By David M. Greenwald
Davis, CA – The death of George Floyd ignited protests and inspired groups of citizens to seek out changing policing. Here we are in the middle of the trial of Officer Derek Chauvin charged with the death of Floyd and a week after the Davis City Council took up a Floyd-inspired list of changes, and another death 12 miles away from the site of Floyd’s has evoked a new set of reactions.
On Tuesday a small but angry and frustrated group of people gathered at the Solidarity Space in Central Park to reflect on the 
death of Daunte Wright.
“We’re back, we’re here,” Kate Mellon-Anibaba lamented on Tuesday. She noted that they were attempting to focus on art and solidarity, “and we can’t really get our programming going because we keep coming back to this space to mourn, to grieve, because of the same shit happening every time.”
“Murdering police,” she said. “Daunte Wright was 20 years old. When I look at him, I look at my children. I look at families with Black children trying to raise them in this world. What cop sees is danger.”
“We need to get rid of the police—we’re done,” she said. She said it was “cute” last summer with the focus on “defunding the police” and putting “more spending, more education—the system is corrupt, it’s f-ed up and we’re done.
“We keep saying the same every time,” she added.
Suleman Anibaba had a similar reaction, “Here we are again. It’s becoming like Ground Hog Day because we’re in the process of legally penalizing a cop a cop that murdered a Black man, and five or ten miles away during a trial a 20-year-old Black man gets shot down—that’s what we’re dealing with.
“For me it’s a trauma piling on a trauma,” he said. “I feel like I’m getting closer to death. It sounds scary but that’s where we are. I am getting too familiar with death, with dying.”
Anibaba explained that he grew up in Nigeria, “but honestly it’s much worse here because cops hide behind white supremacy.”
He explained that last week he was pumping gas when a cop car came up behind him. He saw the cop drive up, went back to pumping gas but then a thought crept in, “Why are you trusting this cop with your back turned, he could come up and shoot you in the head.”
Anibaba explained, “That’s what my brain told me. That’s what trauma does.”
Dillan Horton is the chair of Davis Police Accountability Commission.
He said, “You hear a lot in the aftermath of events like this, ‘I don’t want to be here.’
“I don’t want to be locked into this routine,” he said. “I think it’s important for us here to focus a little bit on the wording and the history and the need for the slogan and the organization, Black Lives Matter.
“We live in a society where you can fired from a job because of the texture of your hair,” he pointed out. “We live in a place in time and society where you can be followed around in stores because of the color of your skin—like I have in this community.”
He also said you can be viewed “as suspicious and even dangerous” by law enforcement.
“That slogan is the most profound and base human cry for help that the Black community of this nation and the world can cry out to our fellow humans,” he said.
Horton explained, “We had a traffic stop—that probably shouldn’t have happened in the first place—but a traffic stop that went awry.” He called it “unnecessary” that the public safety officials that keep our streets safe “be armed professionals.” He said, “That makes no sense.”
He said, “What boggles the mind is that we would continue with the same systems that threaten the lives of Black and Brown people in this community every day.”
Horton related an incident that he had in Sacramento.
He explained that he had a job interview in Sacramento, dressed in his best clothes, and drove to Sacramento. A couple of exits from where he needs to get off the freeway, a CHP car pulls up alongside him. Then he pulls behind him—lights come on.
The CHP officer asked for his ID, but because he was wearing his dress clothes, he had forgotten his ID. Horton leveled with the officer up front.
“He says to me, ‘somehow you checked out,’” he said. “He must have seen the look of WTF on my face and in his effort to clean up what he said originally, what he says, ‘for some reason, something about you just seemed a little sketchy.’ That’s what he said to clean up what he said originally.”
Morgan Poindexter noted that these conversations get derailed and we get caught up in these arguments about “should Daunte Wright not have turned back, should Philando Castille maybe not be carrying that gun to begin with lawfully, should Walter Scott not have run after getting pulled over for having a broken taillight.
“I’m tired of having those conversations,” she said. “The conversations I have is why these situations even keep happening in the first place.”
She said, “I would personally rather see every person speeding, every registration lapse, than see another Black or Brown person be pulled over for no damn reason.”
