Babbling About Storms We Pretend Not To See

#209: What if the simplest test for justice is the one we avoid most: did the punishment fit the alleged crime? We take a hard, human look at the Minneapolis ICE shootings and the narratives that sprang up around them, using a nurse’s experience with de‑escalation to question why armed authority is often granted more leeway than caregivers who face chaos daily. In an ER, high stress and long hours never excuse unnecessary force; training, restraint, and accountability are the baseline. If that’s true without a gun, why accept less when the state carries one?

Across the conversation, we trace the patterns that blunt our empathy: the impulse to reframe victims through their worst moments, the comfort of silence framed as neutrality, and the churn of headlines that create political whiplash before any change can stick. History offers blunt lessons. The language of “just comply,” “don’t get involved,” and “it’s not my place” has appeared before every time a marginalized group was targeted. Silence doesn’t sit in the middle; it leans toward power.

We also talk directly about privilege without shame. If you can look away, you have margin others don’t. Use it. Challenge dehumanizing talk in your circles, center proportionality and human dignity, and keep the focus on the moment where harm happened. We test our shared moral floor with examples most people agree on, then ask for consistency when the state uses force. You don’t need perfect words or a public platform to matter—you need the courage to be specific, to ask better questions, and to let compassion lead even when it’s uncomfortable.

If this moved you, subscribe, share the episode with someone who needs a thoughtful push, and leave a review telling us how you’ll show up this week. Your voice helps more people choose humanity over comfort.

Chapters

• 0:00 Framing The Conversation
• 1:41 Shared Tragedy In A Connected World
• 2:39 A Nurse’s Standard Versus Police Force
• 5:36 De‑Escalation, Stress, And Accountability
• 8:40 The Punishment Didn’t Fit The Crime
• 12:15 Echoes From History’s Dark Warnings
• 15:05 Privilege, Empathy, And Showing Up
• 20:03 Choosing Humanity Over Politics
• 23:05 Collective Lines We All Agree On
• 26:24 Outrage Cycles And Political Whiplash

