White protesters shot dead Alex Pretty and Rene is good Federal authorities in Minneapolis followed a playbook painfully familiar to black Americans: Authorities moved quickly to disparage the victims, only to be contradicted as more evidence emerged.
Black families who lost loved ones to police violence said the killings occurred in Minnesota They brought back painful memories of their battles for justice as law enforcement agencies spun narratives suggesting officers had no other choice but to kill their relatives.
Experts said that these law enforcement agencies often make no effort to publicly correct misstatements or lies that may have an impact on the fair justice process.
Timothy Houellebecq, director of the Center against Racism at Temple University, said that “unfortunately” it took Pretty and Judd’s death to once again shine a light on the issue.
“Black people have made criticisms against law enforcement for as long as we have had police in America,” said Houellebecq, an assistant professor in Temple’s Department of Africanism and African American Studies.
He also called it “painfully ironic” that Preeti and Judd would die in “the same place” where other high-profile cases had brought the issue into the spotlight: George FloydWho was killed in 2020 by a Minneapolis police officer Philando Castilewho was shot and killed in 2016 while trying to show a suburban Minneapolis police officer his license to carry a concealed firearm.
Clarence Castile, Philando Castile’s uncle, said it’s strange to hear federal authorities come to conclusions so quickly in the shooting of Pretty and Judd.
“They immediately backed up their officers and said they were under justified shooting, their lives were in danger, and they feared for their lives,” Casteel said. “I heard the same thing, (officials) said the same things when that cop shot my nephew.”
“We know from the beginning that they did not take the time to investigate,” he said. “They just post something because they think they have to respond. Sometimes the best response is not to respond.”
Standard practice for shootings or any other major breach case is to simply indicate it is “under investigation,” said Leonard Sipes, who worked for 35 years in public affairs and communications for federal and state law enforcement agencies and is also a former officer. Sipes said he usually waited 24 hours before releasing information to the public.
“Getting the story straight is vital to the agency’s reputation,” Sipes said. “You also have an obligation to protect the integrity of the investigation. Rushing to judgment can violate that.”
The killings of Pretty, an intensive care unit nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital, and Jude, a self-described poet, mother and wife, quickly became rallying cries for Minnesotans protesting the largest surge in federal law enforcement in an American city.
After the killing of Priti and Judd, administration officials, from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to President Donald Trump, alleged that the two were far-left extremists acting with malicious intent to harm federal officers.
“The disgusting lies the administration is telling about our son are reprehensible and disgusting,” Pretty’s family said in a statement this week, noting that the videos showed Pretty holding his phone, not a gun, when federal agents tackled him before shooting him several times. “Please reveal the truth about our son.”
Goode was remembered by her family as “a beautiful light to our family who brought joy to everyone she met.”
“She was our protector, our shoulder to cry on, and our sparkling source of joy.”
While Ministry of Justice officials refused to release Civil rights investigation into Judd’s deathOn Friday, they announced a Civil rights investigation into Preeti’s murder.
However, officials have not backed down from allegations that Pretty and Judd were declared extremists who intended to harm federal agents when they were killed.
Some Black activists and police reform advocates expressed frustration that people angry about the way the Pretty and Judd cases were handled often ignored the same dynamics when the victims were Black.
“Ultimately, this demonstrates the insidious nature of racism and how its ways have been embedded in the systems and structures of society,” Houellebecq said. “When black people try to point out not just its logical fallacies, but just its cruelty, we are often criticized or told that we are overreacting and that we need to wait until justice is done.”
Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Grassroots, said it’s a common misconception that Black racial justice organizers won’t get active when white people die at the hands of law enforcement.
“I want to be very clear that I am saddened and angry about the killings of Alex Pretty and Renee Judd,” said Abdullah, a national center organizer for BLM chapters. “What they went through is what black people go through every day, and that doesn’t make it right for them, but it also doesn’t make it right for us.”
Justin Hansford, who participated in Black Lives Matter protests afterward Michael Brown was shot dead by police in 2014 The shooting in Minneapolis should serve as a reminder to all Americans that injustices that disproportionately affect black people can also affect them, he said in Ferguson, Missouri.
“It’s the idea that black people have always been the ones whose experience signals to the rest of the country what is soon to come,” said Hansford, a professor at Howard University School of Law and executive director of the Thurgood Marshall Center for Civil Rights.
“Because this is the black experience, you looked at it from a narrow angle, and you failed to address it. And then the experience is imitated on a national level.”
Tiffany Crutcher, twin sister of Terence CrutcherA Black man who was killed in 2016 by a police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she said she was unable to watch videos showing Pretty and Judd’s killing. She said that just hearing the authorities talk about their deaths was a new shock.
She had “been there before,” she said, recalling how law enforcement officials made quick judgments about her brother.
The Crutcher family confirmed that Terrence needed help after his car stopped on the road. The officer who shot and killed him claimed she feared he had reached into his car to get a weapon. Terence Crutcher was unarmed.
Video footage from the scene recorded a worker saying Terrence “looks like a bad guy” and “could be up to something.” Ultimately, it was the officer who shot him He was acquitted at trial of manslaughter.
“In our shock and shock, we had to control the narrative around Terrence’s identity,” Tiffany said. “While we are sad and mourning, we must at the same time come together and let the world know that our loved one does not deserve to die.”
She said the shooting of Preeti and Judd helps people pay attention to the problem of unequal justice for people killed by police.
“Naturally, there is a broader affinity toward law enforcement and the people who believe them,” Tiffany said. “However, I think this is changing.”
“Our voice is all we have. We made a conscious decision that we were going to use our voices and push back against harmful narratives.”
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Associated Press writer Matt Brown in Washington, D.C., contributed.