General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: New angle shows Good blocking the street and honking before the shooting. [View all]EarlG
(23,390 posts)And if you interfere with law enforcement, yes, you risk arrest. That's the purpose of civil disobedience. Half the time, the purpose of doing it is to get hauled away for being a nuisance. None of that means that somebody should be given an instant death sentence for parking their car halfway across a road.
Just prior to the shooting you can see her waving cars past. She's committing a traffic offense, but she's not impeding ICE. They could have just driven around her. The cop who shot her filmed the whole thing, and we've seen the video -- he lingers on her license plate, so yes, real law enforcement -- if they'd wanted to give her a ticket -- could have just gone to her house later.
She was given two conflicting orders: she was told to move her car, and she was told to get out of the car. More specifically, she was told to "Get out of the fucking car" by an officer who lunged at her and reached into her car to yank the door open. At that point she chose to obey the "move" command -- probably completely on instinct -- and ended up being immediately shot.
If they'd wanted to arrest her, real law enforcement would have simply ordered her out of the car. They would have done so in a forceful but calm manner. They had her plate, all they had to do was tell her to step out of the car, repeatedly, until she did it. If at that point she chose to bolt, then that's a crime. But they know who she is and they know where to find her -- they don't need to give chase.
Instead, one ICE agent told her to move her car, another one strode towards her screaming "Get out of the fucking car" and grabbing at her, then a third one put himself in a position to shoot her three times.
I know I basically just echoed what you just said. I agree that she was committing civil disobedience. But of course peaceful civil disobedience has a long and proud history in this country. It very much bothers me to see powerful people on the right, from the top of the U.S. government down to pundits on mainstream news shows, shrugging off the idea that if someone is committing "good trouble" then they should be prepared to die at the hands of "law enforcement."