Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/27/journalist-shot-in-the-eye-by-cops-in-2020-is-now-ready-to-die.html
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Post by Jennifer Sandlin
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Only $600K? That seems like a pittance for what was a cataclysmic event. While her life wasn’t technically over, any commonality between her life pre-shooting and post-shooting must’ve been minimal.
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So what is the condition that is leading to her death? I read her substack post and it just mentioned being diagnosed, but not what that is. The most recent one mentions issues with her brain injury, and a history of thoughts of suicide. It sounds like the TBI has really compiled a bunch of issues on how well she can function day to day, but I don’t understand how this will lead to her death?
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Now we have learned that she has traumatic brain injury from the blow and corresponding dementia. While she has battled, her condition has continued to worsen to the point she is at life’s end and receiving palliative care. She was 38 at the time of her injury and is now 42.
Is it really important to know all the details?
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That’s not necessarily any of our business. Pain is pain, and it doesn’t always fit neatly into an AP headline.
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In theory, it helps deflect from the actual atrocious tragedy at hand.
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I used to follow her online. She was open about the continuing degenerative effects after her assault with a dangerous weapon. And her struggles with everyday activities. Getting around as she could no longer drive. Starting to need a walker. Trying to care for her daughters as a single mother.
She was brave and a kick ass woman.
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I read a lot of her work during the protests; it’s truly an immense loss.
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Because her brain is dying from a TBI that was inflicted on her by some fucking fascist cops on a power trip while she was working as a journalist… and you can’t stay alive without your brain. Her disability has gotten worse because her brain is dying and she is dying with it. Soon she will be dead. It is often the case that disabled people die over a period of years as their condition worsens.
The specific “condition” she has is called a TBI and that is, sometimes, all by itself, a fatal diagnosis.
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She was shot in the eye with a gun.
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I lost count of how many journalists got (very deliberately) shot in the face or eyes covering those protests (e.g. shot through a camera that captured the cop carefully aiming at it). Amazing how accurate police can get when aiming at a target that isn’t moving or being any sort of threat… I suspect none of those police faced any real consequences, unlike the people they shot.
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LeSs ThAn LeThAl, right?
I remember when this happened and her defiance in the face of her injuries. What a sickening outcome.
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I wouldnt be surprised if the cops send a bill for the used bullets
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I mean - yes and no. She and her family are under no obligation to provide details. But if she or her family wants to complete the narrative of the consequences of police brutality and overreach, not giving the details leaves this open to detractors saying, “Big deal, she lost an eye and then just gave up on life?!?!”
I’m Canadian, and we have access to MAID. I know my immediate reaction was wondering if she was seeking end-of-life treatment because of losing an eye. But I’m always much more curious than that and wanted to understand what she had been experiencing since the injury.
So yes, in this case, I do think the details matter in the context of fighting the militarization of police etc. There is a significant perception that “non-lethal” and “less-than-lethal” weapons are harmless. In this particular case, her death is coming as a direct consequence of the use of one of these weapons. The details and the narrative matter because of the time frame from the incident to her impending death.
Again, I say this while respectfully saying she’s not obligated to share her story further. She and her family don’t need to fight that fight. However, in the case where they do want to fight it, unfortunately, the details do matter. This is especially true with the fact that it’s been shown that journalists were specifically targeted and intentionally shot in the face by police. In other words, the police deliberately misused less-than-lethal weapons in a manner that made them lethal.
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If you’re putting it out there what you are going through, and people write about it, and people make a post about it being written about, it does beg the question of what exactly is happening. I didn’t know that a TBI could lead to dementia that was severe enough to cause death, so thanks for digging the information. And the headline isn’t helping things because it focuses on her eye, when the real issue is the brain damage.
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Not cruel enough. Ferguson police were on record seriously beating some guy up, then charging him with “destruction of property” - for bleeding on their uniforms.
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You talk about guns here all the time as if you were an expert, but didn’t know that being shot in the eye will damage the things behind it?
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That just sounds ghoulish as fuck, frankly.
“Detractors” are going to say whatever self-aggrandizing completely detached from reality bullshit they’re gonna say, regardless to anything Ms. Tirado or her family does.
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What more is there to share? TBI can cause brain death and that eventually causes organs to shut down in the body. At that point the person dies.
Sometimes weeks or months they survive. Sometimes years. The cause of the brain death is the cause of the death and how severe it is and how fast it happens isn’t really something a person can “justify.”
If people are incredulous that brain injuries can kill people slowly they can educate themselves. Hell, I suspect due to how frequent undiagnosed and untreated head injuries really are that some number of people do die each year of undiagnosed brain injuries without anyone realizing. But most of them won’t have been shot in the face by a cop while they were working as a journalist covering a protest movement.
She has published this. I learned about it from reading it.
So what more details do people want?
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