Detroit Police Release Video of Justified Shooting which lead to Protests

Link to video

On 10 July, 2020, at about 12:30 p.m., in Detroit, there was another police shooting. A young black man, Hakeem Littleton, 20, was shot and killed by Detroit police. Agitators quickly organized  a protest, and gathered, claiming the shooting was not justified and Hakeem was unarmed.

The police were making an arrest in conjunction with a homicide which took place on 5 July. Hakeem Littleton was a bystander, who tried to prevent the arrest.

Screenshot from Detroit Police Body Camera, cropped, scaled, arrow and text added by Dean Weingarten.

One of the protest organizers admitted it did not matter to her that Hakeem fired at police first. From mlive.com:

“They killed a man today,” Scorpio said, " I don’t give a f**what happened, they shouldn’t have killed a man today...

“We are fighting for a system where the police shouldn’t have been there to begin with, the police shouldn’t be putting people in positions where they feel like they have to protect their lives because they see a badge.”

In the video, the action happens very rapidly. Hakeem reaches into his pocket, and pulls out a Beretta .25 auto. He fires two shots at an officer's head, but misses from a few feet away. Another six shots were fired very quickly, four from and officer, and two more from Hakeem. The last two may have been fired when Hakeem was on the ground. 

Chief Craig was quick to release the body camera video, only a few hours after the incident happened.

The clearest view of the incident in the video clips is that of the officer who fired the shots which struck and killed Hakeem Littleton. You see, form the officers viewpoint, the initial shots. You see him obtain a flash sight picture with a two handed hold, and fire, very quickly. 

The Detroit police are following the model of the San Diego police, who successfully released video of a shooting that occurred on June 28, 2020, in downtown San Diego.

The important thing seems to be to get the information out before the false narrative has a chance to be embedded in the media and culture.

The opposite happened in the George Floyd case. In Minneapolis, the Mayor and Police Chief have fought to keep the body camera video from the public. The attorneys for the police have been fighting to have it released. A transcript was released on 7 July.

Combat the lies with facts quickly enough, with evidence, and the false narratives used by those who want to destroy the United States, can be combated effectively.

We are entering an age where there will be video of nearly everything that happens. The old era of being able to lie about what happened is rapidly going away.

Video clips can be misleading, of course. Knowing how to make videos and place them on the Internet, is becoming as important a skill in preserving liberty as knowing how to load and shoot firearms.



©2020 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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