects, you have to keep your options open. Anyone can fire into a crowd and be gone within a split second. Poor, minority communities are often wide open, exploited by all sides where anything's possible. Same strategies have been used on especially, but not limited to, vulnerable nations in order to destabilize them. You can all it in preparation for an invasion, revitalization or gentrification. The endgame is all the same. Just carried out without the tanks and powerful weapons.
Be it a country or a community, the poor, vulnerable and marginalized makes soft targets. They're always the first on the receiving ends of injustices. It's always been that way.
Brenda Washington