Willis Hart Piling On The Strawmen In A Racist Commentary Re Yet Another Black Man Shot By Police

I think the Libertarian blogger Willis Hart has made it very clear that he has no problem with cops shooting Black suspects. Armed or unarmed. Even running away (and shot in the back), he has only ever criticized either the victim, protesters who object to the killing, or the media for how they've handled the killing.

Not once has he EVER defended the victim. Case in point - regarding the shooting of Philando Castile by Jeronimo Yanez, Hart's reaction is to post a strawman-laden commentary. (And he also attaches a meme that, when I searched for it, I found a couple of very racist/bigoted commentators who agreed with Mr. Hart... see image below).

Willis Hart: On the Fact that the Leftist Media Is Doing its Damnedest to Hide the Fact that the Cop Who Shot Castile in Minnesota Is Mexican. And try calling this fellow a "white Hispanic" (in an effort to preserve the narrative of white racist cops killing innocent young black men for no reason whatsoever). I dare you to. (7/12/2016 AT 10:01 PM).

If the Leftist media is "doing it damnedest to hide the fact that the cop who shot Castile is Mexican" where is the proof? You'd think if the Leftist media were doing this, Willis would be able to come up with ONE example.

In any case, the fact that the officer is Mexican-American doesn't mean that prejudice (against African Americans) couldn't have been a factor. As reported, Jeronimo Yanez, the St. Anthony MN police officer who shot and killed Philando Castile, pulled over Castile because he thought he looked like a robbery suspect "because of the wide-set nose".

Of course this remark does not mean there was any racial prejudice at play, but it does say to me that there might have been. In any case I think he clearly overreacted.

[As per the video shot by Castile's girlfriend Diamond Reynolds] Reynolds stated that Yanez "asked him for license and registration. He told him that it was in his wallet, but he had a pistol on him because he's licensed to carry". The officer said, Don't move. As he was putting his hands back up, the officer shot him in the arm 4 or 5 times". Reynolds tells the officer: "You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir". On the video, Reynolds says "Please don't tell me he's dead", while Yanez screams: "I told him not to reach for it! I told him to get his hand open!"

If someone is going to shoot you, It seems absurd to me that they'd first tell you they have a gun. Seems to me that Castile shouldn't have mentioned the gun. Because as soon as he did the officer panicked and shot him. Possibly due to racial prejudices or institutional racism (trained to view Blacks as criminals).

As for the "narrative", it isn't that "White racist cops killing innocent young black men for no reason whatsoever" (another strawman). It is that cops (no matter their race) are shooting Black suspects at a rate disproportionate to White suspects.

In 2015, The WP launched a real-time database to track fatal police shootings, and the project continues this year. As of [7/10/2016], 1,502 people have been shot and killed by on-duty police officers since 1/1/2015. Of them, 732 were white, and 381 were black (and 382 were of another or unknown race). But... comparing how many or how often white people are killed by police to how many or how often black people are killed by the police is statistically dubious unless you first adjust for population. According to the most recent census data, there are nearly 160 million more white people in America than there are black people. White people make up roughly 62% of the U.S. population but only about 49% of those who are killed by police officers. African Americans, however, account for 24% of those fatally shot and killed by the police despite being just 13% of the U.S. population. As The Post noted in a new analysis published last week, that means black Americans are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers. (Aren't more white people than black people killed by police? Yes, but no. by Wesley Lowery. The Washington Post 7/11/2016).

Finally, I SERIOUSLY doubt that anyone is going to refer to Yanez as a "White Hispanic", despite Hart's "dare" (AKA strawman attempt to link this shooting to the police identifying George Zimmerman as White).

I would dare Willis Hart to stop it with the strawmen, but I know such a dare would be pointless. He is clearly NEVER going to stop. Especially when it comes to Blacks being shot by the police. Because the dude is strongly racist. He actually wrote (re Blacks being killed by the police) "I'm actually quite insulted that this bullshit is being placed not just at my doorstep but the law enforcement community's".

Yeah, Black people being killed by the police is "bullshit" and the Hartster is clearly angry that the Black Lives Matter movement exists and is "insulted" that it's objecting to members of their community being gunned down BY THE POLICE at a rate 2.5 times higher than for Whites. Police killings SHOULDN'T be placed at the law enforcement community's doorstep???? What?!!

No, sorry, but law enforcement needs to answer for ALL the people they kill. Justified or unjustified. And it's the ones in that last category that BLM is concerned about and protest (killings that appear to not be justified). They don't protest when the police kill someone and it's clearly justified.

So WTF is Hart's beef? Apparently his primary argument is that since Black people kill other Black people at a rate greater than Whites killing Whites - that somehow gives police a free pass?!! That BLM has no right to protest. But how the hell are criminals killing people in any way the same as law enforcement killing people?

Clearly Hart's argument is a specious one. "STOP BLOWING YOUR FUCKING BRAINS OUT" he yells (copied from his blog as he wrote it... in all caps). As if innocent Black victims are responsible for getting killed by Black criminals.

Image: Found on the website F169BBS along with the caption "Remember, kids - there is absolutely no low that niggers, jews, faggots, and liberals will not go". Also found on "The Last American Newspaper" attached to an article that claims "the media and political manipulators want the Blacks and Mexicans to love another and stick together so they can be more easily manipulated come vote time by the politicians" ("explaining why the media is "hiding" the race of Yanez). Apparently this conspiracy involves a US census form. Concerning this form, the author remarks "I will bet my bottom dollar a Jew or two were involved in the creation of [it]". Does it say something about Willis Hart that this meme (which he obviously agrees with) can be found on two CLEARLY racist/bigoted sites? I say yes. No, I actually say HELL YES!

OST #159