Tel-Chai Nation

A better Q is... why didn't they shoot? Unless they were close enough to be *sure* they would stop him before he did anything (possible, because they did), why take chances when he dives into that backpack?

An excellent question indeed.

Its unfortunate that people fall so hard into a shoot first ask questions later attitude. Had enough research been done on the subject one would come to know that said child was on a religious retreat recommended by his parents. The garments were from that very same retreat. His parents had concerns of his choices in friends, as his friend base had some gang influences (By gangs I mean NY street gangs like Bloods, Crips, MS etc.). His family believed that he could better focus himself had he better faith. Like many outreach programs established by Christian organizations his retreat was much the same. Post 911 America is so fearful of terrorist action that his garments raised suspicion, not to mention that his skin color was not much like those residing in the buffalo airport, too he and his father communicate in Bangla, as they are Bengali (hailing from Bangladesh). When of any decent connected to the Muslim world in post 911 America you find great distrust along with racist distain, and he was fed up. Last time I was pulled over for being Spanish on the 5th of may I was heated. In my community there’s a large Hispanic community and they figured they’d single us out. They set a road block on a major road, I received a ticket for a tail light being out when it wasn’t and it wasn’t, it was however dim. Sitting in a parking lot filled with only Hispanics who were pulled aside I was sure I would have been further detained had I not a white woman in the car with me, this too granted me liberties in stating my views on the police injustice. I digress. The point I was making in connection to my own backlash was that of not taking the shit people want to place on us. If I’m innocent in a public place, with cameras on me, having dealt with the paranoia of the easily frightened, and I was fed up, id dare for the police to make an even greater spectacle, lets show the world how they treat their own (he was born and raised in NY, NY). The news and police have added their own spin by stating that he reached for his bag in a manor threatening to the safety of others…. His father is pressing charges on the police, airport, and mental institution and is requesting the surveillance footage to support the case as his son was cooperating with the police, though he did kneel and prey that was part of it, then he was tackled. We believe what we are told happened, its all we have to go by under most cases so I cant blame the ignorance. In the end take a look at the state of affairs in America today and ask if terrorists are winning. The point of terrorism is to terrorize (to inflict terror {instill fear}) and frankly we seem scared. This fear is in no way reduced by the media constantly telling us how we should be even more fearful. If you take a moment to look at other nations and their ongoing struggles with terrorism you would see that terrorism has been around quite a bit longer then Americans realize. It’s a problem now because we are no longer exempt from its effects, and if u look into that you’d see, while most proactive on the issue governmentally, American citizens are unable to cope. In comparison many places (Ireland for an example terrorized for years by the IRA) have citizens who live their lives relatively free of Paralyzing fear, they are aware of terrorist threat…. But they are not terrorized by the sole thought alone, apparently they can also better handle the actions of these very same terrorists when talk becomes action.