It’s hard to believe that the radical left is trying to revive the “hands up, don’t shoot” lie from the Michael Brown case that catapulted the Black Lives Matter Movement, but here we are. Again:
A witness said a woman had her hands up moments before she was shot multiple times by Kansas City police officers Friday night in a store parking lot. Shédanja, who declined to provide her last name, said the woman was trying to run from officers when they fired at her.
But not so fast. KMBC reports:
A 26-year-old Kansas City, Kansas, woman who was shot by Kansas City, Missouri, police officers Friday night has been charged in the case.Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said Leonna M. Hale was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful use of a weapon and a misdemeanor of resisting a lawful detention.Hale was shot by Kansas City police officers outside a Family Dollar store near Sixth Street and Prospect Avenue. Authorities said the car she was in matched a description of one involved in an armed carjacking in Kansas City, Kansas.When officers conducted a car check, the man driving the car jumped out and ran.Court documents said Hale got out of the passenger side of the car and went to the rear of the vehicle.Video surveillance from body cameras showed Hale being told to drop the firearm and pointing it at the officers before the officers fired three shots, according to court records.Hale was taken to a hospital, where she was last listed in stable condition.
The quickest way for anyone of any race to get shot by police is to draw and point a gun at them. The second quickest way is to lunge, as Michael Brown did, for an officer’s pistol. It’s really not rocket science, but for some reason, too many people have forgotten–or were never taught–one of the key rules in a civil society: follow the lawful orders of law enforcement. Don’t run. And for goodness’ sake, don’t draw on them. Hale is lucky to be alive.
So this police interaction that should have been quick and easy (they were either involved in the armed car-jacking or they weren’t; they’d be arrested and taken to jail or not), turned into a national disgrace . . . for the left.
As they tried and tried to gin up another “hands up don’t shoot” lie, a video of the encounter was released by the Jackson County prosecutor’s office that clearly shows Hale not just holding a gun, but pointing it at the police who were behind her.
And Ryan Shead, a Democrat running for the state house in Arizona, didn’t just tweet about this story once. He went on and on about it. Apparently, he believes that leaping to conclusions, making wild accusations without evidence, reading and citing as a “source” something called “Hollywood Unlocked,” and condemning police are the ticket to political stardom in the Democrat party. He may not be wrong.
Only when the actual facts were reported by actual news services did Shead provide an “update.” No apology, no oops, no what the heck am I thinking getting (and publicly admitting to getting) my news from some site called “Hollywood Unlocked”?
To be fair to Shead, it’s become really hard to tell what is actual news and what is infotainment, propaganda, or outright lies. For example, even a supposed straight news outlet apparently tried to stoke civil unrest with a gossipy and rumor-laden “report” on the incident.
The Kansas City Star “reported” (archive link):
A witness said a woman had her hands up moments before she was shot multiple times by Kansas City police officers Friday night in a store parking lot. Shédanja, who declined to provide her last name, said the woman was trying to run from officers when they fired at her.. . . . Shédanja, 29, said she went to the store with her three children to get gasoline and ice cream. She heard officers start yelling, “Get out the car,” to two people who were in the vehicle next to hers. A man exited, jumped a fence and ran. Three officers chased after him, she said. The woman exited the car with her hands up, Shédanja said. Officers told the woman to get on the ground, but the woman told them she was pregnant, Shédanja said, and couldn’t get down on the ground. Police asked her to get down multiple times. The woman then told police there was a gun in the vehicle. The woman started backing toward a fence in the parking lot. Several officers approached her and had their weapons drawn, Shédanja said. “She did not pull out a weapon on them,” she said. “She did not even have a stick in her hand.”The woman ran three steps away from officers, Shédanja said, and police shot five times. “One, two, three, four, five. I remember it because it didn’t stop. They shot five times,” Shédanja said during a phone interview Saturday with The Star. “I remember seeing her hit the ground and I froze.” Shédanja asked police several times why they shot the woman, but officers did not answer. She started recording the scene. In the video she shared with The Star, the woman is seen lying on the ground with blood on her shirt. An officer appears to put her in handcuffs. Several more officers arrive.
This is not journalism. Journalism is getting the facts from, oh, I don’t know the police? The elected officials in that city, county, or state? Witnesses should be interviewed by law enforcement, the DA, their own attorney, and pretty much anyone but a grasping journalist whose only point appears to be to stoke anti-police sentiment based on the observations of some random Family Dollar shopper.
I can see including witness quotes in an actual report on the incident that includes the official accounts from police, city officials, the police report, etc., but the bulk of an entire story being what a witness claims is printing gossip and rumor as fact, giving it extra weight because it comes from a supposedly legitimate source.
The Kansas City Star did note, all the way at the bottom of the original article, that “a handgun was found near the area where the woman was shot.” This single sentence should have killed the story right then and there. That it did not is appalling. The Star did print an “update” stating the Hale did have a gun . . . which they already knew when they published the piece in the first place. Shoddy.
So invested in trying to instigate civil disorder, the radical left even began claiming that the image was photoshopped to add a gun (and something about ankles, very odd turn).
The Jackson County prosecutor’s office responded to the leftists’ desperate attempts to generate outrage based on lies.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker issued the following statement:”Some false narratives about what happened last Friday night at 6th and Prospect Avenue, unfortunately, were relied upon by some media and other sources. Our job, as prosecutors, is to remain neutral and review all evidence. Our review of body cam videos provided the actual accounting of events that night.”Our review of the investigation revealed the defendant, although she denied having a weapon at the time of the encounter with law enforcement officers, continually displayed a weapon during her encounter with police officers and also appeared to be attempting to flee. The two officers stated that she was armed with what they believed to be a handgun. Body camera footage confirms the officers’ statements that Hale was holding a handgun. Still photos, taken from body cam footage, of this encounter also demonstrate a weapon was present and in the hands of the defendant.”
That this latest attempt to reinvigorate nationwide rioting, burning, looting, and murder has (thus far) failed is small mercy because we know that they are all eager to get that party started, and if it has to be built on a retread of the original “hands up don’t shoot” lie, so be it.
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