The Shooting of Daunte Wright - WSJ Editorial

[question everything]

Riots broke out again this week after a police officer fatally shot a 20-year-old black man Sunday in Brooklyn Center, a city of 31,000 north of Minneapolis. Politicians and protesters immediately assumed that racism motivated the shooting, but the facts may prove more complicated, and the rush to judgment doesn’t serve justice.

Police say officers pulled Daunte Wright over because of expired registration tags, then discovered an outstanding warrant for his arrest. Wright faced charges for carrying a pistol without a permit and fleeing police, and he failed to show up in court, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

Body cam footage shows Wright resisting arrest and trying to get back in his vehicle. “Taser, taser, taser,” shouted an officer later identified as 48-year-old Kim Potter. “Holy s—,” she says seconds later, “I just shot him.” Police Chief Tim Gannon said Monday “it is my belief that the officer had the intention to deploy their Taser but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet” and described the shooting as “accidental.” Ms. Potter and Mr. Gannon resigned Tuesday. The investigation must answer how an officer may have mistaken her gun for a taser, but we’ve seen nothing that suggests racial animus drove Ms. Potter to pull the trigger.

(snip)

Almost on cue, peaceful protests also devolved into street chaos. On Monday night protesters looted businesses, and police arrested some 40 people in Brooklyn Center and 13 in Minneapolis. Rioters in Portland and Seattle used the shooting as an excuse for violence.

Credit President Biden for encouraging forbearance. “Was it an accident? Was it intentional? That remains to be determined,” he said Monday, adding that while “peaceful protest is understandable,” there is “absolutely no justification for violence.” The bedlam in Brooklyn Center and elsewhere creates fresh injustices while resolving nothing.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-shooting-of-daunte-wright-11618354193 (subscription)

[brush]

1. So formulaic. The first graph says that protestors...

Rushed to judgment that the incident was racist, then the piec destroys his character.The second graph posits that there is no indication that racism played a part (when it's quite possible that racism (the DMV is months behind on sending out current tags) is why he was stopped in the first place as cops there know that. So was it a driving while black stop?

Then of course posits the obligatory blah-blah-blah phrases that there is no reason to think that racism was involved and blah-blah-blah,

I'm so sick of this. Wonder if they keep file with blank spaces to be filled in for the victim's name, the date, the city et al to be filled in and published after each one of these killings that they bother to cover at all?

[dflprincess]

3. Actually, the DMV is not "months behind" with renewal tags. It takes about 10 days to get them.

Title transfers and new plates can take longer, but not as long as it was taking a few months ago (though still longer than it should).

This is not to say that "driving while black" was not the real reason for the stop.

[geardaddy]

2. WSJ carrying water for cops. n/t