She said that right now her registration is lapsed, “but I’m not worried that I’m going to die tonight. And that’s messed up.”
She called for unarmed traffic enforcement.
Poindexter pointed out that Daunte Wright had a warrant for his arrest. “That sounds serious,” she said. “The messed up thing is that his warrant, his introduction to the criminal justice system was for simple marijuana possession.”
Finally Kelechi Ohiri spoke. She went to UC Davis from 2014 to 2018, went to grad school and came back to work at UC Davis.
She called these moments “feel goods” and hoped “to draw us back to the reality of the moment.”
She said, “Whatever Black people experience due to anti-blackness has got to be something just short of being alive. We are not experiencing full humanity. We just cannot be. This is a type of death—it’s a social one.
“I wake up every morning with the knowledge that I can be disappeared from this world for changing lanes or going to church or using counterfeit money. Not because the penalty for these things is death but simply because I’ll be Black as I’m doing them.
“When I woke up to hear that Daunte Wright had been disappeared from this world by a police officer only miles from where Derek Chauvin is on trial for the murder of George Floyd it felt like I was alive only in theory.
“The breaking news of Black death only interrupts the breaking news of Black death in this country.
“I’ve been asking myself why Black people fear death when we know it so well, when we know it so intimately?” she asked. “If you watched George Floyd murdered on film, you’ve seen death. If you watched and realized it could be you—in a sense you experienced it.”
She said, “I’m starting to entertain the thought that survival is the project of anti-Blackness. It feels like all we can do as Black people is build up the capacity to suffer in more creative ways and try to find some job in that cruel endeavor.”
She noted that even when Black people succeed—make money, graduate from UC Davis, “Often when we do it’s often at the expense of other Black people.”
The event ended with another person singing Blackbird while a young boy spoke briefly from his heart.
“Black Lives Really matter,” he said. “I don’t want to have a bad dream and wake up fearing that I’m going to get killed. I’m not going to just sit there and do nothing. I’m going to fight for my rights, not the police.”
—David M. Greenwald reporting
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9467375/Daunte-Wright-warrant-arrest-attempted-aggravated-robbery-charges.html
Daily Mail?
https://www.scribd.com/document/502729366/12-4-Arrest#download
State of Minnesota District CourtCounty of Hennepin 4th Judicial District
19A14892Prosecutor File No.27-CR-19-29850Court File No.
State of Minnesota, COMPLAINT
Plaintiff, Warrantvs.
DAUNTE DEMETRIUS WRIGHT DOB: 10/27/2000
2814 Northway Dr #301Brooklyn Center, MN 55430Defendant.The Complainant submits this complaint to the Court and states that there is probable cause to believeDefendant committed the following offense(s):
COUNT ICharge: Aggravated Robbery-1st Degree
Minnesota Statute: 609.245.1, with reference to: 609.245.1, 609.17.4(2), 609.05.1, 609.05.2Maximum Sentence: 20 YEARS AND/OR $35,000, HALF OFOffense Level: FelonyOffense Date (on or about): 12/01/2019Control #(ICR#): 19007784Charge Description: That on or about 12/1/2019, in Osseo, Hennepin County, Minnesota, DAUNTEDEMETRIUS WRIGHT, acting alone or intentionally aiding, advising, hiring, counseling or conspiring withanother or otherwise procuring the other to commit the crime, attempted to take personal property fromthe person or in the presence of VICTIM, knowing that he was not entitled to the property and used and/or threatened the imminent use of force against VICTIM to overcome her resistance or powers of resistanceto or to compel acquiescence in the taking or carrying away of the property, while using an article used or fashioned in a manner to lead the victim to reasonably believe it to be a dangerous weapon.
1
27-CR-19-29850
Filed in District CourtState of Minnesota12/4/2019
The warrant was actually for a failure to appear. And it was a misdemeanor warrant.
Yes, it appears you are right but the cases seem to intertwine:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/daunte-wright-had-outstanding-warrant-for-attempted-aggravated-robbery-when-he-was-killed
None of this would have ever happened if he would have simply complied but he didn’t want to he chose to run cuz he didn’t want to go to jail so this was all self induced granted the cop was stupid and pulled the wrong gun but that’s an accident and there’s tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of accidents happen every year we have airplanes that fall out of the sky we have traffic accidents we have trip and fall accidents motorcycle accidents medical procedures that go awry because of either incompetence or simply just an accident snip the wrong little piece of body part well you’re dead but we don’t protest over this crap we protest the cop that happened have been doing her job and she pulled the wrong toy.
