Minnesota Police Chief: Ms. Diamond Reynolds Claims Do Not Match Reality

Updating the latest developments in the Philando Castile shooting. If you have additional information use the comments section. Also, please note the name of the convenience store – too many media people using disinformation, we don’t need more here.

Finally today the police chief in Roseville, Minesota stated the recent reports pushed by Ms. Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds do not match the reality of what took place the night of Wednesday July 6th.

During a CNN interview (watch video here) Chief Rick Mathwig says Ms. Reynolds reports don’t line up with reality. The governor of Minnesota also used false statements given by Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds to make his comments.

Excessive force? What that means to you and what it is are not the same thing. First of all this isn’t about the amount of force. It is about cops staying alive. Leathal force is ALWAYS an option. That is why the police have GUNS.

I always say, you people need to watch a marathon of “COPS” the TV show. It is REALITY TV. You will get to see in real life and real time the daily interaction between police and “suspects”. (ALL SUSPECTS ARE INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY IN A COURT OF LAW)

You will see, over and over again, suspects fleeing from the po-leece and resisting arrest. You will see over and over again suspects lying to police officers even when it is totally obvious that they are lying.

For example when drugs are found in the pockets of pants they are wearing, the suspect will claim “these aren’t my pants”. No kidding! Asked before a search if they have weapons, drugs, paraphernalia, or needles on them and they say no and when searched these things are routinely found.

Women after telling officers that it is okay to search their purses, routinely tell officers that the illegal items found there are “not mine”. “but you admit that this is your purse, in your possession, yet these items are not yours?” “Thats not mine, I don’t know how that got there”

When officers pull over a suspected drunk driver, they always ask “How much have you had to drink tonight?” They almost ALWAYS say “a couple of beers”. They can be falling down drunk and they still will say “a couple of beers”.

Is it any wonder that cops become jaded?

“Get on the ground”, “Get on the ground”, “Get on the ground” and they refuse so the officers tackle them.

Then, “put your arms behind your back”, “put your arms behind your back”, “stop resisting”, “stop resisting”, “put your arms behind your back”. Then finally “suspect in custody” (handcuffed behind their back). Only now can they search for weapons. Only now do the police breathe a visible sigh of relief.

Most of the time the suspect RUNS. Why do they run? “I was scared”. It’s never so I can ditch the drugs and weapons I had on me. The police usually find these since the perp isn’t really getting rid of them, they plan to come back later to retrieve them.

Far too often the cops find a concealed weapon. This starkly reminds them how this routine traffic stop or suspect inquiry could have ended in their death or grave bodily harm.

“COPS” is a REAL education. No scripts, no reenactments, recorded LIVE as it happens. There’s nothing quite like it.

Thanks for the reply, but your first point goes well beyond the question of why some people find this video compelling, which is, what I’m trying to figure out. If I understand your point correctly, the use of deadly force is on its face excessive, and the video simply documents that. Ie, deadly force in and of itself is excessive. Do I understand you correctly?

And with regard to your second point, that the officer continued to cover the suspect when he was dead is incorrect. Mr. Castille was clearly not dead at the time of the video, which is clearly shown by his movements, and is further reinforced by the woman’s narrative. Is it your belief that being shot immediately and fully incapacitates a person? Should the officer have based his further actions on that premise and immediately rendered aid before securing the suspect’s firearm or the passenger? Seriously, I’m trying to understand why this video had caused such uproar. The left I get, they will take any excuse to further their agenda. FReepers, even the libertarians, are generally more thoughtful.

True that it shows after the shots. So it isn’t conclusive by itself. If I had to judge what happened by it though it doesn’t look good for the cops to me. Unclear if he has been cuffed or his hands are behind back in seatbelt but his hands are behind his back as if subdued and cuffed. He has been eh it in the abdomen. So you see him bleeding to death. They were saying that he had a gun cause he wanted to give it up. What sounds believable is the officer asked for I D and he reached for his wallet then the officer thinks he is reaching for a gun and shoots him. The officer seemed upset like he had done the wrong thing. Realize The reach for wallet part doesn’t give with the possibly handcuffed part. So it isn’t clear what happened. Doesn’t sound like the guy was resisting arrest though. Wanted to be able to take the side that the police had done things properly here but it just doesn’t look good for that side to me. Trayvon Martin was guilty and Michael Brown was guilty to me. This looks like it may be different though.

Well, thank you for your reply.

So to try to rephrase, what you find compelling is the immediacy and emotional impact of the video?

I think that a lot of people who see the video may be reacting as you did, and then filling in some gaps as to what sounds “reasonable”. And for what it’s worth, Mr. Castille is not handcuffed in the video. It’s a bit confusing because the video is “flipped”, and makes it appear that he was on the passenger side of the car, when in fact he was driving.

My immediate reaction was different: the passenger wasn’t acting like she was afraid that the cop was “trigger happy”, since her immediate reaction was to grab an object and start pointing it at the officer. She trusted him to realize it was a cell phone and not a weapon, so that part didn’t really add up for me.

but thanks for your take on this. Much appreciated.

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