Hi everybody, You might have missed it, but KUOW announced on the radio yesterday morning that the inquest into Michael Taylor's shooting will finally begin today. It is unfathomable that it has taken so long, and I can only wonder what role Charleena Lyles' death — the pregnant African American woman who was recently shot by Seattle police after she had called them to report a possible robbery — might have played in expediting the inquest into Michael's killing. I urge you all to listen to the new KUOW piece I've linked to below. New details have emerged, including some audio recordings just before and after Michael's death. Much has been said by family and friends about Michael's good nature as well as his struggles with mental illness, but in the KUOW story, it's brought to light that Michael demonstrated his compassionate character just an hour before he was shot by making a very deliberate attempt to apologize for a friend's threatening behavior towards some social workers. It was a gesture that he obviously made very thoughtfully, even showing that he was savvy at dealing with his friend's behavior issues in a composed manner. The news story also reveals that a social worker had plead with the very police officer who would eventually kill Michael to bring in crisis professionals as the sweep of the Jungle was getting underway, likely knowing full well how ill-equipped the police are at interacting with populations with mental health and addiction issues without resorting to physical, sometimes deadly, violence. Perhaps the most infuriating part of the story is the interview with Joe Winters, apparently someone who is responsible for training cops on the south end in de-escalation and crisis intervention. He goes into this really matter-of-fact, cold, and somewhat condescending explanation about what a cop's actual options are when feeling physically threatened by someone. I will never forget the term he uses: 'center mass'. When the KUOW reporter asks him if the police officer could have tried to shoot Michael in the leg or some other non-lethal area, Winters brushes it off and harps on this idea that when you are faced with a 'split-second' decision like that, you have to shoot for 'center mass'. That explanation might serve well if the context is you are facing down an agitated and hostile person on a controlled substance who has a gun or maybe a supervillain from the movies, but have you seen the supposed 'knife' that Michael was accused of threatening the police with. He would have had to have been suicidal or pathologically aggressive to have attempted to attack TWO armed officers with such a small knife. And how does that begin to parse with the conciliatory behavior that he expressed to the social worker less than an hour before. The answer is that the training cops are receiving doesn't actual mitigate their implicit biases. It sanctions them. It sanctions them by giving them the out of the 'split-second decision', as if such a high drama scenario can magically apply to any context. The notion of the catch-all 'split-second decision' essentially discourages good or bad judgment, any judgment at all really. Just hit 'center mass' before you or anyone else has time to think. The police are being primed to create these situations and to feel justified in doing so, regardless of whether or not there are clear cues contradicting their inner narrative of fear equals threat. It HAS to stop. And we need to keep ourselves from falling into despair and to continue to mobilize as much as possible on this issue. There is a public hearing today at UW-Kane Hall at 6pm to address the shooting of Charleena Lyles. If you are able to make it and have felt outraged by this national pattern of biased policing and excessive use of deadly force, consider giving your voice. The City Council will be there to hear your words and your anger and sadness. The victims of this type of violence and racism and classism do not need to have lost their lives in vain. Make your voice be heard, if not at the hearing, then in whatever large or small ways that you can!