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Officer Betty Shelby was released from jail on Friday on
$50,000 bond for the charge of manslaughter. Just so you know, that’s $30,000
less than my bail for having a handful of meth. Is it because she’s a woman?
Why didn’t anybody ask that. Why do they think it’s because she’s a woman that
she was charged? I think it is because she shot at a man with his hands up in
the air, and could not have perceived a threat. It’s not murder because there
was no premeditation, but that’s about it. She’s not a murderer, literally only
by definition.
I’ve read that people were shocked at how quickly the charge
was brought. Nobody I know that’s been through the wringer as I have would
think that it was fast. I was charged in under an hour with a crime that was
just barely pieced together. They didn’t catch me selling, but they charged me
with it. Now, I’m over all of that, I’m just trying to make a point. This lady
killed somebody and got paid to sit at home for nearly a week before being
allowed to turn herself in, and post bail. How does anybody justify that? What
that says to me is that it’s now official that there are no consequences for
shooting unarmed black men.
Truthfully, it is all opinion based. All an officer has to
say is that they thought there was danger to their life, another officer, or a
citizen, and they can use deadly force. But the other officer chose to use his
taser, doesn’t that seem a little more justifiable when dealing with a citizen
who isn’t following instructions, or even perhaps seems a little bit confused?
Did she think she was holding her taser? I think that’s more likely, although a
taser is often brightly colored and has the safety on the opposite side, and it
shoots a temporary solution versus a more permanent one, oh, and you grab it
from the opposite side of your body. So, there really are a lot of whys and
wherefores you should know that you’re holding a potential murder weapon.
From the perspective of a former criminal, I… we already
know how much cops can get away with. They’ve been doing fucked up things for
as long as there have been badges. It’s really started to pick up again in
recent months, probably years. I can’t make any points, only assumptions and
observations from the side of the black community. I stated in a previous post
that I thought it might be because the media seems to be covering it more these
days and our views have changed since, say, the 50’s where I’m sure unarmed
black men were dispatched at a similar rate. Now society cares. Or maybe I
should say that now more white people care. Because isn’t that really it? This
shit ain’t new for black folks, they’ve been getting fucked with for years, I
would say maybe even all of history.
I wrote a short
post on Tuesday about the mall stabbing, the shooting, and what my boss
would say about it. Well, since Tuesday, fucking Tuesday, there have been more
questionable shootings, another attack in a mall, and my boss had this to say
when an employee asked him why he thought the cop shot him: “His hands weren’t far
enough up.” Those are words from a rich white man, who made all of his money
off of the hard work of cheap labor. His hands weren’t far enough up. How far
do they have to be up to not get shot? And would it have helped if his hands
were whiter? I think in the eyes of many, including the people I worked for for
the past year, that’s the only contributing factor in probable cause. All you
have to be is black. It sounds fucked up, but can you really argue against it?
