Posted on 06/30/2021 11:19:12 AM PDT by thegagline
Chances are you haven’t yet heard about 17-year-old Hunter Brittain who, despite being unarmed, was shot dead by police during a traffic stop. It’s not that this isn’t a shocking and tragic story, but there has been a complete national media blackout on the incident because, unfortunately for Brittain’s family, they’re all white.
Brittain was pulled over in the middle of the night last week in Cabot, Arkansas, for reasons that remain unclear. According to 16-year-old Jordan King, who was in the vehicle with Brittain, the truck was having gear trouble and would not remain in park, so Brittain exited to place a container behind a tire in order to keep it from backing up into the squad car.
That’s when the deputy fired at Brittain, striking him in the neck. King said he never heard the officer command Brittain to halt or return inside the truck. An investigation is underway.
Despite this being one of those “unarmed police shooting deaths” that so often arouse the media, neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post has done a single piece of reporting on the incident. Nothing from CNN nor MSNBC.
Just two days after Brittain’s death, 23-year-old Dimitri Lanahan was also shot dead by police near Fairbanks, Alaska, after brandishing a fake gun. He was white too, so you likely hadn’t heard about that one either.
At least seven other unarmed white people have been killed by police this year, according to a Washington Post database. (A database that users have to search through should not be confused with reporting on, writing on, and giving sustained attention to individual incidents.) Those lives apparently don’t matter as much.
Admittedly, all of the facts aren’t yet known around the circumstances of Brittain’s death. Did he charge at the officer? Did the officer hold a reasonable belief that his safety or the safety of others was at risk? Maybe we’ll find that out when the investigation is complete.
But since when have all the facts mattered? Immediately after Andrew Brown was killed earlier this year, the media were hyping up his case as proof of their complete myth that cops are targeting innocent black people. It turned out Brown had an arrest warrant for dealing cocaine and fentanyl-laced heroin. When police arrived at his home to detain him, body camera footage showed he tried evading the cops in his car, nearly plowing into one of the officers on the scene.
That doesn’t mean he or any one of these people deserved to die, but at minimum, it dramatically changes the degree to which race was a relevant factor, if a factor at all.
Hunter Brittain’s life mattered just as much as Andrew Brown’s. Say his name, even though he’s white.
Eddie Scarry is the D.C. columnist at The Federalist and author of "Privileged Victims: How America's Culture Fascists Hijacked the Country and Elevated Its Worst People," .
Maybe white people should start taking it personally. The biggest reason nobody pays attention to unarmed white people getting shot by the cops is white people don’t seem to care. If everybody started taking every shoot personally something might actually change.
Let’s all prepare and send information on this event to the editorial/opinion pages of our local newsrags. A few might even be published!
Agreed in part, about the body cam. The cop feeling threatened if he reached for a rag? Nope.
Agree, provided the cops perception of the threat meets the same standard that would apply to you or I.
Yes but it has NOT been released.
" and secondly, the "kid" riding with the deceased was an eye witness. You have a problem with reading comprehension?
So you believe the kid before seeing what should be incontrovertible evidence from a body cam?
I sure as hell wouldn't want you on a Jury if I was on trial. Yuo'd think I was guilty the moment the presecution began testimony and before my defense could be heard. And yeah you need a few reading comp classes.
“The cop feeling threatened if he reached for a rag? Nope.”
I was saying MAYBE the kid reached in his pocket for a rag but the Cop thought he was reaching for a weapon.
What is your problem? You on FR just for bullying? Adding you to my blocked list. I guess that #15 added to your name indicates your age.
Blocked....me?
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Luckily for Hunter, his 12 week old puppy remained safely at home.
You need to read more on this shooting
Then give me your opinion
Please
To many Freepers any cop shoots kid is justified
Cop saw a conjuring behind the kid
He had no choice but to shoot before the phantasm took his own soul
That sort of thing....
The stupids think intent is absolution
As someone very familiar with crime....my own
It is not a valid excuse
Nor should it be for cops
Hunter?
And thats the point. Cop was wrong and killed someone without cause. What would happen if a non- LEO did that?
We don’t get have enough info to judge guilt or innocent.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.