The cop grabbed her pistol instead of a taser. Made a mistake. Police have called it an “accidental discharge.” A “tragic death.” // No one’s fault, I guess. Just happened. Could’ve happened to anyone. The chief didn’t say that, but that’s what “accidental” means. That it was out of her control. That there was no agency, nothing really that could’ve been done. // This is bullshit. Daunte Wright is dead. Shot by a cop. Killed by the state under conditions created by the state. With a history going back to slave patrols. To militarized control of Blacks, workers, the poor. // We’ve modernized the system. Given the enforcers new tools. The result for Daunte Wright is the same. As it was fir Michael Brown. Sandra Bland. Eric Garner. Philando Castile. // Daunte Wright was killed by police. Ten miles from the spot at which George Floyd had his life choked out by a Minneapolis cop. Floyd getting a death sentence for a counterfeit $20. // For Wright, it starts with the stop. The excuse. Expired registration. A paperwork violation. Outstanding warrant. Three cops respond. Handcuffs. A struggle. A shot. // We’ll focus on the taser. The error. Ignore the larger questions. We’ll bemoan the tragedy, but never ask why an expired registration carried a death sentence for a 20-year-old Black man in Minnesota. Why minor traffic stops too often end this way for Black men, and sometimes Black women. // We’ll ask why Wright “didn’t comply,” shifting blame from the system to the victim. This is a tragedy. An Aristotelian tragedy. Born of hubris. Our outsized view of ourselves as fair. As noble. As committed to equality and freedom and race-blind policies. // Our hubris has left a trail of bodies. Has hollowed out the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But we can’t see it. We refuse to see it. And we all pay a price. //
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