None of that excuses the officer for firing a gun under those circulstances.
It’s not a toy???????? Someone died????????????
You had an article about how senator weiner would like to pass legislation about decriminalizing hallucinogenic drugs. How many hundreds of people would die with the passage of a bill like that shouldn’t he be held liable for all the deaths that could occur?
What evidence do you have that people are likely to die based on a bill like that? Also is there liability for lawmakers from adverse imacts of legislation? (Answer: no). And what does that have to do with it, the case at hand? You can’t just throw out wild theories that have no basis in either data or law.
I see they charged the officer with Second-degree manslaughter. That seems about right given the circumstances.
Charged, but out on bail ($100 K…) not on leave without pay, nor dismissed… still getting full benefits, salary… Assume you feel that “about right for the circumstances”…
As to, Chris G’s comment, in part:
A service weapon does not have same weight, color, nor shape as a “service weapon”… the video clearly shows the officer is shouting “Taser!, Taser, Taser!”… one weapon is on your left, the other on your right… you put the service weapon on the side you are ‘”handed”… an officer who is a 26 year veteran on the police force, and an ‘instructional officer’, weapon at arm’s length from her, can’t tell the difference after 10-15 seconds? If not, that is at least gross negligence (not an “accident”)[one car entering an intersection T-boning another car is not an accident… it is at best, a “crash”…
We need no officers doing grossly negligent, ‘stupid’ things with weapons that can cause severe injury or death to another… she should NEVER, EVER be allowed to have any weapon in public. professionally or privately, in my opinion… if she remains on the force, she should be assigned to a clerical job, for the rest of her career… that would be extremely lenient… but might help if ~ 50% of her compensation was to pay restitution… stiff penalty? You betcha’… and to make the point further, her property, value of her pension, etc., should be considered ‘fair game’ in a civil suit.
Mr Marshall,
I agree with you ? it’s probably will wind up in civil court. And it’s old gal probably will lose her job I don’t think she’ll be reassigned to a damn thing I don’t think she’d even make a good dog catcher.
What I do believe everyone should be held up to the same standards. If we’re going to go after her for everything she got in the world above and beyond whatever protections that she may have as a police officer everybody who works in government Federal state city county whatever food districts should be held libel individually for everything they do too.
If a state legislator proposes a bill to decriminalize hallucinogenic drugs and for some reason it has bad effects and people die he should be held to the same standards as this little cop. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander
If a mayor or city council desides to defund the police in whatever City or in whatever county and that decision turns out to be a bad decision and people get killed every one of those village idiots should be sued individually for every damn thing they got. ?
It’s just one person’s humble opinion
You can have a humble opinion, but that’s not how the law works
But probably the ‘deep pockets’ (municipality) will cry ‘uncle’, and settle for $1,000,000 plus, as they just did in Minneapolis… for $ 2+ million…
That does not relieve the officer. From either criminal (including ‘civil rights’, by the Feds) nor financial responsibility.
Yet none of those should apply if it was truly an “accident”… no personal, nor institutional responsibility… if you continue to contend it was an “accident”, we will have to agree to disagree…
I worked in the public sector for 35 years… if I breeched institutional, professional standards, resulting in great bodily harm, and/or death, rest assured that ALL my assets could be subject to lien, even confiscated, in a civil case to effect a judgement against me… so Police should have immunity to that? [Community property” might have been spared”, on behalf of the portion of a spouse’s/partner’s piece’]
We have a long way to go before we hear about how either the Minneapolis case, or this one will turn out, criminally, or ‘civilly’…
The fact is, a person has died, at the hands of “the State”, so far, not shown to be either self defense/defense of others, or crimes subject to the “death penalty” (without charges, arraignment, nor trial by jury)… time will tell… reminds me, historically, of the ‘Boston Massacre’ most of the accounts say it was started by a ‘public demonstration’, a young person throwing a snowball at British troops, who reacted with gunfire… Crispus Attucks Biography – Facts, Childhood, Life, Role in Boston Massacre (thefamouspeople.com)
A free Black man, was the first killed in that, by most sources…
The parallels are not anywhere near ‘identical’, but are clearly ‘suggestive’…
The case on topic, is 95+% not an accident… only nuance is that the ‘executioner’ was a woman, not a male… but she appears to be ‘white’… so although I do not attribute any significance to THAT, absent more evidence, it sure appears to be a ‘wrongful death’… degree of which, TBD… but it WILL be, under the ‘color of authority’. Instead of a “Twinkee Defense” it might well be a “*(@” defense…
I’m done… this is too fresh, and we still know little…
Naw, that’s his tag line, like Cronkite’s “And that’s the way it is”.
