On Monday morning, probably like many others, I hesitated to touch the play button on my screen.
Yet this video footage was what the community had been asking to see. I agreed that transparency was essential in the investigation into the killing of Thurman Blevins by Minneapolis police. Now it was time to witness.
As soon as the video started, I felt my body tense. Within seconds, the police officers yelled at the man sitting on the curb with a woman and a small girl nearby. The video shows no signs of violence or crisis. Until the officers yelled loudly and aggressively at Mr. Blevins.
I am not a black man, but an Asian-American woman. I have not been stopped by the police, and I do not have a personal history in my family of traumatic interactions with the police. But that video raised my heart rate and tensed my body — because I too share the community fear of police violence.
Yelling, swearing, with guns drawn. This is a recipe for escalation and heightening the trauma response in a black man, who then chose to run away, pleading for his life. "Don't shoot me," we can hear him say in the video.
What other scenario could have unfolded? Could the officers have approached a nonviolent situation with a calm greeting? "Hello, sir. How are you?" Then, maybe, "We received a call and are wondering if you can tell us anything."
We live in a country and a state where people have a right to carry a gun with the proper permit. In that moment, there was no knowledge of Blevins' permit status. Although he may have matched a description of a person shooting a gun into the air, the moment the officers encountered him was not a dangerous one.
A group of Minneapolis organizers, activists, researchers and artists working through the initiative MPD150 (noting the 150th anniversary in 2017 of the formation of the Minneapolis Police Department) have argued that the police have wrongly and without proper training taken on roles that should be filled by other parts of the community. When we break down these roles to truly address mental health, domestic and sexual violence, homelessness and other issues people face, the police become unnecessary and even harmful.