attorneys for officer who killed philando castile blame the victim, say he was “negligent”

In an era marred by the perpetual occurence of state sanctioned violence against Black people, it should come at no surprise when their disregard extends to defending the perpetrators of these crimes. But in this instance, the unmitigated gall of the lawyers for Jeronimo Yanez, the police officer who killed Philando Castile astounds me. In a move that questions their ethical code in more ways than one, they are moving for charges to be dropped based on the claim that Castile was negligent, based on court documents dated Wednesday and obtained by The Associated Press. Castile, who was black, was killed July 6 after being pulled over in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights. The moments after this heartbreaking shooting heartbreaking was live streamed on Facebook by his girlfriend, who was in the car at the time with their school aged daughter in the backseat. Prosecutors said the 32-year-old elementary school cafeteria worker was shot at seven times after he explicitly told Yanez he was armed and had a license to carry. Despite this fact, Yanez’s lawyers are saying that he was justified in using deadly force because of the presence of THC in his system, while prosecutors say just the opposite. How a man who was upfront about his license to carry was negligent? We’ll never know. But that’s the court of law for you. Til justice is served, nothing is certain.

By T. McLendon, AFROPUNK Contributor

Photo courtesy of CNN