Recent comments in /f/CambridgeMA

viva_purehearted11 t1_j3dmqb9 wrote

Reply to Seeing these all over the place. by Harmony_w

This incident is definitely alarming especially because it took place in a progressive neighborhood like Cambridge. A man in distress who was agitated got even more triggered when cops showed up. Why are cops viewed antagonistically? Is it not important for anyone to feel relieved about seeing a cop? I can't help but wonder how the situation would have changed if instead of cops EMT had showed up in response to the 911 call.

It is really not acceptable to say that the cops could not defuse the situation without killing a 20 year old man in distress.

Justice for Sayed is not punishing the officer but a serious overhaul of high emergency situation protocols and trainings.

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u7867 t1_j3c03cg wrote

Reply to There will be an anti police brutality protest at City Hall Monday Jan 9th at 3:30pm in response to the Arif Sayed Faisal shooting that occurred this week by Harmony_w

This situation is tragic.

I am in no way pro-police, and strongly believe we should have another system for responding to individuals in crisis, but is it not premature to claim police brutality before there's been time for an investigation? We have a very imperfect system, but at the end of the day the officers are people, and surely most of them are trying to do their best working within that system.

Would it not be far more productive to rally for better access to mental health services? A person on our streets self-harming with a deadly weapon represents a failure of our society provide adequate (let alone comprehensive) mental health care to anyone who is not extraordinarily privileged, and usually self-motivated. This person would never have ended up in this terrible situation had they not first fallen through the cracks.

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Old_Travel8423 t1_j3c02kv wrote

Reply to comment by asuds in There will be an anti police brutality protest at City Hall Monday Jan 9th at 3:30pm in response to the Arif Sayed Faisal shooting that occurred this week by Harmony_w

I agree from a policy perspective, but those better less-likely-to-be-lethal methods need to be in place in officers' vehicles and they need to be trained on them before events like this. If the officers did not have anything else available to them, and the deceased was coming at them with a knife, then their reaction is understandable/justifiable. Though I agree that we should be looking for and deploying better ways, whatever they may be.

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Old_Travel8423 t1_j3bzveg wrote

Reply to comment by BlaXBla in There will be an anti police brutality protest at City Hall Monday Jan 9th at 3:30pm in response to the Arif Sayed Faisal shooting that occurred this week by Harmony_w

I am a little bit annoyed, like I always am, that there are no body cams. Body cams would resolve ALL ambiguity here, and would show whether the police were in the right or were in the wrong. I think it's shameful and embarrassing that there are no body cams. And for this reason, I think we should all take a healthy heaping of salt with the police statement. And I think this kind of a disclaimer needs to be placed before all police statements when they fail to have body cams.

That being said, it sounds from the police description of the event like something went wrong. The deceased sounds like he was having an issue, or a breakdown, or something. Jumping out of another apartment, knife/machete in hand, cutting himself with that and/or glass. Not putting down the weapon, not putting down the weapon after being shot with a "less likely to be lethal" weapon, culminating in him approaching the officers knife in hand and getting shot. If that is what happened, then I wish that there had been other things tried (if possible) to deescalate, or a tazer or something... but as a last resort, an officer shooting someone coming at them with a knife is justifiable.

I hope that we get more information.

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