I live fairly close to where Castile was shot and participated in a fair number of the protests after the verdict was announced. It's been fascinating and heartbreaking at the same time seeing the...
I live fairly close to where Castile was shot and participated in a fair number of the protests after the verdict was announced. It's been fascinating and heartbreaking at the same time seeing the community's response to both the Castile shooting and the Jamar Clark shooting which happened a little bit prior to Castile's. On one hand you have community-led events like this one at the MIA, and on the other you have (in my view) complete inaction by the governments of the Twin Cities to rectify structural problems in both police departments.
I'm hopeful that the two new mayors we elected last year will step up (especially given that the new Mayor of St. Paul is black and has spoken publicly about his experiences with the St. Paul PD), but I'm still skeptical that any police officer here who's been charged with a crime will have a guilty verdict anytime soon. As long as they say their life was threatened, a jury will acquit them. Combine that with a lack of deescalation training and you have a force that looks at lethal force as one of their first options. It's a tough problem that doesn't have an easy solution.
If anyone is interested in the trial of Jeronimo Yanez and the incident in general, I'd check out MPR News's pocast 72 Seconds which goes into virtually every facet of the shooting in pretty incredible depth.
I live fairly close to where Castile was shot and participated in a fair number of the protests after the verdict was announced. It's been fascinating and heartbreaking at the same time seeing the community's response to both the Castile shooting and the Jamar Clark shooting which happened a little bit prior to Castile's. On one hand you have community-led events like this one at the MIA, and on the other you have (in my view) complete inaction by the governments of the Twin Cities to rectify structural problems in both police departments.
I'm hopeful that the two new mayors we elected last year will step up (especially given that the new Mayor of St. Paul is black and has spoken publicly about his experiences with the St. Paul PD), but I'm still skeptical that any police officer here who's been charged with a crime will have a guilty verdict anytime soon. As long as they say their life was threatened, a jury will acquit them. Combine that with a lack of deescalation training and you have a force that looks at lethal force as one of their first options. It's a tough problem that doesn't have an easy solution.
If anyone is interested in the trial of Jeronimo Yanez and the incident in general, I'd check out MPR News's pocast 72 Seconds which goes into virtually every facet of the shooting in pretty incredible depth.