Hmm: Story begins to change on shooting of Philando Castile

There remains much that we don’t know about this — the tragic shooting of Mr. Castile, a school cafeteria worker, during a traffic stop in Minnesota — so the point here is not that a new narrative has been definitively established. But there are key elements of the story that are now credibly contradicted by emerging evidence.

Jenn Jacques at Bearing Arms has an excellent summary of them. Readers are familiar with the original narrative from Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, who broadcast heartbreaking, live phone video of Castile after he was shot. The policeman stopped Castile, the driver, for a broken taillight, and supposedly shot Castile while he was reaching for his wallet — mistaking the movement for a reach for Castile’s gun, which we are told he advised the officer of, and had a carry permit for.

Perhaps worst of all, we were left to believe that the officer simply let Philando Castile bleed out in the car. The ambiguities of a given situation might prevent us from drawing hasty conclusions about the officer’s choice to shoot if he felt threatened. But once Castile was unable to move and was bleeding badly, there surely was no excuse for leaving him without the emergency care on scene in which all police officers are trained.

Now it looks like the most important features of the original narrative were incorrect. First of all, the police officer didn’t stop Castile because of a “busted taillight.” We know that from the police radio recording. At the time, the police were on the lookout for two suspects in the armed robbery of a store in the area, and Castile and Reynolds fit the description. The officer who made the stop reported that he was about to stop the vehicle for that reason.

The officer clearly states, “I’m going to stop a car. I’m going to check IDs. I have reason to pull it over.”

“The two occupants just look like people that were involved in a robbery. The driver looks more like one of our suspects, just ‘cause of the wide set nose,” the officer on the recording confirms.

Approximately a minute and a half later, comes the first report that there was a shooting.

This fact changes the nature of the incident more than any other. An officer who thinks he may be stopping armed robbers will have a different mindset — about the threat level — from the one he’d have if he were just stopping someone for a broken taillight. He’d be more likely to suspect the presence of a gun, and suspect that it could be used against him. He’d be justified in firing into the car if he had to, even with other people in it, to save his own life.

Meanwhile, a photo posted by a bystander seems to show that the Castile car had two functioning taillights anyway. (Since the video streamed by Reynolds was in daylight, this image would have had to be from later in the day. That would fit, however, with the time it probably would have taken the tweeter, Rashad Turner, to get to the scene.)

A video posted on YouTube also appears to contradict the most damning feature of the incident: the officer’s implied disregard for Philando Castile’s condition after he was shot. The video — assuming it does depict the aftermath of this incident — shows a pair of officers giving Castile CPR on the road next to the car.

At the less definitive level, there are a couple of points. Jenn Jacques posts an image of something on Castile’s thigh that could have been a gun — something the officer might have seen as he looked in the window. You can decide what you think about it. We don’t have a full timeline of the exchange to go by, in order to evaluate everything the officer thought was happening at the moment when Diamond Reynolds says Castile was reaching for his wallet.

View of Philando Castile’s lap from the Diamond Reynolds video. The still image appears to have been flipped horizontally.

Regarding the carry permit, one county (Ramsey) already denied issuing Castile a carry permit. Hennepin County next door, and the state of Minnesota, have declined to give out any information. Jacques quotes angry anti-gun pundits who excoriated the NRA for supposedly not supporting Castile as a carry-permit holder. But public officials haven’t allowed anyone to verify Castile’s status as a permit holder.

He may well have been one. But the tiebreaker for the police officer in the situation at hand wasn’t Castile’s carry permit; it was the possibility that the driver of the car was an armed robber.

We don’t know, among other things, how clearly the officer conveyed an urgent warning that Castile should not move his hands around in a way that could be misinterpreted. We can imagine what he said, but we don’t know for sure. We don’t know enough to draw firm conclusions — except that this was an awful tragedy. It demands, without question, a full and transparent investigation. But nothing can make up for the loss to Philando Castile’s family and friends.

Two more points. One, it looks like the foolish words of Minnesota’s governor (top link), Mark Dayton, may actually have been correct. Dayton, a Democrat, weighed in on Thursday with the opinion that Castile would still be alive if he’d been white. And indeed, if Castile had been white, he wouldn’t have fit the description of an armed robber on that afternoon in Falcon Heights. For that reason, and no other, he probably wouldn’t have been stopped at all.

