Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Whitewashing a police shooting in Dallas

Did y'all hear the one about the off-duty cop who walked into the wrong apartment and then accidentally shot the person who actually lived there? How about the part where she wasn't arrested afterward and was free to go back to her place? And what about the arrest affidavit that was just a retelling of her story?

Hysterical, isn't it?

Amber Guyger is a four-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department. On the evening of September 6 she supposedly returned home to her apartment in the Southside Flats. Somehow she ended up on the wrong floor and inside the apartment of Botham Shem Jean. She claims that she inserted her key (which contained an electronic chip) into the lock of the apartment door but the door was ajar. She entered. When she heard someone she yelled at them to stop and then she fired her gun and killed Mr. Jean.

The story is beyond absurd. How did she end up on the wrong floor? She lived there. She knew what floor she was on when she exited the parking garage. Her claim that the door to Mr. Jean's apartment was ajar doesn't hold any water, either. According to the affidavit, when she pushed open the door the lights in the apartment were off. She claims she turned on the lights after shooting Mr. Jean.

So we are to believe that she got confused, went to the wrong floor and then stuck her key in the door of the wrong apartment. Please. Apartment doors have numbers on them. The apartment was in an interior hallway. She claims the lights in the apartment were out and that she heard someone stirring about. Really? Someone's going to leave their door ajar in the middle of the night and rummage around their own apartment in the dark?

Not buying it, Ms. Guyger.

But at least your buddies on the police force did. They let you go home without slapping cuffs on your wrists and taking you in. They allowed whatever substances were in your body to be eliminated before anyone had a chance to make an official observation. Then they bring in the Texas Rangers for cover who draft an arrest affidavit that is nothing but a rehash of your own bullshit story.

After being taken to jail, Ms. Guyger was able to post a $300,000 bond -- meaning someone had to plop down at least $30,000.

And just why does the arrest warrant mention that they police were looking around Mr. Jean's apartment for narcotics? Is it time to paint the victim of a police shooting as a criminal so that white folk can brush their hands of the matter and go on to their white bread world?

Now just imagine had Ms. Guyger not been a police officer. Would she have been allowed to go home? No, she would have been arrested. They certainly wouldn't have been given two or three days to destroy any incriminating evidence. Would the police ask her for her account of what happened and then use that account in their arrest warrant? No, an investigating officer would have noted the facts and would have drawn his or her own conclusions.

In the end it likely doesn't matter because the DA - or whoever presents the case - will tell a grand jury the "facts" as related by Ms. Guyger and will then nod, wink and tell the grand jury to do what they think is right - which is code for no-bill this fucker as quickly and quietly as possible.

Meanwhile Mr. Jean is dead and his family and friends will be left to mourn a life that was taken without reason and without repercussion.

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