Plenty of people have already declared two police officers guilty of the murder of Alton Sterling, whose shooting death early Tuesday morning in the parking lot of a Baton Rouge, La., convenience store was captured on video. Sterling was being held down by two police officers and was shot in the chest at point-blank range.
A second video that began circulating on social media, like so many other videos of shootings, has been labeled “graphic” — in this case, though, that label is wholly appropriate, and we won’t link to it here; it’s widely available online for the curious, but be warned that this isn’t blurry footage taken from a distance.
Hillary Clinton calls for justice over the police shooting of #AltonSterling https://t.co/wnt2tphU4v pic.twitter.com/mg1yisMpRX
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 7, 2016
Protests and vigils are underway in Baton Rouge and elsewhere, and President Obama has reportedly been made aware of the incident. Candidate Hillary Clinton weighed in Wednesday night, and while she’s been criticized often here for having no self awareness, it’s hard to overlook that the politician who just skated past a criminal indictment issued a statement that she’s pleased the Justice Department will investigate thoroughly and hopefully rebuild the public’s trust in law enforcement.
"The death of Alton Sterling is a tragedy, and my prayers are with his family." —Hillary pic.twitter.com/Yky4ZxfbLN
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 7, 2016
Prayers? Isn’t this the same candidate who jumped on board the “thoughts and prayers are not enough” gun control bandwagon following the terrorist shooting at an Orlando nightclub, joining in to bash Republicans who tweeted their thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families?
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thanks for acknowledging this grave situation. Now what are you going to do?
— Melody Jackson (@melodyjoi) July 7, 2016
@Blackgold347 prayers are great and all but what will you DO to stop it?
— uncle baby (@incoduce) July 7, 2016
@MichaelSkolnik prayers won't do shit to help his family. Maybe you should donate one of your exorbitant speaking fees
— ChloeWithWebbedFeet (@BigBaldFred) July 7, 2016
speaking from your white privilege that can break the law and never get charged? Too soon.
— Britten J (@britten_johnson) July 7, 2016
well it's a damn good thing you didn't shoot his ass or no one would be convicted!
— Susan Reaney (@SSReaney) July 7, 2016
https://twitter.com/HiddenTara/status/750855774377635840
Clinton looks well poised to carry on President Obama’s legacy of racial healing.
https://twitter.com/rashad_beats/status/750875056385904640
maybe if you had not come up with the super predator jibe those cops may have seen him in a more humane light.
— Mukurima X. Muriuki (@Mukurima) July 7, 2016
https://twitter.com/L2Belle/status/750877076853448704
https://twitter.com/Antagonite/status/750881052361502720
.@HillaryClinton you have your campaign logo on your condolences faker. After the election men like him will return to being super predators
— M (@A4741917) July 7, 2016
https://twitter.com/ShaunTrickdYall/status/750851962963451905
https://twitter.com/edlamour/status/750869417538494464
https://twitter.com/HellBlazeRaiser/status/750852658639020033
At least Clinton’s tweet itself wasn’t necessarily offensive, but her good friend Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood managed to inject some seriously twisted politics into her tweets.
More than my prayers, my anger is with the people of #BatonRouge & with a Nation that allows this to happen with such frightening regularity
— Cecile Richards (@CecileRichards) July 6, 2016
Allows what to happen? Shouldn’t we assume the video of the incident was heavily edited? Better have it professionally analyzed frame by frame to be sure.
I stand with the people of #BatonRogue in calling for justice for #AltonSterling. We must work to ensure #POC are safe & have #ReproJustice
— Cecile Richards (@CecileRichards) July 6, 2016
Did the woman in charge of the organization founded by Margaret Sanger really just use the shooting death of Sterling as an opportunity to call for “reproductive justice” for people of color? Can she honestly not turn off the abortion fetish for one minute?
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