Valerie Jarrett blasted for suggesting Columbus police shot Ma'Khia Bryant to 'break up a knife fight'
Ex-Obama senior adviser called on police to use minimum force necessary in violent situations
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett raised eyebrows on Wednesday over her condemnation of the fatal police-involved shooting of 16-year-old Ma'Khia Bryant.
The Columbus Police Department released bodycam footage late Tuesday showing its officer shooting Bryant, who was attacking another Black teenager with a knife.
However, Jarrett, the president of the Barack Obama Foundation, portrayed the incident on Twitter as a cop bringing a gun to a "knife fight."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"A Black teenage girl named Ma'Khia Bryant was killed because a police officer immediately decided to shoot her multiple times in order to break up a knife fight. Demand accountability. Fight for justice. #BlackLivesMatter," Jarrett tweeted Wednesday morning.
NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST SLAMMED FOR TWEETS OMITTING MA'KHIA BRYANT WAS ARMED WITH KNIFE
(Twitter)
Jarrett, who served as a senior adviser to the 44th president, was slammed by critics.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"There was no 'knife fight'. She was trying to stab another girl. This police officer saved that girl’s life," conservative writer A.G. Hamilton reacted. "The accountability here should be for Jarrett for portraying an officer saving a life while using clearly justifiable force as something worthy of outrage."
"A 'knife fight' is when two people are fighting with knives. When one person is trying to use a knife on an unarmed person, it is often called an attempted stabbing or attempted murder," Washington Examiner reporter Jerry Dunleavy tweeted.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We're all being played by the globalist elites. We're being pitted against each other and pitted against all institutions of authority. Gotta tear everything down to make something new. We're not going to like what's new," sports journalist Jason Whitlock wrote.
"So you want people of certain races to be allowed to stab each other to death because stopping that would be racist?" NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck asked.
"The police are supposed to let people get stabbed now apparently," Spectator USA editor Amber Athey wrote.
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Hours later, Jarrett posted another tweet that did not specifically mention the Bryant shooting.
"Just because an officer can use deadly force does not mean the officer should," she wrote. "Let’s spend more time responsibly training them to de-escalate [sic] violent situations, and if force is required, use the minimum force necessary."