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What are we supposed to think when police officers shoot and kill an “armed” Black person who virtually all non-cop eyewitnesses say was not armed? There always seems to be an expectation that we side with law enforcement—as if cops don’t have all the same incentive to save their own arses by lying that civilians have.
How are we not to believe that 15-year-old Jaheim McMillan wasn’t murdered when he was shot by a Mississippi police officer who says he pointed a gun at him when eyewitnesses keep saying they didn’t see a gun at the time the teen was fatally shot?
As we previously reported, Gulfport Police claim Jaheim had pointed a gun at officers before one shot him.
“McMillan turned both his body and his weapon toward the officer,” Gulfport Police Chief Adam Cooper claimed. “The officer fired at McMillan.”
Jaheim’s mother, who wasn’t there at the time, said she saw a video on social media with an alleged witness claiming Jaheim complied with officers’ orders and that she wasn’t armed. Now, a mother repeating the claims of someone she saw on a social media video is not going to convince any rational person all by itself, but when the person in said video is just one of a multitude of people—including another teen who was in the car Jaheim was in during the altercation—who are disputing what only police officers say they saw, one would have to be a staunch “back the blue” bootlicker to think that’s not worth looking past what’s in a police report.
Now, a video has surfaced showing people who were at the scene just after the shooting all saying that Jaheim had no weapon and that the cop shot him for no discernable reason.
In the video, several voices can be heard berating the officer who shot Jaheim, with one repeatedly calling him a “piece of sh**.” One alleged witness can be heard explaining to an officer that the victim was shot “point blank” and that he had “nothing in his hands.”
Listen, there are always multiple sides to every story. But when it appears to be the police versus everybody else, it’s just really hard not to believe the “blue wall” isn’t hard at work. It’s hard not to believe cops aren’t just trying to sweep another Black life under the rug.
SEE ALSO:
No Justice For Jonathan Price: ‘All-White Jury’ Acquits Ex-Texas Cop Accused Of Murdering Black Man
Columbus Cop Who Killed Donovan Lewis ‘Had To Use Lethal Force’ Out Of Fear, Lawyer Says
