Capitol Cop Won't Face Charges For Shooting Protestor

AP Photo/Julio Cortez

What happened at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was probably not the best thing that could happen. That was true before Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed by a Capitol police officer. The shooting has sparked a lot of anger throughout the ranks of Republicans, and for understandable reasons.

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After all, while Democrats keep claiming there were all kinds of guns present at the protest, they can’t show where Babbitt or anyone near her had one visible.

Yet even more outrageous isn’t just that the officer involved in the shooting won’t face charges, but why he won’t.

The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it has closed the investigation into the death of Ashli Babbitt, who died in the January 6 Capitol breach, and has determined that it will not seek criminal charges against the officer who fatally shot her that day.

The department said it had determined that no charges would be filed after examining video footage of the incident, taking statements from other officers and witnesses, inspecting the physical evidence and reviewing the autopsy report. The DOJ said that prosecutors would not have sufficient evidence to prove that the officer who shot Babbitt used constitutionally unreasonable force with a “bad purpose to disregard the law.”

In other words, they can’t prove he didn’t shoot in self-defense, so they’re not going to bother.

Now, I live in a Stand Your Ground state. These are the laws that critics claim legalize murder. Despite that, though, if I were to be involved in a shooting, I would need to show that I was in fear of my life. If I can’t do that, I get charged for shooting someone else.

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There’s none of this, “Well, we can’t prove he didn’t act in self-defense, so I guess we let him walk.” None of this.

Yet, oddly enough, while people are outraged of Daunte Wright’s death, they’re silent about Ashli Babbitt’s. They don’t seem bothered by the fact that a cop shot her and won’t be held accountable, nor that the reason is that they can’t conclusively prove he didn’t act in self-defense.

It’s a double standard, to say the least, and it’s ridiculous.

Of course, the difference is that Babbitt was a Trump supporter, which makes her less than human in their minds. They don’t care if the police gunned her down for no reason because she was the wrong sort anyway.

And that’s why I can’t take most of these anti-police people seriously. They can’t maintain anything approaching consistency. People resisting arrest getting shot is unconscionable, but Babbitt? Eh, screw her. She was just a dirty Trump supporter, anyway.

No, that’s not how things should work.

If it’s wrong, it’s wrong. If it’s right, it’s right. That doesn’t change based on who someone voted for back in November.

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Unfortunately, right and wrong seem to be more about politics to some people, which means whether something is justified has less to do with the facts and more to do with what team the victim is perceived to be on.

 

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