Transcript

Johnna : 0:00

What is up everyone? Welcome back to another episode of the Babels Nonsense podcast. Today's episode is going to be a continuation of last week's episode where I want to try to expand on my thoughts a little bit since I've had some time to sit with it and more things have happened throughout the week and I've had more time with my feelings and can actually sit down and make sense of them all. Even if you don't agree, I would really love for you to stay and listen just because I think that's where growth comes from in any sense when you can sit and stay and listen to someone else's perspective even when we don't agree. You don't have to agree with me when I'm done with the podcast. But the hope is always to take just a little bit of a different perspective away. And maybe it'll change a thought process process somewhere else in your life. But, anyways, if that's not for you, completely understand. But we are going to go ahead and dive on in here in just a little bit. And it got me thinking because it's kind of odd, but also beautiful at the same time. I don't know if that's the correct adjective here, but we were all home during that ice storm when we got to see this, what this tragedy, what happened. That's why I think it spread so fast. We were all at home. Um but then that same thing happened with George Floyd. We were all at home during COVID and the world saw it. So it begs the question: would the storm have passed had you know we not been home to see it? I don't know. No one knows. But I think what's been breaking my heart these past few weeks is watching people turn away from what's happening in Minneapolis with the ice shootings. I've seen people downplay it, excuse it, rationalize it, or worse, just pretend it doesn't matter or doesn't exist. But I keep coming back to something I said in a Facebook comment. I try my best not to comment on Facebook, but sometimes, you know, I just that's just what I do. I have to respond. But I've learned over the years to do it kindly and gently and try to just offer a different perspective. But I made a comment that if nurses acted this way, like the same way these officers did, we'd lose our license. And that's just the truth. As nurses, we are trained to de-escalate, we are trained to preserve life whenever possible. We are trained that force, even something as small as physical restraint, is the last resort, not the first instinct. And we are held accountable for every choice we make in crisis, even when the adrenaline is high. And guys, I can tell you, I worked in the ER for 11 years. There were several moments where it would have been much easier just to chemically or physically restrain a patient, and chemically means with medication, and then obviously physical restraints are restraints. We've all seen people restrained to the bed. Because they were hitting, fighting, kicking, screaming, trying to bite, punching, where we've had like 10 nurses in the room trying to get the patient to calm down using the least amount of force, de-escalating. Like there's we have to go through training before we're even allowed. And if the training is called Moab, um, if that if that expires, we can't go back on the floor. And there's reasons for that because when you're in the ER, you're in a high stress environment. Not only are you stressed from the job, you know, work working many hours, 13, 14 hour shifts several days in a row because you're understaffed, and they ask, can you please just do one more day? You're also dealing with being hungry. Um, you haven't ate, you haven't drank water. You're also dealing with whatever's going on in your personal life, your emotional stress, all of those things combined, right? And we don't get to use that excuse of, well, they've been hitting, kicking, and biting all week, or they've been protesting all week. If y'all only knew how bad healthcare is in this, in this country, like it is unbearably ridiculous. ERs are overran. It's just, it's a lot. And especially during COVID, like I think people finally got a glimpse of it during COVID when the world again was shut down and people could see how many shit like I had friends that were working 21 12-hour shifts in a row. But I'm telling you, if they made a mistake, if they did the wrong thing, there was no excuse of, well, I'm overworked. There's too many patients, I didn't sleep. That it's just not an excuse. You professionally have to excuse yourself and say, I can't work this shift, it's not safe for the patient. Because mistakes are ha happen in high stress, but we're also trained to handle more stress than the average human being. And I do believe and feel I hold police officers to that same standard. And I don't understand as society how we accept less from people who walk around with guns, authority, and government backing. Because I know that's what's hitting me the most with this, like in a professional way, is that it's inexcusable professionally. It's it's inexcusable on any level, like humanely, morally, ethically, all the things. But when I'm trying to like figure out why this is bothering me so bad, I'm like, that shouldn't have happened. That's not just a quote-unquote mistake. That's not a, well, we thought, that's not an excuse, and that's not a reasonable explanation. And I have been reflecting on these conversations that I've had online, some with friends, like comments, defensiveness, contra contradictions, people saying things like, he shouldn't have resisted, he should have used common sense, well, he brought a gun to a protest. If he had listened, he'd still be alive. Um, and then things about his character, about what he did the day before, and all the things, right? And it's just to me, it's like, why? Why are we making these comments? Because we're still not looking at the core question being asked. And that's what bothers me a lot when I'm having these conversations, is like, yeah, let's say he did