Re: CG
That is called service choice. When a caller calls for help, the caller may specify what kind of help to get (such as unarmed vs armed).
The dispatch simply keeps track of the choices and the city use that data to adjust budgets.
As a bicyclist, I do NOT want to lapse into a world of speeding cars and vehicles flaunting the law, and as an environmentalist I do not want growing numbers of unregistered cars belching blue smoke.
I am NOT making light of the issue, which clearly needs addressing. But not enforcing traffic laws ain’t the answer. This could be the quintessential “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”.
As I said yesterday, Berkeley is trying this. Let them be the guinea pig and let us see what happens. There could be all sorts of laws-of-unintended-consequences. I think two years after their earnest implementation of a program is a good amount of time to see Berkeley’s results.
Also, this isn’t a traffic-stop issue. This case reminds me more than anything of the death of Oscar Grant in Oakland by BART Police in 2009. There wasn’t even an automobile involved, it was all on public transit. Same story, cop intends to pull out their taser, instead pulls out their gun and kills the person. WTF? How can a taser be so similar in feel that you can’t tell the difference? I thought that was a freak incident, but possibly every taser needs to be recalled and a new design that doesn’t feel like a gun needs to be introduced. Perhaps they could introduce a disc-shaped taser that you throw like a Frisbee.
But not enforce traffic laws? Sounds like the followup to the logic that has allowed the mess of the mass expansion of meth camps nationwide via the Boise decision. And in today’s society, it will probably happen. I think it’s time to pull my unregistered GTO with the busted head-gasket out of the storage yard and start peeling around Davis skimming kids on bikes and filling the air with blue smoke! Yay! Freedom!!!
My guess is that there will always be infrequent f-ups. Probably something about the human brain, during extremely stressful situations.
And since police carry guns, some of those f-ups will involve guns.
Of course, this all pales in comparison to non-police shooting each other (on PURPOSE), every day. Lots of white people shot by cops as well, but somehow doesn’t seem to matter to some. Not a single protest.
Hopefully, you’ll take care of that immediately. Hope you’re insured and have your car smogged, as well. It’s illegal to even park a car on the street, without valid registration.
Of course, you’re going to pay more this way, as well – unless you’ve submitted an affidavit of non-use (and again, don’t use it or park it on the street). Actually, I think that an affidavit is used for registered vehicles, but that there’s another option for non-registered vehicles – assuming you take action before it is due for renewal.
All concerned parties can rest assured, I have just updated my registration and paid my small late fee to the California DMV.
The intent behind my comments around my own registration seem to have been missed by the commenters. I, like many other decent hard-working members of society, occasionally do something illegal. For example, I forget to renew my registration, or drive over the speed limit. Not to mention things like when I was in high school, I drank well before I was of legal age, and yes I smoked weed once or twice even though it was illegal. None of these facts negate my humanity or worth to my community, or my ability to complete my PhD program, and maintain gainful employment. None of these facts make me a “criminal” not deserving of empathy or compassion. None of these facts give someone license to execute me in broad daylight, if they wear a badge or not. And if I were to be murdered, I would venture a guess that none of these facts would ever be known publicly about me, and repeated ad nauseum by news media in an attempt to devalue my life and my worth.
I spoke last night about how sick and tired I am of the victim blaming (which was continued above in the comments here) and how it is not germane to the conversation at hand. I spoke last night about the disgusting criminalization of POC, and racist use of pretextual stops of POC and how these factors are direct contributors to Daunte Wright’s murder.
