On July 6, 2016 St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez pulled over Philando Castile on a routine traffic-stop for a broken brake light. The officer approaches the vehicle, informs Castile of the reason for the stop then asks for his license and registration. So far, so good. This sort of thing happens countless times a day in the United States. The dash-cam video and audio are very clear. Castile reaches for his license, as directed, and informs the officer he also is a licensed firearm carrier and that he had the firearm on his person at the time. Seconds later, Officer Yanez fires seven rounds at point-blank range into the vehicle while screaming, “don’t move, don’t move!”–as if anyone is going to be moving much after they’ve had seven rounds pumped into them at close range. Castile’s girlfriend, present in the vehicle in the passenger’s seat at the time, recorded the entire incident and posted it immediately to Facebook. The footage went viral. Indeed, she remained far more self-possessed than the officer doing the shooting, a fact not lost on the tens of millions of people who subsequently watched the video. In spite of the fact that her child was in the backseat of the vehicle at the time.
Dashcam footage of the shooting of Philando Castile
For millions of people it seemed this would be an open and shut case. How could any rational person watching the video (and there’s more than one in this case) conclude that the officer involved acted professionally or in commensurate response to the situation?
The Spin Began Immediately, the Tired Old Lies and Unsupported Rhetoric
One may deem the spiel that ensued from the law enforcement community as something other than bullshit, but I’ll just call it that, bullshit. The same old tool-box of misrepresentations and wholly unsupported rhetoric trotted out to dress up the use of deadly force by a cop who, for whatever reason, over-reacted and killed another person without any semblance of justification whatsoever. We’re familiar, but let’s break down the unmitigated prevarication into its component parts and then get back to what this was, homicide without sufficient grounds. It’s as simple as that.
As in so many high-profile cases over the course of the last several decades involving a police officer’s use of deadly force and a black male victim the under-lying spin revolves around the construction of a false narrative unsupported by any matching evidence. The primary and most elemental component involved is the quasi-mythical, ethereal construct wherein police officers are constantly ducking bullets and in imminent danger on a daily basis. We, as civilians would simply never understand the constant peril and what officers deal with on a daily basis.
Therefore, the sub-text reads, we should kind of understand why they shoot people under questionable circumstances from time to time…being that they face constant peril on a daily basis and all. And yet, there are many professions with far higher on-the-job mortality rates, but somehow those working those jobs manage to not shoot the shit out of people on a weekly basis. Social workers, mental health professionals, employees in troubled schools….somehow manage, though they face very similar situations while working in very similar contexts, manage not to whack people on a regular basis and then try to write it off as an understandable by-product of job-related stress. Sorry, officers, lots of us just don’t buy your bullshit. And that is what it is, bullshit.
The Prevalence of Line-of-Duty Fatalities Among Minnesota Police Officers
But in the case of Philando Castile’s murder–yes, murder–the same old, gone bad-in-the-teeth from over-use rhetoric was trotted out once more to justify the actions of Yanez.
Facts. They are kind of important in a justice context, aren’t they? So, let’s look at the factual bases for the aforementioned sub-text: Police officers are in constant, imminent danger and must be ever-ready to pull out their revolvers and fill someone full of holes because they’re, you know, in constant danger and all. So, let’s look at the facts behind that worn set of arguments.
Let’s start with the number of on-duty deaths among police officers in the largest police department in the State of Minnesota, Minneapolis. From 1981 to 2017 how many officers died while on duty? Take a guess. That would be seven. Yes, that’s right, seven. Five from gunfire, one from a heart attack and one from a vehicular assault. So, in 36 years, five officers. Do the math. Every 7.2 years a Minneapolis police officer was killed in an exchange of gunfire during the course of duty. No one wants to see anyone get shot, but that’s not the point. The point is debunking the idea put forth every time a cop shoots someone to death under questionable circumstances that they face such constant, imminent danger that we should just accept it when, once in awhile, they blow someone to pieces…cos, you know, job stress and all.
