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The day the police officer who shot her was exonerated, I went back to see the horrifying footage of Ashli Babbitt’s death during a riot at the US Capitol on January 6.
It’s been a few months since I saw it, but I forgot that the horrifying scenes I always see in movies suddenly turned into shocking and violent reality.
Seven months after she was killed, Babbit became the rightmost martyr. In the story of a twisted revisionist pushed by former President Trump and his supporters, she was a peaceful demonstrator and was unfairly killed by police, even though she did not pose any danger. He was an “innocent, wonderful, incredible woman.”
But that’s not what Video show.. Her death was certainly a tragedy, but it was not an unjust murder.
In Babbit’s first view of the video, she’s in front of an angry mob, trying to get through a “speaker lobby” where MPs and staff are trapped. She is yelling at the police and apparently demanding entry.
The crowd is skyrocketing. It’s on the door. You can hear “F-blue!” People are hitting the glass panels of doors with sticks and flagpoles. Some police officers are doing their best to keep the whole crowd in check, but it seems like a defeat. “Break it,” the crowd shouts.
Congressmen can be seen behind the door. Also, on the other side of the door, a police lieutenant with a gun is pointing at the mob, warning him to stay behind unmistakably.
But Babbit instead decided to climb the speaker lobby through a shattered glass window, past a police barricade, and head towards a pointed gun, which is a bit hard to see in the video. If she is allowed to go through, it seems inevitable that the mob will continue.
When she climbs, she gets fired and falls to the floor.
US Capitol Police on Monday Declared shooting is legal, And said it would not pursue disciplinary action against the second lieutenant who killed Babbitt. This follows April’s decision by the Justice Department not to file criminal charges against police officers. Neither agency appointed a lieutenant for his own safety.
“Police officers are fatal only if they reasonably believe that their actions are in the defense of life, including their own lives, or in the defense of those at imminent risk of serious physical injury. You can use your power, “writes the Capitol Police Department. Professional responsibility.
“The actions of the officers in this case potentially saved the members. [of Congress] And the staff from the possibility of serious injury and death due to a large number of riots. “
I am neither a forensic expert nor a police officer. I haven’t interviewed witnesses or seen more evidence than I explained. But my normal human reaction to the video tells me that the Capitol Police and the Department of Justice are absolutely right.
I saw it many times. Babbitt crossed the clearly drawn line. Police clearly felt it was the last stand. The potential danger was clear. Babbitt’s shooting seems to have stopped the crowd from moving forward. This all happened on the day the Vice President’s life was threatened, and on the day police were barbarically beaten elsewhere in the building.
Was the mob probably stopped without Babbitt’s death? Maybe. Perhaps there was a way to avoid the deadly force.But I don’t know how it was — and it’s teeth Clarify that the out-of-control situation would have been exacerbated if Babbitt passed through that doorway.
From the moment an anonymous police officer triggered, it was inevitable that Babbitt would become the martyr on the right. She was a 35-year-old Air Force veteran from San Diego, an ardent supporter of the former president, and a supporter of Q-Anon’s conspiracy theory.
No one should be surprised at the sign of the rally calling her “a protester killed by the Capitol police.” Rep. Paul Gosar (Republican-Arizona) I explained about shooting As “execution”.
But it’s Trump’s own involvement that really threatens to bring the story to life. Trump asked why the Capitol police officers were “running away for murder.” He repeatedly asked: “Who shot Ashli Babbitt?” This month he escalated his rhetoric and He said, cooler: “We know who he is.”
In Fox News with Trump, host Maria Bartiromo described Babbitt as a woman who went to a “peaceful protest.” And Trump put it in our vs. their context. “If this happens on the’other side'” He said in a statement, “There will be riots all over the United States … radical leftist haters are not allowed to escape. There must be justice.”
“There was no reason,” Trump said of her shooting.
But there was a reason.
Americans need to remember that and don’t be fooled. Remember at least the clear images of the video today, when the truth is rounded down, everything is spun out, the facts are adaptable, dismantled and reassembled to tell a completely different story.
These were not peaceful demonstrators. These were not protesters exercising their constitutionally protected rights to calmly express their disagreements with the elected representatives.
They knocked on the door.
This was a riot, Ashli Babbitt was its pioneer, and based on what I saw, the police officer who shot her was doing his job.
This story was originally Los Angeles Times..
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