Posted on 07/10/2016 11:13:06 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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.)
(TWEET-AT-LINK)
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.
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
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.
Pulling a gun on a cop when you’re a suspect in an armed robbery is not “the rule of law”. You people defending this dead criminal make me sick. Try to remember we all live in the real world, not your theoretical la-la land. Would you be happy if Philando had shot the cop?
Maybe you shouldn’t rob convenience stores and pull guns on cops. Too deep for you ant the rest of the Philando-supporters?
I wish I could get a streight report on the the facts of this incident instead of being forced to re-read reports several times like Dyer’s which covers hese points in a simplisric fashion and ignores the important details.
The officer involved was following procedure
There an APB on a local armed robbery what did that report say ? (type of vehicle used in escape, description of perpetrators)
When the officer called in his intended resposnse what did he say ?
Instead we get wandering speculation and attemtps to address issues not directly related to the incident. Including a pass on their governor reinforcing Obama’s inflamatory remarks.
Thank you.
The police officer could well tell the driver of the car that there was a broken tail light, even if he suspected him of robbery.
The driver wouldn’t know the officer was on edge, if he, the driver, was innocent.
I saw two men in pictures of the robbery, not a woman, so right now I doubt the authenticity of the supposed radio traffic.
Assuming matters were as the woman said in her narration, she did the best possible thing by recording video.
She wasn’t allowed to reach over to try to stop her boyfriend’s bleeding - she would have been shot also.
An ambulance was already on the way.
It’s too hot to argue with criminal-loving idiots today. As a life member of the NRA, my idea of gun rights does not extend to armed robbery suspects who pull guns on cops. Maybe yours does. Get pissy with that.
Attempted to refute; big difference.
The enemy is dangerous and committed, so I'll try to be discreet with the facts revealed.
I live in a city of well over 200,000 with some neighborhoods more dangerous that others. Even the safer neighborhoods contain or are bordered by pockets of criminally inclined chronically unemployed "families."
Political Correctness has infected every corner of our cities in the last 16 years, at least since the massive "religion of peace" attack.
I also live in a homeowners association community.
My immediate sub-neighborhood reflects the general population ethnicities. We are all alert, having been victims of stolen mail, breakins, stolen cars, recent car hijackings and students mugged for their cell phones and other valuables walking home after school.
There are a half dozen of us who are retired, and home most of the time, and in communication when we see strangers in the alleys alone or in pairs wandering aimlessly around the neighborhood. Most of the time on bicycles, but occasionally in motor vehicles.
Until earlier this year, we could call the police, provide a description, including race, to check, specially during the school year, when presumably all under 18 are presumed to be in school.
Are all of these "explorers" residents of our Homeowners group? I have no idea; I have not met all the 600+ members of our "unit." It is almost certain that most suspicious wanderers are not.
All that changed this year. Now, when the strangers are spotted, we must file a report with the police first, giving information about ourselves, a description of the subjects, but forbidden to mention race or type of clothing. How soon after that there might be a police response (if any) is impossible to determine.
What would you think is the rational response to the new "procedure?" I'll leave that to your imagination.
More to the point of your challenge, what is certain to me, is that when those police reports (if any) are forwarded to the County, the State and ultimately to the FBI, filtered by God knows how many more "politically correct" hands, how useful can it be?
Busy work, a "sensitive" environment, not offensive to any privileged group, invasive to the crime victims, and totally useless as a crime fighting tool.
I can close by saying that I am not surprised that you're confused. I sure am.
If I understand your point, you stand by "At least for the last 20 years, at the federal level, race has been forbidden in crime reports and statistics."
If so, what we have here is a failure to communicate. But, this not being a movie, and me not caring, I bid you adieu.
I also have seen that excellent video, but unfortunately it is NOT on YouTube that I could find. I do not do Facebook nor am likely to do so any time soon. I saw it on a friend's cell phone.
If you think that it is on YouTube, a link or name for that video sure would be appreciated. I usually save useful videos to share with family, friends and Freepers, of course.
I sure hope you are alone. Although trained to the extent possible, it would take a robot to avoid adrenaline and warranted nervousness.
I remember an account, a couple of decades ago, of a "holier than though" rabid anti-gun nutjob (we all know the type, "why can't you shoot him in the leg? or shoot the gun out of his hands?" level of stupid) politically connected who got a "ridealong" with a sheriff deputy one night.
The car had to respond to a dicey scenario involving a drugged up nut with a gun in the middle of the night.
Short version, she went ballistic and started running around shouting, Shoot the sunofa****h already!!!" while dodging bullets.
Reality truly sucks.
Always, conveniently, the recording begins with the result of any provocation that might have provoked the shooting.
This has been the case since the famous Rodney King event.
When we lived in the burbs, MrT5 and I belonged to a group that did neighborhood watch, etc-and we both did a couple of ridealongs on graveyard shift. Even in that burb, many miles from the city limits and a low-crime area, answering a call for a suspicious person or an alarm going off at a business was beyond creepy-made the hair on my neck stand up, as I tried to look in all directions at once, mind focusing all senses into warp drive.
That said, the cop who shot that guy sounded totally hysterical and unhinged-more like the reaction of a civilian who was threatened-that is not a temperament able to handle a situation like that well at all-and apparently, he didn’t. I’m not judging, since the facts are still not known, but I am making a personal observation...
I see a problem here in the checking of the ID (the alleged reason for the stop).
I as wondering if anybody but me had thought of that possibility.
The only reason the nation and media are so willing to accept the girlfriend’s account as the truth is because it feeds what we have determined is the narrative of the day: white cops are out to kill black people.
If the suspect had been white and his white girlfriend had live streamed THE AFTERMATH of the events that led up to his death, there would be no news story. Dallas would not have taken place. Five officers would still be living. All the people who attended the march would have been engaged in normal day-to-day activities that evening instead of finding themselves in the middle of a frightening melee.
White victim (possibly perp?), killed by a (white/black/brown/Asian cop)? No story. Nothing to see here, people. Move along.
"sagar" weighs in...
Ther's no problem at all. The cop wants to see your ID, you tell him it's in your pocket.
His call, not yours. And he WILL have instructions.
Someone mentioned to me that here in Chicago the cops decided they were going to start putting vids up of some of the worst crap they walk into, just so all the cry babies can witness what these brave men and women face all damn day.
Thank you for being a voice of reason on this case, I’m laughing at comments that site the druggie chick as the definitive account of what actually happened. SMH
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