Donn Harris
1 min readOct 30, 2023

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I am relieved that the 8 year-old boy was not shot; as the incident unfolded I feared the worst, thinking of Tamir Rice in Cleveland, age 12. Not to downplay the trauma of having weapons pointed at an 8 year-old. I did a study of 9 #BLM killings and developed recommendations for avoiding these confrontations. (https://medium.com/free-thinkr/derek-chauvin-murder-verdict-closes-blacklivesmatter-act-i-30c1fa5ab76c?sk=7c0364fd725759e22b616815d8956079) One astounding factor: of the 9 incidents, there was barely a misdemeanor in the initial contact. Expired registration, jaywalking, looking suspicious, selling loose tobacco ..... these were the touchpoints from which deaths occurred. The problem is clearly with having the contact made at all. Because once that cop vs black citizen scenario begins, it often escalates and jaywalking can turn fatal or an expired registration tag brings four police cars to the vicinity; a spark is highly probable, and we see the way this plays out.

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Donn Harris
Donn Harris

Written by Donn Harris

Seeking Something Like the Truth: Paradigm Shifter; decidedly risk-friendly former CA Arts Council Chair; led SF, Oakland Arts schools; USAF vet; Father of 2

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