n certain circumstances, facts don't mean shit.
Because unless it's been previously vetted, your brain can't tell if a fact is correct or not on sight.
But your brain instantly knows what pisses it off.
Think of your brain as a nightclub. Your knowledges, facts, and ideas are the patrons. Eventually, you develop a staff of bouncers (judgement, bullshit meter, call it what you will). As you grow and learn, these bouncers learn what Ideas are ok ("Human beings can't fly"), what Ideas are harmless ("wouldn't it be cool if we could fly?") and which Ideas will fuck it up for everyone ("I'm Peter Pan, motherfuckers! Where's a balcony? I need a good leaping spot!").
As time goes on, you accumulate not only regular Facts who have been vetted time and again, and who have friend networks that vouch for them. You also accumulate ideas non grata, ideas that showed their ass, got kicked out, and aren't allowed in your head.
When one of these ideas shows up, it sets off the emotion alarm. Brain chemicals kick on a big "fuck no!" sign. Your more violent and righteous ideas start yelling.
Now, if you've trained your bouncers to investigate before attacking, the least that happens is that you stop and see what this asshole idea is up to, and what other ideas they're with.
But often you don't have that kind of time or inclination, so you just batten down the hatches and tell the entire group to fuck off, all because they're hanging with the asshole ideas, making them asshole ideas by affiliation.
Example,
My brain is full of gun nuttage and use-of-force laws, with networks of affiliated facts going several layers down.
A few weeks ago, one of the latest memes had a list of hashtagged names of unarmed black men killed by police in America with "= No Conviction" next to each name.
That band of Ideas got stopped at the door to the club of my brain. Because just the facts near the door and the ones hanging out near that door know that two of the names on that list were legitimately killed according to every known use of force law currently in effect.
My bouncers turned those two lines away right at the door. I had neither the time nor inclination to wake up the nuances I know were in effect. So the rest of the names were turned away too.
Sitting in the back behind all of those ideas was, "systemic racism in American legal and justice system."
And my bouncers looked at it and said, "you realize we're going to go through this every time you go out with those lying assholes, right?"
And it went, "yeah, yeah, they're a lot more useful with other crowds, though."
Which is true.
What happens if that idea went to, say, a sociologist's door? Someone who's expertise was broader but shallower? Who knew about more cases but less about the nuances of each individual case?
In that mind, systemic racism would roll deep with the entire pack of ideas behind them and the bouncers would never say a word. Any ideas that would object wouldn't be up to vet or object, assuming they had ever visited that mind in the first place.
In which case, the first idea to refute or deny a member of systemic racism's crew would be in for their own step-by-step vetting to get into a new brain.
This happens with all sorts of ideas, in everybody's brain.
When Kapernick took a knee, a fuckload of people saw "systemic racism in the American Legal and Justice System" hanging out with "Make a conscious display during the national anthem."
And a LOT of people's brains clanged shut and said, "how dare you bring THAT asshole idea here!"
They still are.
The point I'm making is to take at least some time to let your bouncers vet the occasional idea, even if it runs with an asshole crowd.

The growing call for police to have better training in dealing with the mentally ill.
This is the most diplomatic way of putting it that I can make:
Unless you're a working therapist with a very heavy client calendar, the average metro cop dealt with more cases of mentally ill individuals before lunch on Monday than you will for the rest of the month.
Because "call the cops if they won't stop being my problem" is our go-to societal solution, they're the ones who get called in. Doesn't matter if it's a kid foaming at the mouth, throwing books and screaming about demons, a hobo taking a nap at the side door of your office building, a guy with no thumbs and three teeth begging for change for their next meth fix, or a lady stripping bare-ass in the middle of the airport before waving her vagina at the TSA agents and loudly propositioning anyone in earshot.
And day in and day out, they handle it as situations dictate, almost always getting the problem out of your hands and off into somewhere else.
And occasionally, tragedy strikes.
As I had to point out to someone the other day, when someone had a knife out and is going for your kidneys, nobody, least of all you, has the time or inclination to ask about their medical history. You either let them have you, or you stop them.
So yeah, I could be salty and ask where the fuck you've been since the Regan administration. Or ask how the fuck we'll pay for who exactly to administer such training, given how less than ubiquitous body cams still are.
Instead I'll point out that they've been dealing with the mentally ill a lot longer and a lot better than they ever get credit for, because out of sight and out of mind is all a part of the service.

Fun fact: I made knives. Mostly for film & theatrical purposes. Found out something interesting along the way.
Anything less than 10 inches long with a 5" blade, vanishes in the actor's hands and the audience never sees it. Even in a black box. The letter opener I made for No Exit was bigger than a steak knife at longhorn, and even then it was hard to see.
Now, the multitool I use? 4.5" handle, 3" knife blade. Blade's hard to see even inside Tueller drill distance.
Now, the ambulance chasing fuckweasel representing the family of the asshole who committed suicide by cop on the GT campus the other night is claiming the officer overreacted. The deceased was supposedly carrying a closed multitool.
Bullshit. If anything, the officer underreacted. He allowed the deceased to come within Tueller drill range while armed with a knife. The fact that the knife wasn't opened couldn't be determined by the officer at distance means shit. Because by the time they could get a positive ID, they already would've been in range of a lethal attack they couldn't stop.
It's the same principal that lets cops shoot you if you shove a hand into a pocket when told to keep your hand in place. They have NO obligation to let you shoot first, nor are they obligated to read your mind and discover you really have a gun in there. Said actions constitute a threat whether the FB armchair quarterbacks agree or not.

P.S.: 21' is an average.
I will neither confirm nor deny the existence of individuals who can do such a thing from twice that distance. Nor rumors of it being done in a relatively uncrowded ballroom.

P.P.S. : About a year back a German cop shot a machete-wielding guy in the leg before managing to arrest him. Never saw any followup on how much mobility the machete guy had. But I did remember headdesking with a thought of, "oh, peachy. Now every amateur hour dipshit out there has an exception that proves the rule to crow about."