(Photo by Kerem Yucel / AFP) (Photo by KEREM YUCEL/AFP via Getty Images)
April 15, 2021
Despite the prevailing narrative pushed by most in the media, there is no evidence indicating that race played any role in the tragic shooting of Duante Wright. Wright, a 20-year-old-man, was fatally shot by police officer Kimberly Potter during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center Minnesota on Sunday.
According to numerous pundits opining on mainstream news channels, Wright was racially profiled, then shot because of aggressive policing due to the color of his skin.
Facts and video evidence from the officers’ body cameras unequivocally disprove these claims.
Authorities have reported that Wright was pulled over for having expired license plates. During the stop, officers discovered that Wright had an outstanding warrant for his arrest. When they attempted to apprehend him, Wright resisted and jumped back into his car, trying to flee. Body camera footage shows Officer Potter pointing a gun at Wright while screaming:
“I’ll tase you! Taser! Taser! Taser!’. After firing the gun, Potter yelled, “Holy (expletive). I shot him.”
The video makes clear that Wright’s shooting was a tragic accident. Potter made a horrendous mistake, confusing her gun for her taser. It is reasonable to conclude that Potter’s actions indicate incompetence. However, there is no evidence indicating intentionality or racial animus.
Left out of most reporting is the context surrounding why the officers attempted to arrest Wright. Wright was not an innocent victim of unwarranted aggressive policing, as some have claimed. Court records indicate Wright had an open warrant related to an armed robbery charge.
In 2019 Wright was charged with aggravated robbery. The case was still pending at the time of his death. According to his alleged victim, Wright threatened her with a handgun and choked her during an attempted robbery. The court released him on $100,000 bail. One of the conditions of his release was a prohibition from possessing a firearm.
In July, the court revoked Wright’s bail after he brandished a gun then fled during an encounter with Minneapolis police. When Wright failed to appear in court to address these charges, a warrant was issued for his arrest.
In 2019 Wright also pled guilty to a misdemeanor for possession and sale of marijuana, and last year he was convicted of a misdemeanor for disorderly conduct.
But, never mind the facts. Those on the left prefer exploiting Wright’s shooting to advance a false narrative -that the US is a systemically racist country, and police are hunting down black men.
Is this true? Not according to the Washington Post database on police shootings. In 2020, 17 unarmed black men were killed by police compared to 23 unarmed white men. In 2019, 11 unarmed black men versus 23 unarmed white men had a fatal encounter with law enforcement. Prior years have a similar racial breakdown. On a side-note unarmed does not mean the suspect did not present a threat.
Black men indeed make up a much smaller percentage of the population than white men. However, black men commit significantly more crime than whites relative to their representation in the US.
In 2019, 11,060 people were the victims of murder or manslaughter in the US- black people committed 5,660 murders versus 5,070 murders committed by a white person. Black people also committed more than half of all robberies in 2019.
Moreover, a 2016 study entitled, “An Empirical Analysis of Racial Differences in Police Use of Force”, by black Harvard professor, Roland Fryer, Jr. further disabused the left’s assertion that police are an existential threat to black men. Fryers’ study found that “blacks are 23.8% less likely to be shot at by police relative to whites. Hispanics are 8.5% less likely…”. The study concluded ”We find no evidence of racial discrimination in officer-involved shootings.” According to Fryer “It is the most surprising results of my career”
If Democrats and leftists activists cared about black lives, they would not focus on the rare fatal interaction between a black person and police. Black-on-black crime is a far greater threat to the black population. In Chicago alone, there were 784 murders in 2020. But this gets no attention because it does not advance the narrative that blacks are victims of white supremacy, which is necessary to further the social justice agenda.
Rather than quell the hatred and division in our country, many Democratic lawmakers have used their platform to fuel racial enmity.
Implicitly greenlighting chaos in his state, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz tweeted shortly after the shooting that his family was mourning “another life of a Black man taken by law enforcement.”
Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliot appearing on NBC’s Today Show on Tuesday outrageously and falsely stated ‘If you’re black and you get pulled over by the police, you have a very much higher chance of being dead just because you’re black.’
Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday stated that “…folks will keep dying if we don’t fully address racial injustice and inequities in our country from implicit bias to broken systems.”
Rep. Maxine Waters tweeted that she found it “hard to believe” that Wright’s shooting was accidental.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that Wright’s killing was not an accident, but the result of a “system that grants impunity for state violence.”
Prominent Democrats are also openly advocating for defunding, “reimagining”, and even abolishing the police.
President Biden’s nominee to serve as the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Kristen Clarke, wrote an op-ed last year entitled “Defund the Police”.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib tweeted that Wrights’ death “wasn’t an accident. Policing in our country is inherently & intentionally racist” and that all policing and incarcerations should be abolished.
Former President Barack Obama tweeted that “Our hearts are heavy over yet another shooting of a black man…at the hands of the police…” This is a reminder of just how badly we need to reimagine policing..”
The reality is if Duante Wright lived a law-abiding life, and if he had not resisted arrest, he would be alive today. But, admitting the obvious does not further the left’s objective to convince Americans that systemic racism and white supremacy are endemic to our country’s foundation.
The more Americans believe this false assertion, the easier it will be for Democrats to dismantle American institutions and norms and transform our capitalist freedom espousing nation into one in which the federal government ensures “equality” by controlling all aspects of American life. This is the Democratic end-goal.
