Hikergirl
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2016
I wasn't trying to say police are the problem or anything like that. I do agree with what you are saying. My comments were more about society in general. My personal opinion is our goal should be what you describe. I do believe that we are not at that point and it's hard to talk about why because we (society) have come far and certain words and all they bring with them are loaded and come with images that go against how we think and how we see ourselves.
In this case, there's a reason why Mr. Castile having a gun freaked out the officer so much. It could have been the same if Mr. Castile had been a white guy. Being honest about it though, and obviously this is just my opinion so it doesn't really mean anything more than that, Mr. Castile being a black man did play a role in how the officer reacted. He even said in his interview after that he didn't know if the gun was "for protection from drug dealers or to rob people". Honestly, I do believe race played a part in that comment.
I read a couple articles and this is what I've seen. Do you have a link where he says the bolded in his interview.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...id-about-the-shooting/?utm_term=.295d9c64f38f
The officer told investigators later that the marijuana smell remained in his mind, saying that because of the odor, he didn’t know whether Castile had the gun “for protection” from a drug dealer or people trying to rob him.