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2 Works 19 Membros 1 Review

Obras por Jessica S. Henry

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Here is a book for 8 – 12 year old children full of partial information. I will say that I believe topics like this should be discussed as a family but if you do choose to turn to a book, at least find one that is unbiased and factual.

“People were horrified by what they saw on the video” (which is described as “George Floyd was a black man who was killed by police officers. His death was recorded on a cell phone camera and the video was viewed by millions of people around the world”). They believed that the officers who killed George Floyd acted in a way that was unfair and unjust. People were especially angry because it was not the first time something like this happened. Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, Stephon Clark, Alton Sterling and Atatiana Jefferson are just some of the black and brown people killed by the police in recent years”

All deaths are tragic, everyone agrees. What is missing from the above examples (except for Breonna Taylor and Atatiana Jefferson) is that each were in the process of committing a crime (Breonna Taylor was shot because her boyfriend shot at police first and she was caught in the crossfire). All of the men were not following police orders and most were actively fighting the police. Charges against all but one of the police officers in Floyd’s case were dropped. The verdict in the trial hadn’t been decided yet this book states multiple times that he (Floyd) was murdered. Innocent until proven guilty is still a thing in America. Also missing are the names of white people killed by the police (which is more than black people) and that none of the above killings were proven to be because of race.

“One of the earliest forms of American Policing were slave patrols in the American South, which were first formed in 1704 in South Carolina”

There were Slave patrols in the democrat run southern states, a stain on American history. However, the development of policing in the United States closely followed the development of policing in England The watch system was composed of community volunteers whose primary duty was to warn of impending danger. Boston created a night watch in 1636, New York in 1658 and Philadelphia in 1700. The night watch was not a particularly effective crime control device. Watchmen often slept or drank on duty. While the watch was theoretically voluntary, many "volunteers" were simply attempting to evade military service, were conscript forced into service by their town, or were performing watch duties as a form of punishment.

“When people say they want to the defund the police, they mean that governments should reduce the amount of money they spend in their budget on policing”

AOC, a strong supporter and very public figure said “Defunding police means defunding police. It does not mean budget tricks or funny math. It does not mean moving school police officers from the NYPD budget to the Department of Education’s budget so the exact same police remain in schools”

“In some countries, like Iceland, police officers don’t generally carry firearms”

That’s nice and not a fair comparison. That has very little to do with the police and more with the laws, education system and communities (Iceland is not Socialist – just sayin’). I won’t list the racial demographics. Now seems an appropriate time to direct adult to research the top ways black people are killed in America and who they are killed by.

The chapter on reform is fair and everyone agrees that, like all professions, there is always room for improvement. However, police “receiving improved racial bias training to help increase awareness and reduce the prejudices that they may bring” implies that all the above incidents were race related when there is ZERO proof that they were. Also, not all police officers are white and most of the cities with the highest violent crime rates are run by black officials.

“Abolitionists (people who want to abolish the police) argue that we need to create a society where the police are unnecessary. Programs that would prevent the conditions that cause crime in the first place should be created and funded”

That’s a lovely idea. However, police involved incidents are the result of many of the programs that we have failing. Personal responsibility, quality education, pride in community and strong family values should be the focus to stop lives of crime.

Of all the black people to expose young people to, Angela Davis should be LOW on the list. She is a communist, anti-Semite who pronounced that Jews being thrown in prison “deserved what they get” and she helped with a domestic terror plot.

I will admit that this book compared to the other I reviewed in this series attempts to show some humanity to police I can’t help but feel that it’s a way to keep kids reading.
The author offers no citations or sources and conveniently leaves out key facts that she, as a former public defender, knows are crucial for making informed decisions. Shame on her. Let’s stop teaching kids what to think and go back to teaching them how to think.

As I said in my last review, I hate that I feel that I have to add that my children are multi-racial but there you go.
… (mais)
½
 
Assinalado
HRC0826 | Apr 28, 2021 |

Estatísticas

Obras
2
Membros
19
Popularidade
#609,294
Avaliação
½ 0.5
Críticas
1
ISBN
5