The Deeply Racist Dimensions To Ashli Babbitt's Martyrdom

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Josh Marshall
@joshtpm
There's a key part of the Ashli Babbitt martyrdom story. The Trumpers pushing her story are convinced the officer who shot her is a black man. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/the-deeply-racist-dimensions-to-ashli-babbitts-martyrdom… via @TPM

The Deeply Racist Dimensions To Ashli Babbitt's Martyrdom
“Who killed Ashli Babbitt?” It’s a question that, in recent weeks, has...
talkingpointsmemo.com
11:13 AM · Jul 14, 2021

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/the-deeply-racist-dimensions-to-ashli-babbitts-martyrdom

“Who killed Ashli Babbitt?”

It’s a question that, in recent weeks, has become a mainstream rallying cry among the MAGA crew after growing in volume for months on the far-right fringes. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has asked it repeatedly, as has former President Donald Trump himself.

But the thing is, they think they already know.

They have a specific individual in mind, a Capitol police officer that they believe to be the culprit in the killing. He happens to be a black man.

It’s a detail that, once known, places the calls for the officer to be exposed and punished in a new light. The ensuing witch hunt takes on a racial tinge, casting Babbitt as a defenseless white woman killed by a black man.

And it’s a context that has allowed Trump and others to blow the dog whistle on the case as loud as possible. He venerated Babbitt as “an innocent, wonderful, incredible woman,” adding, “if that were on the other side, the person that did the shooting would be strung up and hung.”

*snip*

[Walleye]

1. Yes. I didn't quite understand it until I looked closely at the tape of the shooting.

They had to find somebody to use that noose on.

[BaronChocula]

2. Who killed white nationalist Ashli Babbitt?

She should have complied.

[TheRealNorth]

10. I want to know....

So we can give them the Medal of Freedom. Maybe Biden can work something out to reward him without identifying him, kind of like what Obama did for Seal Team Six when they got bin Laden.

[Volaris]

15. Who killed her?

A good guy with a gun.

[Haggard Celine]

3. Trying to start a race war/civil war

The time is coming when we're going to have to arrest some prominent people. They're doing all they can to destroy this country, and we can't let that happen.

[alphafemale]

4. I hope his identity is kept a secret.

If right wing media learned it he would be harassed, hounded and probably killed within days.

[LisaL]

5. There is a video of her being shot.

I never noticed that particular detail. Anyhow, the policeman clearly did nothing wrong.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. I am sick of bemoaning a dead insurrectionist

Link to tweet

[WA-03 Democrat]

7. "Who killed Ashli Babbitt?"

A good guy with a gun and bullets.

[alphafemale]

8. If she had succeeded in breaking through that window

All those people behind her would have followed her and that was the area where Senators were hiding.

They would have assassinated dozens of leaders on live stream one by one.

[TexasBushwhacker]

9. And one more little detail

The officer that shot her hit her in the shoulder. He had every right to aim at her head and kill her instantly, but didn't. I fully believe he just wanted to STOP the advance of the insurrectionists and he did. The fact that she bled to death from the wound borders on being a freak accident. HE DID EVERYTHING RIGHT!

[LisaL]

14. Watch the video again.

NT

[Hekate]

11. I had no idea. I saw the photos: I saw a white man aiming through the window.

This story takes my breath away.

[LisaL]

16. I had the same impression but looking at the photos now the guy with a gun

does not appear to be white (not that it should make a difference).

[TexasBushwhacker]

17. The closest picture I've seen is through the broken glass door

He is wearing a mask, but not a helmet, and I can't really say what his race is. He has dark hair. That's all I can tell.

Of course the picture isn't really a photograph. It's a capture from a cell phone video, so between the motion and the broken glass, it's hard to tell anything.

[Hekate]

19. Makes you doubt what you saw, doesn't it? The RW is trying to find someone they can pin this on...

… while they try to turn a terrorist into Joan of Arc. And that person will be killed.

The RW started by saying it must be part of Pence’s detail (which aims the mob at both VP Pence and an agent). Next I heard it must be a member of Schumer’s detail (and Schumer doesn’t have one, right?) Now the agent/cop/whatever is supposed to be black. Shortly they’ll decide it was a member of the Speaker of the House’s detail, but still black.

Trump and the RW and their enablers are still trying to come up with a narrative about Ashli Babbitt that has some real punch. You can watch Trump do what he does best: work on the narrative in front of us.

As we all know, the Truth matters not at all to them.

[lame54]

12. She's the head Karen

[ansible]

18. Sounds more like the article confirms the police officer who shot her is black

[WarGamer]

20. The cop IS black.

I won't link... but they've got him ID'd with a high degree of certainty.

The beaded bracelet he's wearing was matched to other photos.

It's confirmed he's been on paid leave since 1/7.

I sincerely hope he's given a new identity and his family becomes new residents of a nice sunny spot... with a nice retirement pension.

[MichMan]

27. Should all cops involved in a justified shooting have their identity protected?

[Hekate]

29. Should someone who stopped the mob long enough that our whole Congress escaped -- be left...

… to twist in the wind? Trump has now started to call for the man’s summary execution.

So what would you do?

[MichMan]

31. Looks like we both agree that cops identities need to be kept sealed and not released to the public

Seems like the right thing to do for their and their families own protection.

[Caliman73]

21. Who killed Ashley Babbitt?

The people who put her in the position to be storming the capital with an angry mob killed her. The people who incited the mob to try to overturn an election base on lies killed her. She killed herself by trying to climb through a window, in front of that angry mob, that was threatening to hang the Vice President of the US and the Speaker of the House. The people who forced the officer to defend himself with force from a rampaging group of right wing White Supremacists.

THAT is who killed Ashley Babbitt.

Unlike Floyd George, who was under suspicion of possibly passing a counterfeit $20.00 bill, was taken out of the police car he was in, then choked to death for 9 minutes, unlike Eric Garner, who was choked to death for the crime of selling loose cigarettes, Babbitt was in front of a mob that had the intention to harm or kill legislators that day. The officer who shot Babbitt did so in defense of those people and his own safety.

[July]

22. And Trump gives away that he's scapegoating a Black person:

“the person that did the shooting would be strung up and hung”

IOW, delivered the punishment of lynching.

While he claims that lynching is something our side would do.

A non-subtle dog whistle from Dumb/Lard-Ass.

[yardwork]

23. Trump signaled that in his language. "If it were reversed..."

He's saying that if the victim were black and the shooter white, etc etc. He's comparing it to Derek Chauvin and George Floyd. Sickening.

[Strelnikov_]

25. Ashli Babbitt killed Ashli Babbitt

The po-po had set up a red line, and were warning they would be shot if they crossed.

The entire hallway, behind the barricade, was a free fire zone, with multiple po-po set up in protected alcoves with clear lines of sight. Really textbook.

It was a line they were going to hold. Only thing I am curious about is what/who were they protecting? VP and speaker is my bet.

[joetheman]

26. Trump killed Ashli Babbitt nt

[bullwinkle428]

28. I'm gonna say it - they are trying to turn her into the "WHITE GEORGE FLOYD".

They saw how George Floyd's murder mobilized millions and millions of people to take to the streets across the country, and they became jealous of that, in their own twisted way.

Some of them genuinely believe she can garner that same level of sympathy, despite the ridiculously polar-opposite circumstances of how those deaths occurred. Truly, no depth to which they will sink.

[canetoad]

30. What's the term they use?

Collateral damage?