all of those things. Let's say yes to every single one of them. What does that have to do with what the video that we saw in that moment? And I was talking to my therapist about it, and she was like, Yeah, you're right, because the punishment didn't fit the crime. And I think where it's, and I'm not saying if it didn't bother you, you don't have ethics and morals. I'm not gonna put that out there. I'm just saying I feel people who hold themselves, their profession, how they would treat others to that highest ethic and morals. Like if you look at just that moment and take everything out, that's what the problem is. And this reminds me a lot of history and not the pretty parts of history, the parts that we all said that we would never repeat, and look how far we've come. Because if you look at history closely, these are the same arguments that people were making in the 1960s. They shouldn't march, they shouldn't protest, they should comply, they're being too loud, they're bringing it on themselves. And the same arguments that the Germans made before the Holocaust fully unfolded. These rumors are exaggerated, these people must have done something wrong, these things don't affect us. It's better to not get involved. Those same comments were being made then, and look how bad it got. So it's not relative to think that this could potentially turn into something greater than what it is. It already is bad, but we don't want it to get worse. We don't want history repeating itself. We want to learn from history in those moments. That same argument comes up every time a marginalized group is targeted. The insistence that silence is neutral and it never is. And then someone brought up Charlie Kirk's death, like there was other um examples, like in in these are more recent examples, like with Charlie Kirk. Someone brought like people are saying, like, well, he spread hate speech. And even if that is fact or rightfully so, that still doesn't justify his death. He didn't deserve that. Um no one deserves to die based on their political beliefs, their race, their ethnicity, their color of their skin, gender, nothing. It does no one should die at the hands of another based on any of those points. Violence shouldn't be justified one way or the other. They did the same thing with George Floyd when he died. People wanted to justify it by saying that he was a drug addict or he was robbing a store. But what does that have to do with how and why he died? It it has nothing to do with it. No, you can think what you want of that person's character. That's a whole separate conversation and a whole separate discussion. But when someone asks you point blank, did the crime fit the punishment? And you want to deflect and answer all these other ways of the justifications, then something that's a deeper conversation you need to have with yourself, and you need to be like, why can't I just focus on this one question? Because that's where the problem is. And I'm not a therapist and I can't help you through that because I personally don't understand why someone can't myself. Because to me, if something is wrong, it's wrong. We don't get to pick and choose whose life matters based on what we think of them. And it made me think, like, why do we demand empathy for some, but not for all? Why do we say quote unquote common sense when someone else is hurting, but we expect compassion when it's our loved one on the ground bleeding? Why? And here's the part that's been making me sick as I read these comment threads. People keep saying, it's too much, I can't handle it, while entire communities are handling it every single day. Let's go back to the example I brought up, the the Holocaust. How would you feel knowing what transpired? We know the outcome. How would you feel if you are in that history and you just said, this is too much, I can't handle it, and did nothing to help? I don't know. I'm not saying everyone is a social justice warrior. Maybe that's where I can't empathize because I don't see how we don't want to help in that situation. Um, because to me, that comes like that's just down to privilege, right? There's no softer word for it. If you can look away, that means your life isn't at risk. If you can scroll past it, it means you aren't the one being hunted, profiled, questioned, detained, or even shot at. If you get to choose when you care, you already on the privileged side of the storm. And what scares me is how quickly people fall into that comfort. How quickly people say, I don't want to get political, I don't want to get involved, I don't want to pick sides, this has nothing to do with me. And I'll I'll be honest, back in my younger years before I was educated and before I had a lot of good friends, you know, point out that how like how that needed to change, I I would say comments like that. But now I don't see how we can look away. Because silence is in a sense picking a side. History shows us exactly which side silence always ends up on, and it's never the right one. You know, I do also want to just pause and talk to my white listeners for a moment, trying to be as honest I can, but gently. I know privilege gets thrown around as a bad word and it's used a lot, but it's honestly not a bad word. It's not an accusation, it's simply the truth that some people get to look away while others don't have that luxury. And if that is you, if you're someone who gets to step back when the world gets heavy, I do want you to hear this with a lot of love. That privilege is not something to feel guilty about, it's something to use. Use it to amplify voices that aren't heard, use it to challenge people in your circles, use it to ask harder questions, use it to stop conversations that dehumanize entire groups of people, use it to show up in spaces where silence is comfortable. Privilege only becomes harmful when it's hoarded. But when privilege is shared, when it's intentional, it does become power. And it's a good