In the aftermath of the killings we saw yesterday at Capitol Hill, let’s see what sort of discussions we have around mental health..This is the second incident we’ve had in two weeks involving someone with ‘mental health issues’.

But I caution us… our discussion on mental health should not be limited to this woman (Miriam Carey )who they said was suffering from postpartum depression and that she was a loner who kept top herself..Now some news agencies are reporting she fell down and hit her head a few years ago and that she was starting to change as a result..

Whatever the case,  we need to have discussions about our collective mental health, especially after seeing and hearing folks who are obviously traumatized. It’s showing up in us cheer leading or being completely callous to one being killed.

I’ve heard one too many folks say things like “well if she rammed a police car she deserved to be shot“…or “everyone was on edge because of the mass shooting last week so its good the police shot her.. ”

When its made known she was unarmed and had a baby in the car, I’ve heard people say things like; “Oh well if the baby got shot it was the woman’s fault.. she shouldn’t have rammed the police car“..

When I hear ‘tough talk’ like this I can’t help wonder how shook some folks are that they will high-five a killing and not think about their indifference to the loss of life. Ideally we should be asking what led to this and will others suffering depression follow suit in some form or fashion?

Ideally our hearts should be going out to the child, a daughter who lost her mother..She joins the ranks of far too many Black and Brown kids who I come across in classrooms and workshops at young ages like 5 and 6 who all know someone in jail or has been killed. How will she be impacted years down the road?

We need to be mindful of the mental health challenges of those in media who were so eager or frightened to appease a demanding boss who wanted to be first on the scene with info, any info no matter how far-fetched vs being accurate…Whats their mental health that their conversation was around how to fan the flames of fear and mayhem vs healing..

Their initial reports were pretty assertive in noting that there was a ‘shooter‘ outside the Capitol and that people had been injured & as a result the police were doing a lock down.. As time went on we learned that the ‘shooter’ was a female with a baby in the back of her car..

Then news reports came out saying the female shooter had died.. Some outlets immediately contradicted those reports saying she was in the hospital and had not died said she hadn’t died..We saw endless interviews from the news agencies talking to people who talked about all the shooting they heard and how they had to duck and cover etc.. Some heard two bangs..Others heard more than 2 bangs. It was bang, bang bang.. Lots of shooting and lots of foaming at the mouth by eager, beager reporters..

As the smoke was clearing we then heard reports that the woman who at that time was still unidentified wasn’t a shooter at all.. but a ‘rammer’  She was said to be a Somalian woman who was ramming everyone, police cars, barricades, innocent bystanders, other cars. She was described as a mad woman on the loose.. Ram, ram, ram..

At every chance the media was ratching up the fear, so much so that one is left concluding that many in corporate media are ringleaders in what is shaping up to be the millennium version of the Roman Coliseum where we watch and cheer death being played out on live TV.

We need to be concerned about law enforcement who shot up that car dozens of times and killed an unarmed woman. If we believe the reports that they didn’t know there was a baby in the car, these officers could’ve killed an innocent child.. How will this effect them? Why didn’t they see the baby when they had so many surrounding the car? Was there other ways to handle this situation? Were they already effected prior to the shooting?

I keep hearing folks say the police were on edge? We’ll if they’re on edge because of last week’s mass shooting and now because they are furloughed, how is their mental well-being??Yes the news channels will be onto another news story and drumming up another crises, but like it or not we the killing of this woman is not something so easily dismissed.. If it is perhaps that’s the first indication that something is wrong….Say to yourself a thousand times today.. ‘I shall not cheer death.. I shall not cheer death, I shall not cheer death‘.. Hold on to your humanity..