More germane to the incident in question would be the statistical frequency of police deaths involving an exchange of gunfire among Forest Lake Police Officers. How many have occurred? That would be one….in 1932. Yes, that’s correct. The last time an officer from the Forest Lake PD was killed by a gunshot took place 84 years ago. So, it would be reasonable to state that one officer from this police department per century dies from a suspect shooting them. By any stretch it would be hard to make the argument that officers from the department in question face constant peril now would it? And yet, that’s the underlying rhetoric trotted out….again.
Yanez, the sub-text reads, was a highly-trained officer who simply responded to a perceived threat. Again, we wouldn’t understand cos, you know, all the stress he was under. It wasn’t that he was an over-excited, steroidal thug who totally over-reacted to the situation at hand and shot a guy multiple times in the presence of a child, during the course of a traffic stop for a broken brake light and then tried to lie his way out of it with the support of, you know, all the stressed out cops facing gunfire on a daily basis in Minnesota. The guardians and accountants of personal responsibility in blue are seemingly never responsible for their actions. Especially when it involves a young black man.
Which Takes Us to the Next Component of the Bullshit Narrative
The next component in the bullshit narrative was also passing familiar: A man of similar appearance was, purportedly, involved in an armed robbery in the vicinity. By “similar appearance” they were, of course, referring to a young black guy. All too familiar. Behind that threadbare “factual” element a bunch of other crap gets trotted into the narrative: Black guys are more likely to commit violent felonies, black guys are more likely to carry guns–especially young black guys not dressed in suits (and even those black guys are suspicious), black guys are more likely to shoot black guys (as if that has anything to do with this), etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
And behind that train of infamous deceits the rallying point is now, “Blue Lives Matter”. Again the false narrative hinging upon the notion that police officers are dodging bullets on a daily basis ergo if they shoot some young black guy once in awhile it’s wholly understandable. Again, in St. Anthony, Minnesota the last time a cop was fatally shot was 84 years ago people. There’s a statistically greater chance of being struck by lightning, fatally. No one is saying Blue Lives Matter, but as a legal pretext for shooting people to death under highly questionable circumstances….that dog just don’t hunt.
As in any other profession, you have the good and the bad. However, in the domain of law enforcement, unlike any other profession, there’s almost never any culpability assigned nor any level of responsibility undertaken. Cos, you know, if one of them fatally shoots someone, especially if he’s black, we should just accept…cos, you know, of the stress….every 84 years one of them gets shot….the stress of that is just too much.
In 2016 Police Fatally Shot 963 People
According to the Washington Post’s tally, in 2016 Police Officers shot and killed 963 people. A disproportionately high number of those fatalities were black men. Those on the political right supportive of the use of excessive force (the, “cos, you know, they’re under a lot of stress” crowd) often invoke all of the mantras cited above. They also like to note that more white men are killed by police than black guys. Problem is they apparently can’t do basic fucking math…cos, you know, there are more white guys than black guys, but factual arguments in that crowd are as hard to find as the ability to think about much of anything using reason and evidence and fact.
Of the thousands of officer-involved fatal shootings that occur each and every year almost none are ever indicted, fewer still and almost none convicted of any offense. Despite the fact that violent crime has been decreasing in the majority of the United States for 30 years you’d never know that in listening to police rhetoric.
In the State of Minnesota, a non-profit organization, Communities United Against Police Brutality has kept a running tally of those slain in police interactions. The list is called “Stolen Lives” and you may reference it here.
The Yanez Verdict, “Not Guilty” the City of St. Anthony Pays out over 3 Million
Recently, a jury handed down a verdict of not-guilty in the trial of St Anthony police officer Yanez on manslaughter charges for the shooting of Philando Castile. The decision sparked rage among many in the State of Minnesota. A not-guilty verdict and yet a civil decision resulted in an over 3 million dollar pay-out to the family. One of many in recent history for police-involved cases in the State.
Think about that for a bit. Not guilty, but three million paid out. Yanez walks away. He lost his job, Philando lost his life. In the wake of so many similar cases across the nation justice is clearly something meted out differently by race. It’s that simple. I’m from Minnesota with deep roots there. I know how people think. As a white male from St. Cloud who grew up in the 1960s I can tell you that this is, in many ways, exactly what it looks like–permission granted to police officers to over-react and shoot someone to death, particularly if he’s black. It’s bullshit.
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