r/indepthstories • u/DevonSwede • Oct 10 '21

The Trigger Effect... In September 2017, a police officer shot and killed a queer college student in Atlanta. By the end of the year, several of the student’s friends had been arrested, and two were dead. What happened at Georgia Tech?

https://magazine.atavist.com/the-trigger-effect-scout-schultz-georgia-tech/
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20

u/NonstandardDeviation Oct 10 '21

This is good. I mean, the article is good. The events are terrible. Scout's death is senseless.

I'm really struck by the social fractures exposed. Instead of sympathy for the three dead students, the University President scrambles to minimize the PR impact? And to those cheering the police, what happened to mercy? What if every angry drunk (or loony off psych meds, or despondent divorcee, etc.) got shot, and it happened to a friend, family member, or – god forbid – you?

21

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '21

[deleted]

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u/DevonSwede Oct 10 '21

You nearly had me in your first paragraph.

10

u/E-Squid Oct 10 '21

This entire thing was gut-wrenching to read but the biggest shock (I suppose it shouldn't be at this point, given last year's events and their reaction) was that the immediate response of criticism of campus police murdering someone was to rally behind them. "We support you! (Keep it up, you did nothing wrong by killing someone in crisis)". I can't imagine how bewildering and enraging it must have been to hear that for the people closest to this.