If he looked like me, he likely wouldn’t have been given a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge. He wouldn’t have been in the system to then have a reason for further interactions with police which resulted in a failure to appear misdemeanor warrant being put out on him. He wouldn’t have been stopped for a bogus excuse like air fresheners in his rearview (which he told his mom the cops cited originally for his stop) or for an expired registration. And a reminder IF HE LOOKED LIKE ME HE WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN SHOT TO DEATH. If the police have the capability to apprehend Dylan Roof or Aaron Long without a single ounce of force, they certainly have the ability to ask someone to update their registration and appear in court for a minor non-violent violation without the use of lethal force.
This is anti-Blackness. This is racism. And frankly, some of us are tired of explaining it. It’s not that you don’t understand. It’s that you refuse to accept it.
[This message is technically a response to Ron Oertel, however it is directed at all commenters above, not only Ron.]
He wasn’t “murdered”.
He wasn’t stopped for that reason.
Speculation.
He wouldn’t have been shot had he not been trying to get away, in a vehicle that can easily become a deadly weapon itself. There would not have been an attempt to detain, had there not been an outstanding warrant.
There is simply no evidence of that. As in NONE, whatsoever.
If you want to look at the reason that black people have more negative encounters with the police, start with discrepancies in crime rates between different groups. Unless that’s looked at in a completely honest and unbiased manner to start with, all subsequent statistics are irrelevant.
“He wasn’t murdered”
Legally, they are charging second degree manslaughter a form of homicide understand the penal code.
However, definitionally, it meets the standard: “ Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse…”
So colloquially, he was.
Promotion of “colloquial” terms like that, lies about the reason he was pulled over and the attempt made to detain is contributing toward the toxic atmosphere, riots, violence, etc.
Have at it. Some organizations essentially make a business out of it.
I’ll certainly be watching the news, as it makes for great TV. Ultimately, distorting the actual (personal) tragedy itself, and the real, underlying problems.
But it does surprise me, regarding what some folks automatically believe.
Big Yikes
I’ll say – it’s like a cult on here. 🙂
More like an anti-cult 😐
Frankly, because you’re not (inside joke), if you are tired now, you are going to be exhausted by the next full moon. Do you really think ‘we’ don’t ‘get it’? Is there perhaps another explanation? Personally, I see the world differently and see the solutions differently. I very much acknowledge the issues and how horrible this was and that there are racial aspects to this that need addressing. You can ‘explain’ until the moon sets and it isn’t going to change my views. ‘Explaining’ and conversation are two very different things. One is lecturing. The other is exploring varying views of the world and incorporating them into solutions.
Hmmm . . . I resemble that remark. All of us do. I feel profiled.
Tired again, and sick . . . exhaustion may set in by sunset. I need to share my lived experience in this safe space, regarding how sick and tired I am of all the commenter blaming 😐
Dripping in white supremacy, white denial and factual inaccuracies. I could go point by point, but its worthless here for Ron, until he starts actually reading real facts and statistics and becomes more self-aware. Disgusting.
The point you so painfully seem to be missing Ron is that I am not in the system. Not by luck. Not because I have not done things which could land me there. But because of the color of my skin and the neighborhood I was born into. I have been given and always will be given the fullest benefit of the doubt from law enforcement, from teachers, from strangers on the street. Anyone and everyone. Remember the Atlanta shooter “just had a really bad day”. If that is not the epitome of white privilege, I don’t know what possibly is.
And as this comment section has so painfully demonstrated, Daunte never was afforded that benefit of the doubt. And even after death, he still will not be.
I don’t believe most of the commenters thus far are intending, in good faith to listen and engage in meaningful dialogue. For that reason, this will be my final comment. If any of you so choose one day to want to listen, my door is always open. Feel free to email me and we can talk. I’d be happy to help work through this with you. mpoindexter@ucdavis.edu
Just a reminder: there is a limitation on comments per article—five comments per article per commenter.
