At a little after 8:23 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on August 9th, 2020, dozens of 911 calls were made when three peaceful, unarmed teenage Black kids in L.A. County were sitting at a bus stop and got attacked by a man with a knife.
According to the TMZ report (which flew across Twitter rapidly and instantaneously), as the two boys we’re waiting on the bus, a homeless man started walking over towards them. When he was a couple of feet away, he apparently asked the boys whether or not they had any crack cocaine.
The boys must have said no, and that they didn’t have any because, Tammi Collins, their mother (who gave her take on the situation in the last few paragraphs on the original TMZ report), told reporters that he (the homeless man) spontaneously became severely aggravated, tore his shirt off, pulled out a knife, and proceeded to attempt to stab the two young men.
How the L.A. Sheriff’s Department Responds to Black Men Needing Help
One of the people who called the police when they saw the boys defending themselves was the manager from Buffalo Wild Wings, the restaurant that the police pulled up in front of (alongside the street) when they drove onto the scene. As the two white policemen had their weapons pulled on the two boys, pointed and ready to shoot their pistols, multiple people including the restaurant manager were repeatedly telling the police that the boys didn’t do anything.
They’re terrified mother, Tammi, kept yelling to her boys, “Keep ya’ll hands up! Keep ya’ll hands up!”, obviously in fear of what might happen to her son if the seemingly trigger-happy fingers of the cops accidentally get itchy while they have their guns drawn and aimed at her two defenseless boys.
A View of The Entire Scene As a Whole
Let me paint the picture clearer for you. Two young black boys who are unarmed are standing at a bus stop where a homeless man had just attacked them, a man who was now gone and nowhere to be found. Two cops pull up in the same car, get out, and point both of their pistols at the boys from several feet away without asking any questions.
Are you with me so far? Okay.
Then, another police cruiser pulls up and a single cop pops out, runs across the street while cocking his semi-automatic weapon rifle, positions himself behind the other cop car, and poses in a ready-to-shoot, firing-range like stance with the large, automatic gun pointed directly at the scared-to-death young Black boys.
As everyone tells these policemen that the kids didn’t do anything, the cops seem to have no sense of hearing, because they don’t budge a niche or acknowledge any of the words of the bystanders. No. The cops just stand there with their guns pointed at the scared boys, who are no threat to anyone at all.
It truly sickens me to write this, but I have to tell this story. This is because, out of the several 911 calls that were made that morning, almost all of them said that the boys were being attacked by a man with a knife. In fact, there was only ONE PHONE CALL OUT OF THE MANY CALLS (according to the report) that said two black men were attacking a homeless man.
My point I’m trying to make here is that one, singular, lone person with the wrong report to 911, the only person to call who told the 911 dispatchers that the boys were the attackers, enticed police to come out with their weapons drawn in broad daylight at these two scared kids. I am scared to think what would have happened if TWO people had said that to 911.
Their mother Tammi, I imagine went home and cried her eyes out from all of the fear and intimidation that the police had just inflicted on her sons. The LA County Sheriff’s Department has done this on several occasions, and so many people look at it like it’s something that’s just not supposed to be reported on over time as if it’s something that’s supposed to be normal, overlooked or simply forgot about.
What really just happened is, those boys have just be very traumatized at a young age. Everything they saw on TV that was scary for a Black man in society today had just happened to them.
Please Send Tammi and Her Two Sons Your Prayers
of Comfort
All in all, the overall media nightmare in the year 2020 that is the racist, dangerous, and deadly side American society toward African-Americans has just become a reality in their own young lives, probably scarring the two young Black boys for life.
That being said, please, send your prayers to Tammi and her sons, and let her know that you are praying for them. Here’s her Instagram link.
