{"id":19510,"date":"2026-05-28T15:03:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T15:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=19510"},"modified":"2026-05-28T15:03:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T15:03:37","slug":"we-can-do-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/28\/we-can-do-better\/","title":{"rendered":"We Can Do Better\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Lafe Tolliver<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Lafe Tolliver, Esq<\/em>
\nGuest Column<\/em><\/p>\n

Here is a question or a series of thoughts for my dear readers about your opinions regarding the recent arrest of a juvenile girl on three charges, with one involving the discharge of a firearm in a home.<\/p>\n

By the way, this is the same juvenile who, in a recent video, was taken to the ground by a Toledo police officer for walking in the street. She was arrested on several charges involving that walking incident and is awaiting further juvenile court proceedings.<\/p>\n

As a prologue to my below commentary, let me say this: the first altercation was unfortunate and should not have happened in the way that it was played out. The video was disturbing insofar as it was police overreaching and escalating a minor situation into a major community blow up.<\/p>\n

The officer, as the adult in the confrontation, was clearly ill equipped to handle this community engagement and he apparently did not know how to de-escalate the situation; it did not help that his co-officer was using profane language at the girls thinking he was being macho and speaking the \u201ccommon vernacular.\u201d<\/p>\n

In my opinion both officers were showing their blue behinds in their haphazard attempts to\u00a0control the corner. Since when is engaging in profanity a police academy taught tool to gain\u00a0community control and respect?<\/p>\n

From my limited vantage point, it was a situation by which the police car should have slowed down, respectfully addressed the young girls and informed them that they should not walk in the street unless there are no curbs to walk on\u2026. and then drive on.<\/p>\n

I noticed that when the police car was \u201crushing\u201d to this particular location, that they zoomed by a white youth playing basketball in the street and with the basketball net set on the grassy curb.<\/p>\n

Apparently, nothing was said to him about playing in the street. Why not? Did they later go back to that youth and inform him not to shoot hoops while in the street?<\/p>\n

Because the adults in the situation with the young girls lost control, things unfortunately got out of hand, feelings flared and the juvenile girl was taken down to the ground, on the reasoning that she resisted when she was placed up against the hood of the police car.<\/p>\n

Just as those two unprofessional officers need a long refresher court in community relations and control, so also does the arrested girl need some instruction as to how to behave in public and especially so towards anyone who wears a badge and a gun.<\/p>\n

For the identified police officers, a syllabus of their retraining would look something like the below:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(1) Do you have the emotional maturity and intellectual capacity to deal with the public.<\/p>\n

(2) How do you engage the public when confronted by a situation that could spiral out of\u00a0control.<\/p>\n

(3) Confronting juveniles\u2026what to say and what not to say and how to say it so as to keep the\u00a0peace.<\/p>\n

(4) When things fall apart, who do you call for assistance.<\/p>\n

(5) Remember your training\u2026it was taught for a purpose.<\/p>\n

(6) When to stand your ground and when to retreat.<\/p>\n

(7) When you are debriefed, what could you have done better in the situation.<\/p>\n

(8) Only use force when all else fails and you or the watching public is in imminent danger.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As for the juvenile involved, it appears that she was a recipient of a household that did not have the ability, capacity or wherewithal to impart values that when tested or challenged, the juvenile could respond in a rational and calm manner.<\/p>\n

Yes, it is both an embarrassment and shameful at times when some of \u201cour\u201d people get out in the public spaces and act the clown or the fool and wind up in handcuffs or worse, shot or killed.<\/p>\n

From my vantage point of doing both juvenile and criminal defense work, I am many times saddened by the lack of basic civic skills of respect and the lack of emotional control that too many juveniles exhibit that cause them to be in the juvenile court.<\/p>\n

Values that many may term, \u201cold school\u201d are not old in the sense that they have qualities that everyone needs to successfully negotiate when interacting with others in society. Character traits of decorum, decency, respect, honor and self pride do not go out of style and never will.<\/p>\n

But, acting the fool or acting the public clown for purposes of impressing your best buds or because you need attention, that does go out of style\u2026real quick. I need not tell you of situations in which you have seen or heard that people simply for no apparent reason, act out and act out badly.<\/p>\n

We have seen enough social media clips (targeted or otherwise) of a Ta\u2019sheneeda or a Da\u2019Marcus causing havoc at a fast food restaurant, a movie theatre, a public park, concert venue, library, school or grocery store by which you just wanna hang your head and say, \u201cWhy!\u201d<\/p>\n

I have said and will shout it out again, that kids having kids have nothing of value to pass on to those kids since apparently those birthing kids missed out on the plot line that having kids without a proper family structure and\/or with a financially responsible married partner is a culture killer\u2026regardless of your ethnic background.<\/p>\n

You can weep and wail and write me all sorts of angry emails but I remain resolute: The\u00a0Black community is weakened and impaired when we do not morally shout out that having babies outside of marriage is not \u201cOK.\u201d No\u2026it is not OK. Full stop.<\/p>\n

If an absentee baby maker (male or female) who is procreating and is not willing or able to provide the basics for a stable home, then the community suffers when that person has no visible means of support, financially or emotionally, and is unable to train up a child in the way he or she should go.<\/p>\n

The Black community for decades has suffered under the onerous weight of incomplete homes and the results of open promiscuity that we have produced generations of some kids who later became adults and who were not fully optimized to maximize their potential.<\/p>\n

Yeah\u2026yeah, I know of situations by which the norm was shattered and single parent\u00a0households and their kids survived and did quite well. That is commendable but should not be your expectations of beating the odds.<\/p>\n

We can do better.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact Lafe Tolliver at lafe5x@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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