It’s probably good this wasn’t a black youth that was shot and killed while brandishing an Airsoft gun or we might have more rioting in Maryland.
https://news.yahoo.com/mother-teen-killed-trooper-mourns-174656770.html
This news is just as tragic. That 16 year old should be alive too. I am completely unequivocally against the unnecessary violence and death that keeps happening in America at the hands of police and law enforcement, regardless of the victim’s skin color. I hope that Peyton’s family gets the closure, and justice they deserve.
Would the commenters above, who so vehemently argue that race is not an issue, and that they are equal opportunity critics of all victims of police violence like to tear down 16-year old Peyton in the comments now? “He was heavily armed.” “He pointed a gun directly at law enforcement. How were they to know it was an airsoft gun?” “He had a knife and refused to drop it.”
Would the commenters like to spend as much effort as they did tearing down and vilifying Daunte Wright, to find and make public all the mistakes Peyton has ever made in his life? Would they like to come to the defense of the state trooper who shot him?
Or are you all content to read this news story (whos literal first sentence conspicuously outlines Peyton’s accomplishments – “an honor student who loved cooking with his mother and spirited political debates at the dinner table”) and blissfully continue on without regarding the clear, obvious systemic racism in effect here. Inadvertently Keith Olsen, I think you’ve made my point better than I ever could.
The coverage and discussion around victims of police brutality are vastly different depending on the victim’s melanin production. Racism is truly ubiquitous. Period. Full stop.
Some great philosopher once said…?
Stupid is as stupid does
Morgan, you seemed to have missed the point. I think most people who read the story would agree that the officer involved in Peyton’s situation had no choice. First Peyton took a shooting stance and aimed his weapon (an Airsoft gun which looks like a real gun) at the officer and later grabbed a knife. My point was not that the officer was wrong in this case but that if this had been a black person there would probably be riots and looting taking place in Maryland. Do you see the difference?
But would there have been? After all there were 241 Black people killed by police in 2020, the number that drew protests was probably less than 20.
That may be true, but it doesn’t negate the point KO is making. On their podcast while the ongoing Seattle protests underway, Katie Herzog & Jessie Singal gave full accounts of two fatal police shootings that were highly questionable — one nearly 2000 miles from Seattle (Floyd), one in a Seattle suburb. The Seattle shooting didn’t even make the Seattle Times, they found it as a small column in a tiny hometown suburb paper. Then they raised the question: what was different between the two?
Well, two things. #One, the Seattle suburb victim was white. Even the Seattle Times found that the incident too unimportant to cover. #Two reminds me of the Roger Waters song “Yellow Rose” . . . mmmm . . . . no it’s called “Watching TV” and describes a character “Yellow Rose” . . . basically asking why was she so important? . . . and the last line on the song, “because she died on TV”.
There clearly is a problem with unjustified police killings. That should not be a racial issue in and of itself and should gain broad support. And then there clearly is a racial component that causes a disparity in the numbers, and that needs to be dealt with. But . . . not every shooting is unjustified. That doesn’t mean if someone resists and is ‘accidentally’ killed that their shooting is somehow less of an issue – the ‘they’d be alive if they didn’t resist’ argument. That’s not helpful and I don’t agree with that narrative which is heartless and destructive also in addressing the causes of unjustified shootings.
I will say this – a questionable shooting is a questionable shooting. I have never shied away from a story because the race of the vicitm. Today’s story is in fact a white guy.
That article did not explain why Peyton was out about with a gun and pointed it at the trooper. His state of mind was questionable. His action wasn’t someone sane would normally do.
The tolerance on death caused by abnornal behavior should be less than the tolerance of in action assuming that an abnormal behavior is harmless. (The reason is if you are carrying a gun, you could easily compile by not doing some suspicious. But if you really are a killer, society can’t ask all the potential victims to shelther in place. They are sitting ducks for the gunner.)
In the case of Peyton, if the family tries to blame the trooper for wrong doing, people will look into the state of mind of Peyton, to see what he was really doing.
Although Army Lt. Caron Nazario is alive and generally okay, I find the recently released video of his December encounter to be almost as upsetting as anything else recently on questionable police encounters. How am I to understand this? Is this just two more ‘bad apples?’
Virginia police, Army Lt. Caron Nazario and America’s bloody traffic stop Catch-22