power and it's a very necessary one. And I'm not saying you have to go out here and post and do these things if, like, let's maybe you're shy and it has nothing to do with privilege, then no one's saying that. It's it's mostly like having hard conversations and holding space. And you don't have to go out and dismantle the system alone. You just have to refuse to hide behind comfort. And again, hold that space, have those conversations, and that choice made consistently changes the world more than you realize. All right, I had to pause and say that. So let's go back to the original conversation because I didn't want I didn't want to like just beat around the bush and people be like, we know what you're trying to say. I wanted to just say it. But when ICE agents with federal authority shoot people who aren't armed, who aren't posing a threat, who are already being restrained, in that moment, let's again take away what happened the day before any of it. And the national conversation becomes, well, he resisted or but he had a gun earlier. That itself is a storm that we as humans created. That's created because we want to use justifications. We don't want to look inside ourselves and say, why does this bother me? Why can't I have this conversation or any of that? And that storm is bigger than just the shooting itself. It's in the people who excuse it, the people who defend it, the people who stay silent, the people who say, I don't care, they were illegal anyway, the people who hide behind the comfort of whiteness, safety, suburbia, or politics, they don't fully understand. And I'll be honest, I don't fully understand politics. This is the first year I've got into it. It's another conversation for another day. But we are watching history repeat itself. Not in the sensationalized, over-the-top way people throw around online, but in that quiet, dangerous way history always repeats, with apathy, with desensitization, with people convincing themselves it's not their business, with good people doing nothing because it feels overwhelming, with citizens deciding it's easier to look away. That's how injustice gains power, quietly, through the cracks of avoidance, through the soft places where people don't want to be uncomfortable. But here's the truth. And it's the truth people don't like hearing. Justice does require discomfort. Compassion requires courage, and silence is the loudest approval a system can get. We love to talk about how we would have marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, how we would have hidden families during the Holocaust, how we would have stood up, how we would have fought, how we would have done the right thing. But here we are in real time being asked, what are you gonna do? Will we speak out? Will we call out violence? Will we question authority? Will we challenge narratives designed to control us? Will we choose humanity over comfort? Will we protect the vulnerable even when it's not politically convenient for us? Even when it's against your own party? Will we? Will you? Because this is that moment. This is the moment history books talk about. This is the moment future generations will ask questions about and will be looked back on. And I personally want to be able to say, I didn't turn away, I didn't stay silent, I didn't hide behind my privilege, I spoke, I cared, I had conversations, I held space, and I showed up. And I want you, whoever whoever is listening to this, to know you don't have to be perfect, you don't have to have the right words, you don't have to be a politician or understand politics to the extreme because Lord knows I don't. You don't even have to be an activist or a scholar. You just have to be human. You just have to be human and get to the core of feelings and try to take out the noise of everything else. That doesn't mean that you're turning your back on the policies that you stand for. That doesn't mean that you're turning your back on let's say it is being left or right. What it means is you're taking all those factors out of it and just saying something, when something is wrong, it's wrong. Despite everything else. Despite everything else. And, you know, humanity is really simple. If someone is being hurt, say something. If someone is being killed unjustly, say something. If someone is screaming for help, don't walk away. If you see injustice, don't tell yourself it's not your place, because whose place will it be? If everyone said it's not my place, then whose place will it be? Because it is your place. It's all of our place. And we all do it differently. We all don't do it the same. Whether that's communic community drives or having a conversation with your child, or I don't know, I can't think of examples right now, but maybe posting on Facebook or I don't know. There's a lot of things that we can do. Because storms reveal what we're made of. And this one is revealing a lot. It's revealing who's going to choose comfort, who's going to choose silence, who's going to choose an excuse, and who chooses courage. So all I ask is that you don't look away. Don't hide behind it's too much. Unless there is a mental health aspect out of it, obviously talk with your therapist because I do understand this can transfer over into the mental health side. It's better to try to be informed, stay informed, um, and not let it consume you where you can still advocate and help. And the biggest thing of all, like, don't wait until it's your child or your friend or your partner or your community before it wakes you up. I know me and my friend had a conversation about this, and I was like, what does it take for people? Because I true, I guess when we all think differently, it's hard, right? Like this hurt me to the core when I saw it. Some people it didn't. And sometimes that is holding space to understand why. I'm a very huge why person. And what does it take? Like, if it's not, if it was, let's say you're a woman and you're just