The Blue Lives Matter crowd needs to talk amongst themselves.
Source: The Washington Post / Getty
Two weeks ago, the Justice Department declined to file criminal charges against the officer responsible for the death of Ashli Babbit during the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Newsweek now reports that her family plans to file a civil suit against the Capitol police department and the officer responsible for at least $10 million.
Terrell Roberts, the attorney for the family, claims that Babbit was guilty of little more than a misdemeanor of trespassing when she was shot in the shoulder while breaking through a window to breach the Speaker’s Lobby. Babbit was a 14-year veteran of the Air Force who dedicated much of her now-erased online presence to far-right conspiracy theories and undying love for Trump.
Brewing outrage about the police’s use of excessive force to end Babbit’s life rings hollow to many people after weeks of victim-blaming vitriol directed at children like Adam Toledo and Ma’Khia Bryant, who were both recently gunned down by police. Supporters of insurrectionists and the Cheeto in Chief even memorialized Babbitt by attempting to co-opt the #SayHerNamemovement, dedicated to the often erased Black women victims of police violence. Roberts went on to criticize the injustice of qualified immunity, deprived constitutional rights, and a system dedicated to protecting trigger-happy police more than the citizens they claim to serve.
The narrative of an oppressed minority deprived of justice by violent agents of the state sure does sound familiar! It’s almost as if justifying police murders sets a dangerous and unethical precedent. With hundreds of Capitol rioters facing criminal charges, and thousands more likely to be identified by law enforcement, the hypocritical struggle is real for the most frequent groupies of the boys in blue.