https://thefederalist.com/2020/07/16/im-at-a-loss-for-words-the-unraveling-narrative-behind-the-atlantics-defund-the-police-shooting-tale/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/how-i-became-police-abolitionist/613540/Quote
The first shooting I witnessed was by a cop. I was 12. He was angry that his cousin skipped a sign-in sheet at my neighborhood recreation center. I was teaching my sister how to shoot free throws when the officer stormed in alongside the court, drew his weapon, and shot the boy in the arm. My sister and I hid in the locker room for hours afterward. The officer was back at work the following week.
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Purnell has led a prolific career, including writing for The New York Times and time at the helm of The Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy. Because of her impressive rise from poverty, she’s been the subject of profiles and has been asked to write more than one personal essay on why she is an activist. Despite this, and despite this memory’s seeming impact on her life, her article in The Atlantic is the first mention it ever earns in her publicly available writings. In fact, it appears to be the first mention of the incident in any publicly available record The Federalist was able to uncover.
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Between 2001 and 2003, there were 23 police responses to the Buder Recreation Center and 38 to the 12th & Park Recreation Center. The nature of the calls cover a range of incidents, from accidents to domestic disputes, from pedestrians in need to suspicious vehicles, from larceny to arson. None of the police responses, however, involved a shooting except perhaps one attempted suicide at the 12th & Park rec center.
“I’m a little bit at a loss for words here because the shooting of a young boy by a cop in a St. Louis rec center, even if it had happened 20 years ago, I feel like that would be in my mind somewhere,” mayoral spokesman Jacob Long, a former reporter, told The Federalist over the phone. “That does not sound remotely familiar, and I’m from here … I was here in 2001, 2002, 2003.”
“You went to the right place to try and verify that incident, the police department,” he added, independently identifying the neighborhood The Federalist identified, based on the article’s description. “The current mayor wasn’t even the mayor at that time.”
“That predates my tenure here but I don’t remember that even as a consumer of local news.” Jeff Roorda, a former police officer, Democratic state representative, and current executive director of the St. Louis Police Officers Association, added in an email.
The Federalist sent two emails to Yoni Applebaum, The Atlantic’s editor of the Ideas section, asking if the magazine fact-checked the claim:
Applebaum did not respond. Purnell also did not respond to a request for corroboration.
In her essay, Purnell used the story of the shooting to ask readers to consider the innocent victims of policing, going on to make the case for abolishing the police. If her ideas had been implemented before her experience, she writes, “I wouldn’t have hid in the locker room for hours because of a police shooting, and maybe my sister would have a better jump shot.”
"oops, I made up my life story"