The other point is that there’s a much bigger narrative falling apart: the narrative that America is doing our black citizens any good by thinking of them as part of a “47%” that we “take care of” with low expectations and welfare programs. For one thing, the evidence is staring us in the face that millions of black Americans don’t live by excuses, hand-outs, and the special privilege of not being responsible for their actions. They don’t accept life at the lowest common denominator. They know the “secrets” of a good life, like not nursing resentments but cultivating character, which is something we all have to do.

If the people of character — whatever their race or ethnicity — need to adjust what they’re doing, it’s not in the direction of simply giving one race or economic group a special veto over our common policing arrangements. Instead, it’s in the direction of shedding our bad mindset about negative incentives like the welfare state, or public-school teaching standards that encourage people from every background to nurse grievances and feel angry and confused about their cultural history. Too much of what our government does is now dedicated — quite literally — to fostering a sense of inequality and resentment in the people.

Race is an ugly dividing line, and race-mongering is real. The political left excels in it, and has been making a living off of it for more than half a century. Consider this: if Diamond Reynolds’ narrative about the shooting of Philando Castile should ultimately fall apart, it will be something that could easily happen with the narrative of a white person too. The difference in public impact won’t be because of more acute observation, or a greater concern for truth, among white witnesses. It’s not like white girlfriends are more reliable in that regard. The difference will be that if this incident had involved white people, the odds are you would never have even heard about it.

What I see here tells me the rule of law goes out the window if the police officer suspects someone of something...and the police officer is right no matter what.

Having delayed obeying a police office in a special situation, "Excuse me, officer. I will do what you asked in a moment, but first you need to know . . ." I blame anyone who startles a nervous cop while reaching toward where he carries a gun. You speak calmly and respectfully, move slowly, and only move when you are sure the man with the gun is comfortable. That doesn't produce the exciting live video, but it produces a much longer live life.

Never let a crisis go to waste.

This was a crisis and the opportunity for videotaping or recording the sequel to the confrontation was simply too good to pass up.

The “Hands up don’t shoot” narrative gets established right away.

The policeman stopped Castile, the driver, for a broken taillight, and supposedly shot Castile while he was reaching for his wallet —

I read another article yesterday that stated he pulled the vehicle over because the vehicle, Castile, and his girlfriend fit an APB description of a robbery 2 days before and Castile used a firearm.

Like Trayvon Martin, a motherless child simply trying to go home with his Skittles and Arizona tea, when he was viciously assaulted and murdered by armed, racist adult, George Zimmerman.
And Michael Brown, gentle giant, minding his own business when ...

It’s no wonder we’re cynical.
It isn’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so. Will Rogers

You, nor anyone else, knows exactly what happened at this point.

That's why I said "apparently", but I do find the incident alarming. I do not want to fear for my life in an interaction with a police officer simply because the officer is nervous, despite the fact that I am not doing anything wrong. If this incident turns out to be an example of that, there's a great deal to be concerned about for all legal carriers of guns.

The young man had a lot of police stops and should have known how to behave. I believe it is upwards of 39 traffic stops. There is a video on her facebook of the two of them smoking a blunt with the little girl in the backseat. It is disgusting. I don’t know about the male, but the female is a lying nutcase looking for a gofundme pay check.

What all of these events demonstrate, IMHO, is that the real enemy is the US media.

Yeah—DemocRATS are dangerous, but they’re more dangerous because the media supports and covers for them.

Yeah—Republicans are cowards, but the non-stop intimidation and slander by the media makes it even worse.

If the US is to survive, the first order of business is to neutralize all aspects of the partisan Left MSM.

-- No one in this "debate" seems to recall that half of the violent crime in this country is committed by Blacks. --

That is the rock bottom fact that is being "denied." The unstated assumption is that policy, not facts, results an a "crime rate" disparity relative to demographic proportions. That claim is policy is to accuse, charge and convict blacks for actions that a white person would get away with.

IOW, take the demographics at about 12% of the population being black. Rather than taking the statistic that 50% of the crimes (and something like 90% of the unjustified firearm homicides) are committed by blacks as a signal that blacks are more prone to criminal or violent conduct, the 50% statistic (compared with the 12% demographic) is taken as proof the system is biased against blacks.

It's a form of affirmative action, but for criminals. One of these days, race is going to be taken out of the crime statistics, because the leaders do not want the public to know the facts.

“No, they’ll use the remote robot bomb on us when they come to collect the guns... And there will be people cheering that, too...”

