Sunday, September 03, 2023

Jumping to Conclusions



Who knew that comedienne Sarah Silverman has a Juris Doctor degree and specializes in criminal law? On the basis of a brief video, she pronounces the killing of a woman, black and pregnant, as "cold-blooded murder.


The old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" is an old saying but with the sway social media enjoys over people, many pictures paint an incomplete picture. Supplementing the video to which the tweet above links is the story in which

Newly released police body camera footage shows an officer firing through the windshield of a pregnant woman’s car after she was accused of shoplifting at a grocery store in a Columbus, Ohio, suburb last week.

The woman, 21-year-old Ta’kiya Young – whose death her family called a “criminal act” and “gross misuse of power and authority” after seeing the footage – was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

The video shows a Blendon Township police officer approaching Young’s driver’s side window outside a Kroger in Westerville and repeatedly telling her to get out of the car.

A second officer, who is also wearing a body camera, then steps in front of the sedan.

“They said you stole something….get out of the car,” the officer at the window says, telling Young not to leave.

“I didn’t steal sh*t,” Young can be heard saying as the two argue back and forth with her window slightly ajar.

Police previously said a grocery store employee had notified officers that a woman who had stolen bottles of alcohol was in a car parked outside the store.

“Get out of the f**king car,” the officer standing in front of the car says, his gun drawn and his left hand braced on the hood of the car, the video shows.

At one point, Young is heard saying, “You gonna shoot me?”

Young can then be seen turning the wheel of the car as the officer next to her window continues to urge her to exit the vehicle.

“Get out of the f**king car,” the officer in front of the car repeats as the vehicle begins to move slowly forward, the video shows.

A few seconds elapse and then the officer standing in front of the hood fires through the windshield.

After the shot, the officers run alongside the car yelling at the driver to stop.

The car rolls onto a sidewalk between two brick columns and into a building.

Officers call for backup and break the window to reach the driver, who appears to be slumped over to one side.

As to those "racist" officers:

Authorities said the officers quickly helped Young after the shooting, adding EMS was called 10 seconds after she was taken out of the car. The officer who fired the shot also grabbed a trauma kit and applied a chest seal to her wound in under two minutes after she was removed from the vehicle.

The tweeted video ("X'ed" video?) includes the attorney, Shawn Walton, of the family maintaining that the body cam video showed "her barely moving that vehicle because in that footage you see that the car barely moves." 

Admittedly, Ms. Young did not "floor" her car. But her car barely moved only because she was shot by one officer as her vehicle hit another. Driving a vehicle into a person in front of the motorist is not what is commonly meant by "defensive driving.".

We don't know all the details of this incident, including why a store employee evidently believed Ms. Young had shoplifted bottles of alcohol or even whether that car parked outside the store was actually the one Young  occupied.  However, the absence of verified detail is the point. Sarah Silverman believes no police officer was in danger and a racist cop committed cold-blooded murder. Oh- and it's without a doubt! It's amazing what some people, celebrities most assuredly included, can discern from incompletee information.



 



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