1. My best friend was stabbed to death. I found out shortly after moving back to Atlanta. When I was in High school, I used to carry a double edged razor blade in my mouth. At 15, at school, I pulled it out & put it at someone’s neck for throwing my blue bandana on the ground.

2. I did it with an armed officer just about 10-20 feet away with his back turned. I didn’t care. I also used to pack a .38 to school on occasion. It was well known in my school that I used to bang. At different points, I had teachers & security guards come at me abt it.

3. I often think abt what would’ve happened if the police officer turned around & saw what was happening behind his back. Emotional rollercoaster with the Chauvin trial & then seeing a decent amount of Christians dismiss the life of a girl w/ a knife killed.

4. One of the security guards who used to plead with me to leave the gang life was also a bi-vocational pastor. Crazy thing is, he went from begging me to leave the gang life in High School to years later presiding over my marriage to my high-school sweetheart.

5. Listen, I’ve been on both sides of that video... both sides of a blade. I have been the person wielding a blade, I have lost some of my closest friends thru stabbings, I have had people pull both knives & guns out on me, & I’ve broken up fights that have consisted of both.

6. When I look at #makhiabryant, I see myself years ago. I was a child. As a child I have had white officers treat me like an adult (still have PTS) & I have had [black] officers who Related to me as a lost kid. In part, b/c of them, I’m the only surviving member of my Set (gang)

7. I’m not a police officer, & due to my clinical depression I don’t own a fire arm or a knife. But I have been on the block and have broken up fights where I was the only person unarmed. If an armed police officer can’t do the same, he needs to quit.

8. but yo, we know officers can cuz they regularly de-escalate armed white people are able to arrest them without incident despite them having even assault rifles & already killing a bunch of folks. The problem isn’t training, the problem is black life isn’t valued.

9. What’s tragic is seeing even how quick even black people have gone from calling for cop reform & Black Lives Matter to embracing white supremacy & defending an office who chose murder over de-escalation or disarming. “Cops can be lethal & so therefore he should’ve been” logic.

10. For me, personally, i don’t care for the opinions of people who know nothing other than the comfort of their nice homes. If you’ve never risked your own life to save image bearers from self harm or from harming someone else; Of course you don’t get it. ALL Black Lives Matter.

11. Every one of those black girls on that block who was involved in that altercation mattered. A trigger happy white cop should never have been sent into that space. Keep em away! All they see is n***gers. That’s all some black folks see as well it seems. I saw precious people.

12. Side note: Over 10 yrs ago I ran into the kid I pulled a razor blade on. He had been in the GYM and was now 3 times my size. I was hoping not to be noticed but he saw me & approached me quickly. I prepared myself but he came & gave me Hug. He was a believer, all was forgiven.

13. One last thing, the girl had what appears to be a dull-ended steak knife, same knife I have in my silverware drawer. She called the police. I've been in enough street fights and have observed enough knife fights to be inclined to say, she was just tryna scare other girls away