If you shoot a dozen officers and murder 5 of them, I would cheer even if “they” nuke your arse.

I know what selfies are but don’t have a camera phone, so thanks.

But I am still waiting for evidence of a `police murder’ provided by someone so-equipped where the cop approaches the victim: hands outside the car, following the cop’s orders explicitly, and the cop draws his piece, maybe while laughing like a maniac while he pumps round-after-round into the victim.

Reports show that both Mateen and Johnson laughed while they executed Americans.

To illustrate the point:

Murphy was sitting at the bar and says to the bartender
“You see that church over there?
I built it with my bare hands, but do they call me Murphy the church builder?
Nooo!”

“You see that school over there?
I taught there for 30 years, but do they call me Murphy the educator?
Nooo!”

“But you **** one goat ... “

I can be as harsh as anyone with police when they screw up, and some do, royally, but cops are the good guys.
Despite what Clinton and Obama might say, law abiding Americans can trust them to do the right thing. It is important to remember that in these “us versus them” times.
Rant over

I am not glad that a man - a US citizen - who apparently did nothing wrong in this situation was shot dead. Both for his sake, and also because if it can happen to him, it can happen to the rest of us.

You need to start speaking for yourself; you seem to be another knee jerk reactor with anger management issues.

I can't guarantee you that, had I been the driver, I would Not have been shot by the cop had it happened to me. ANYTHING is possible; but I am totally confident that had I been the individual stopped by the cop I would not have been.

I live in a high crime area of my state. In nine out of ten murders, bank robberies, aggravated assaults, muggings, carjackings and holdups, the suspects are non white. All of them? No. But enough for a human being with modest IQ to assess the correct level of situational awareness and apprehension, racist (by your view of the world) or not.

There is one additional "fact" ignored by the so-called reporter, and the resulting incompetent report : was the robbery reported over the radio prior to the shooting event successful? or simply an attempt? Had the robbery been successful, the loot could have been in the car.

Am I alone in thinking that a cop who is “nervous” about ANYONE needs to leave that line of work and possibly seek psychotherapy? Nervous and jumpy people do not need a badge, gun and the power over life and death...

That said, the supposedly “real” video smells like bulls*** to me-the “girlfriend” sounds like she is staging and acting the whole thing-rather badly, in my opinion-if it were real, shouldn’t she be calling for help instead of directing, acting and filming all at the same time?

Awful as it is, I was reminded of an old Richard Pryor routine where he talked about his aunt faking a fall down stairs-”oh, Jesus stop me from falling down stairs, listen everybody, I’m about to fall down stairs”, etc. I also read on a news source that no one seems able to find the permit to carry the man claimed to have-too many are reacting to the Obama and liberal dogwhistle-”white racist cop-right over here, over here”...

The Jesse Jackasses need to be shouted down, any “protestors” who are really agitators brought in from someplace else and/or affiliated with NBP or the like need to be arrested, fined and escorted across the state line-then cooler heads can prevail-we are not getting anything sensible done with what is going on now...

A buddy of mine had something similar last year in the town he works.

Kid had an argument with family, got mama’s boyfriends gun, headed over to girlfriends house, (her mom got a restraining order against him). Police tried to detain him, he opened fire, they returned fired but missed. He then ran and offed himself.

Not ten minutes later the videos were flowing that the police shot him in the back, executed him, and why couldn’t he be carrying a gun at 18? This went around the world in minutes and it took two days to squash.

They even blamed the Ferguson police for shooting him.

It has become fashionable to tell monstrous lies for video hits. It is getting people killed and if it does not get reined in by serious legislation, it will continue to get worse.

One of these days, race is going to be taken out of the crime statistics, because the leaders do not want the public to know the facts.

You are way behind the curve. At least for the last 20 years, at the federal level, race has been forbidden in crime reports and statistics. At the local level, also, the last 8 years.

Compound that stupidity by redefining felonies into "misdemeanors," and you can expect imbecilities like Omugabe announcing (in a foreign country!) that crime is significantly down from what it was 10, 20, 50 years ago!

You need to start speaking for yourself; you seem to be another knee jerk reactor with anger management issues.

I already am speaking for myself, of course - there's absolutely nothing in what I wrote to indicate otherwise.

As for this odd comment about anger management - what anger? I wrote quite politely and I'm not angry about anything, though I admit to some puzzlement over your reply. Seriously, was your reply even meant for me?

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.