Eddie Irizarry was killed by Philadelphia police and his family says the officer who shot the 27-year-old should face criminal charges.
I’m following this case a little because I was a little impressed with a public statement to the press Commissioner Outlaw made. She was trying to calm people down, of course, but asking for recognition of her (representing the police department) attempt to be as transparent as possible. Here’s a previous story about the same incident: https://www.inquirer.com/crime/kensington-police-shooting-philadelphia-eddie-irizarry-20230816.html
Earlier in the day, Outlaw acknowledged the family’s and community’s frustration.
“Sometimes I feel like we take 20 steps forward, and it just takes one incident and we take 50 steps backward,” she said. “I understand the reticence, I understand folks not really being sure whether or not they should even trust what we are saying today because of what we said initially. But I’m hoping that they see this is a genuine effort to do everything we can to share what we know when we have it.”
So, yeah, the cops on the scene lied and the body cam footage proved it, and as soon as they saw that internally – before it went public – the police department announced the initial statement was a lie. This feels more complicated than ‘all cops are bad’ or ‘respect their authority’. It is a mix and I am hoping to see honesty and integrity get rewarded in the end.
I would venture to say that there are systemic issues across most police dept int eh US yet it often is worth a more nuanced convo than ACAB for sure. Some people just can’t handle the intricacies of real life and so they fall back on mass generalizations to avoid doing the hard work
No, thanks. The first comment, ok, I hear it. This one? No.
Until more of these start shaking out where the people get justice, the cops should not be given the benefit of the doubt. We gave it to them for centuries. Enough. Clearly they have abused and continue to abuse that trust. The default now should be that the cops are lying and trying to cover up their bad behavior: it is the most common thing we see in these situations.
If I replace “cop” with any minority, I’d think I was listening to Fox News LOL