you're not connecting with it, what does it take? Like, like with how they mutilate women in other countries, what if that was happening here? Would that then spark your attention because you're a woman and you need to stay informed to know if it's happening in your community? Like, those are the kinds of questions that kind of run through my mind where I'm just like, what does it take? Let's not wait until it is within your circle. Let's do something about it for other people as well. Because it shouldn't take something affecting your person to have that empathy and that care. Because again, we got to take it back to the just being human. I feel like most humans can all agree, right? So this is a good place to give an example of the Epstein files. Not going to talk much on it, but we can all agree as human and as a society that pedophiles are the bottom of the barrel. Like why someone would do that to a child is beyond. So we all agree that we want those Epstein files released, and the way they're doing it, we can pretty much agree that it's illegal. You're redacting names that are co-conspirators and you're supposed to release them. It's almost like, who are you protecting? And then you're leaving names in of victims, which is illegal because those people wanted to remain anonymous for a reason. Not to mention, this was just released. You're listening to this on Tuesday. This was just released, I believe, on Monday, that they've left nude photos of young girls in the Epstein Files unredacted, which is child pornography. That is illegal and highly disturbing by our Department of Justice. So we can all agree as a society that they are bottom of the barrel. No one's here for it, not at all. And if we saw it in our neighborhood, like if even if it was an accusation, like if it was an accusation towards a teacher, a principal, you know, a healthcare provider, a doctor. You would never allow your child to be back in that space. You would be going to end of earth to get that investigated and removed. So if you would do it for that situation, why do we not do it in other situations that collectively as a whole could be agreed upon that it's wrong and bad? Why are we not store like why are we not protesting enough to be like, y'all have to release this? Even even if everybody at the White House was fired and we had to re-elect everyone and we had no leaders because they're let's let's just say they're all in it, allegedly, then wouldn't we rather have that and get the corruption out and start anew? Like I understand that wealth and money and power speak volumes clearly in this country. Like that is we all knew that, but it is very clear and very loud now. But what I'm saying, like example-wise, is like if we can collectively say that, then we can collectively agree that murder when the crime doesn't fit the punishment is wrong. We can collectively say that's wrong and do so peacefully and get the voice let your and let our voices be heard. We have to let our voices be heard. Sometimes they do have to be loud, unfortunately. But the biggest thing is letting your compassion be louder than your voice and let your humanity be impossible to ignore. Because guys, history is repeating itself. It's here and it's watching. So I'm gonna leave you with that. I hope that made more sense with my feelings, kind of compressed and compiled. Um, I know there's been a lot more going on, and someone also made that comment I saw on Facebook, and I was gonna reply to it, and I didn't because it just didn't have the bandwidth. See, there's it's okay sometimes to not have the bandwidth to reply to something. You don't have to reply to every comment. It's just holding space and holding conversations, which I've been doing all week with a lot of people, even when they didn't want to have the conversations. Um, but someone made the comment of like, why is no one talking about the shootings anymore and they're only talking about the Epstein files? And that's how we've been trained, right? I remember in high school, like before social media, before we even had social media, yes, I'm that old. We didn't have social media when I was in high school. I can't imagine now what people have to go through with that. But like if there was a rumor about you and somebody was spreading it and you would go home and be upset. I remember my mom being like, just it's fine, it'll pass in a week, something else will come out, and sure enough, it did. And that's no different than today. It's just digital and it's faster. So whatever the headlines are gonna be, people are gonna jump from thing to the thing. That doesn't mean it's been forgotten. That doesn't mean that people aren't thinking about the shootings or it's still on their mind, but this has now came out, and it's and I've I've even heard someone say this, and I don't know it to be true, but it kind of makes sense. Like that's the point in what they're trying to do. They're trying to give you political whiplash. If you have five different headlines, you're paying attention to the right over here with the headlines, and you're not paying attention over here to the left with what's going on. And I was using right and left because I was using my hands. I know this isn't visual, that was not a political um example. I was just saying, like, like you know how like when you're trying to get a baby's attention to take a photo and you have your hand up and you're shaking it, the baby's paying attention to what's moving to get their attention. So we're paying attention to the moving part. So it almost begs to wonder what we are not seeing and what are we missing on the non-moving parts? But I don't know, that's just a thought. So hopefully less heavy stuff coming soon. But like I said, we have to hold space and we have to have these conversations no matter how hard they are. So hopefully, even if you disagree, you can take something away from this. And until next time, guys, bye.