On Wednesday, Philando Castile was fatally shot by a police officer during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights. The aftermath of the shooting was broadcast live on Facebook by Castile's girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds.
His death, and the very public way the incident unfolded, has attracted protests nationwide. Here's what people are saying around the country:
From National Review:
If Reynolds's account were to be confirmed, it should worry all 13 million concealed carriers in the United States (well, it should worry everybody, but it should especially worry concealed carriers). ... in no state is the mere act of carrying a firearm sufficient justification for a police officer to open fire (there is a crucial difference between "carrying" and "brandishing" that is often ignored in the press).
Read: A few thoughts on the killing of Philando Castile
From the Washington Post:
In the immediate aftermath of horrific violence ... victims don't always sob. Reynolds's face appeared stoic. Her voice remained steady: "You told him to get his ID, sir. His driver's license," she told the police officer. But it doesn't mean she wasn't afraid.
"People are literally not feeling in their body what's going on," Hopper said. "That circuitry can basically shut down. This is the brain on horror."
Read: 'This is the brain on horror': The incredible calm of Diamond 'Lavish' Reynolds
From Center for the American Experiment:
Was the St. Anthony Police Department advised to rethink its policy of policing through traffic pullovers a year and a half before this incident by a well-respected lawyer and gun rights activist who had it happen to him? That's the unnerving story line behind a post on the liberal Think Progress website.
Read: Did gun rights activist flag problem with St. Anthony police?
From the Dallas Morning News:
There is a terrible intimacy to the video, live-streamed via Facebook by Castile's girlfriend in the moments after he was shot by a Falcon Heights, Minn.
It's deeply unsettling, and not only because this is death in real time. The woman ... struggles to remain calm and warily respectful as she creates the live document. It is the male officer — seen only as hands holding a service weapon — whose spiraling hysteria feels as dangerous as a live power wire.
Read: Video of man killed by Minnesota police is a watershed document
From Vox:
On any given day, in any police department in the nation, 15 percent of officers will do the right thing no matter what is happening. Fifteen percent of officers will abuse their authority at every opportunity. The remaining 70 percent could go either way depending on whom they are working with.
Read: I'm a black ex-cop, and this is the real truth about race and policing
From the Los Angeles Times:
"I wanted everyone in the world to know that no matter how much the police tamper with evidence, how much they stick together ... I wanted to put it on Facebook and go viral so that the people could see," an emotional Reynolds told reporters Thursday after news of her boyfriend's death circled the world.
"I did it so that the world knows that these police are not here to protect and serve us. They are here to assassinate us. They are here to kill us because we are black."
Read: Bystanders are bypassing investigators and going directly to the public with their evidence
From the Atlantic:
The shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile share several striking, stomach-churning similarities: They were black men, killed by police, in deeply segregated communities. Both killings were captured on video, a product of an age in which anyone can tape an encounter with police—and increasingly, anyone, especially anyone black, realizes doing so may be important.
Read: The Second Amendment's Second-Class Citizen
More from the Star Tribune:
Falcon Heights police shooting reverberates across the nation
What we know about the officer who fatally shot Philando Castile
What Minnesota law requires when stopped while legally armed
Minnesotans of all colors, ages and backgrounds took peacefully to the streets
