Liberals Try to Normalize Teen Knife Fights in Wake of Ma’Khia Bryant Shooting: ‘We’ve All Been There’

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Liberal commentators criticized the fatal police shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant by arguing that teenage knife fights are run-of-the-mill occurrences that do not require law enforcement intervention.

The shooting: A Columbus, Ohio, police officer on Tuesday afternoon shot and killed Bryant, who was armed with a knife and appeared to be in the process of attempting to stab another person.

  • “She came at her with a knife,” an officer can be heard saying on a body cam video released by the Columbus Division of Police hours after the incident.
  • Interim Police Chief Michael Woods said officers were initially on the scene in response to a caller claiming someone had tried to stab them.
  • According to Bryant’s family, she had been the one to call police for help.

The controversy: Critics of law enforcement expressed outrage at the killing of Bryant, which took place around the same time as the verdict was announced in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd.

  • In the wake of Floyd’s death last May, racial justice advocates sparked a contentious nationwide debate regarding police killings of black people.
  • Also, at-times violent protests and riots broke out across various urban centers in America.

The takes: Liberal pundits seeking to dismiss the notion that the officer who shot Bryant may have been justified in using lethal force minimized the threat posed by the knife-wielding teen, with some of them comparing the incident to a “schoolyard fight.”

Counterpoint: Some commentators pushed back against the narrative and argued that, in fact, knife fights should not be accepted as a normal part of the coming-of-age experience.

  • “Look, sometimes kids grab steak knives and stab other kids in the driveway. We’ve all been there. Just innocent kid stuff. Can’t believe the cops had to get involved at all. Let kids be kids!” quipped the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh.

Relevant: On Monday, 13-year-old Nyaira Givens was stabbed to death in Cincinnati’s Winton Hills neighborhood, NBC affiliate WLWT reported.

  • Her assailant was also a 13-year-old girl, authorities said.
By We'll Do It Live