Maybe you don’t see a shooting in Collierville, Tenn. — a suburb of Memphis — as close, but in my family we do.
And not just because my wife is from Memphis.
You see that picture above, taken from a TV news report? The tall guy with the beard is Kevin, our nephew — my wife’s brother’s son. He’s a detective with the police department of Germantown, right next door. Collierville had asked for help from surrounding towns.
Not only that, but his father, my brother-in-law, a retired businessman, was there as well — just not quite as much in the thick of things. He had shopped in that same store the day before. This time, he was passing nearby and saw all the cars with flashing lights headed in that direction, and followed so he could ask the gathering crowd what was happening.
He’s like that. He’s a very sociable, gregarious guy. He’s like his father. Several decades ago when we were in college, my father-in-law was in a bank when it was robbed and hostages were taken. He had always spent a lot of time when he visited that bank on business, talking with the tellers and other employees, asking them what was going on in their lives. In this case, being taken hostage with the other folks there, he ended up being drafted by the robbers to act as a go-between for communicating with the cops outside. They could tell he was the man for the job.
None of us were surprised. Alarmed, but not surprised. Fortunately, he emerged unscathed from the incident.
Anyway… how many of these mass shootings have we seen? And now, they’re getting too close. I’d like them all to go away now…
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Senator Tim Scott remains someone that lies way too much. Not sure why he’s such a darling of so many folks.
Tying federal grants to reform used to be Senator Tim Scott’s idea. Now he calls it “defunding the police.”
Tim now embraces the exact opposite approach he recently touted.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/09/tim-scott-turns-against-his-own-police-reform-plan.html
Two major policing organizations — the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Chiefs of Police — are disputing Republican Sen. Tim Scott’s account of how negotiations over a policing overhaul plan broke down last week.
“Despite some media reports, at no point did any legislative draft propose ‘defunding the police,’ ” according to a joint statement from the two groups. “In fact, the legislation specifically provided additional funding to assist law enforcement agencies in training, agency accreditation, and data collection initiatives.”
https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/28/politics/police-negotiations-tim-scott-fop-iacp/index.html
“Darling?” I suppose one could find people who would see him that way.
To me, he was until very recently — about the time the GOP trotted him out at last year’s convention so they could say, “Look! A black guy!” — pretty much a nonentity, like someone in hiding rather than like a United States senator.
In fact, this police reform thing is the first thing of any national importance I can remember him ever trying to do….
There is one reason why they tasked him with that job.
There was NEVER any belief that any bill he negotiated would get other Republican support.
But Tim Scott is all over the place. The knock on Tim his entire career has been he is highly “guided” in what he’s supposed to say. I tried to ignore that type of talk but I think it’s obvious now.
That he immediately went out and lied about the negotiations was not surprising.
This is what happens when a party ceases to be interested in the actual work of governing, opting instead to be in continuous politicking mode. When everything is about holding onto or regaining power, little to no consideration is given to integrity. It’s all then about “messaging,” where unrestrained distortion, hypocrisy and misinformation are fair game.
Wouldn’t a semicolon be better than a comma?
// to be interested in the actual work of governing;opting instead to be in continuous politicking mode.//
not Brad
Maybe so; maybe not.