She also addressed the gun that Castile was carrying at the time of the traffic stop.
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If cops not only were indicted but regularly went to prison for murdering black CD salesmen or motorists or children at play in parks or guys selling loosies in Staten Island, perhaps we wouldn’t see other countries issuing travel warnings to their black populations not about how unsafe our criminals are, but to watch out for our law enforcement.
Yet look closer and there’s no evidence of that. Many people have been waiting for Kim Kardashian, who is married to Kanye West, one of the most famous black men on the planet, and has black children, to use her fame and influence to help the community for years.
City officials and law enforcement seem to be determined that there will be no changes in the way that police conduct themselves before, during and after they have assaulted or killed a black or brown person. “And there could be consequences”. Both Sterling and Castile were black, raising concerns that their race figured into their deaths.
And virtually no safety violations, either. He was never caught drunk driving or involved in hit-and-run. The two officers responsible for Clark’s death were not charged.
But most of the demonstrations haven’t been as tense as the scene in Dallas that night or the highway standoff in St. Paul.
This is what Americans saw, how they mourned and came together.
Moreover, Associated Press found that Castile was pulled over 52 times between 2002 and his death. “That’s highly unusual”, he said. Though the authorities continue to claim that neither of the shootings were racially motivated, a recently surfaced audio clip proves that might not be the case – at least for one of the victims. “They make proactive stops when they need to to keep the city safe”. Still Yanez said he was “reacting to the presence of a gun” when he shot Castile four times in front of Reynolds and her four-year-old daughter as the trio sat in the vehicle. Reynolds told the media that her boyfriend had already informed the officer that he had concealed carry permit and was reaching for his license. His lawyer, Thomas Kelly, insists that Yanez, only fired as a result of “the presence of that gun and the display of that gun” on the lap of Philando Castile rather than any other factor.
A report from KARE-TV presented unconfirmed audio purportedly from Yanez’s squad vehicle before the shooting. He goes on to explain: “The driver looks more like one of our suspects, just ’cause of the wide-set nose”.
“I’m going to stop a auto”, one of the officers says on the recording. If I, as a white, middle-aged woman, reach into my pocket most people aren’t going to experience fear.
The precise reasons why certain motorists are pulled over more than others are hard to identify, said Lorie Fridell, an associate professor of criminology at the University of South Florida, who trains police departments through a program called Fair and Impartial Policing.
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How valid that reason was is yet to be revealed, and may be answered following the investigation. There is even a rumor about the gun sitting in Philando Castile’s lap at the time of the shooting.
