This is a tricky and dangerous thing to address, especially since I unequivocally condemn the violent attack on the Capitol and those who perpetrated it.
A woman was killed yesterday – by the police. She was a protester, who climbed through a broken window into the Capitol building. According to the Capitol police, she was unarmed. As far as has been reported, she was the only person shot yesterday in the criminal assault on Congress while in session:
“Video of the shooting shows a chaotic scene inside the Capitol building that suddenly turned bloody. Babbitt is seen on the footage inside the Capitol wearing a backpack and Trump flag among a large group of rioters. When she approaches a window, a shot is heard and she falls back onto the floor.
A witness to the shooting told the TV station WUSA9 that “a number of police and Secret Service were saying, 'get down, get back, get out of the way.' She didn't heed the call." At that point, the witness said, "they shot her in the neck." (NPR was unable to independently contact the witness, but he also appears in footage of the shooting itself.)
"As protesters were forcing their way toward the House Chamber where Members of Congress were sheltering in place, a sworn USCP employee discharged their service weapon, striking an adult female," the United States Capitol Police wrote in a statement on Thursday.
"Medical assistance was rendered immediately, and the female was transported to the hospital where she later succumbed to her injuries."
A law enforcement official told NPR that Babbitt was unarmed.”
I’m old enough to remember when four students protesting the bombing of Cambodia were shot dead by National Guardsmen at Kent State in 1970. The nation was outraged. And we’re all old enough to remember the fatal shootings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and Andre Maurice in Columbus, among others.
Where is the outrage over Ashli Babbitt being shot to death? Or does she deserve any? No, she’s not a martyr. No, she wasn’t a saint. She appears to have been seriously misguided into believing some silly conspiracy theories, but that’s not a reason to shoot her dead. What was the justification for shooting her and not all the other people who unlawfully broke into the Capitol?
Imagine if she were black. How would her death be treated then? Imagine if she had been protesting AGAINST Trump, rather than for him. How would her death be treated by the media then?
Notice how the NBC headline attempts to justify her death: “Woman killed in Capitol was Trump supporter who embraced conspiracy theories.”
Embracing conspiracy theories should get you laughed at, not shot at.
Notice another Ashli Babbitt headline, this one from Fox News. NBC attempted to justify her death. Fox News attempts to exonerate her. Both efforts are beside the point. The question is not what she believed but what she did.
I believe that, in the 21st century, we increasingly expect police officers to distinguish between different kinds of threats -- demonstrative vs. life-threatening, for example. Somehow, the police in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, and elsewhere across the country in this past year of civic unrest and violent demonstrations, managed not to shoot anyone dead while under assault from bottles, rocks, and other projectiles.
Given the long history of marches on the Capitol and demonstrations in front of it for a hundred years or more, I would think the Capitol Police would know how to stop demonstrators without killing them.