It took more than 48 hours before Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger’s name was released to the public after she shot and killed unarmed 26-year-old Botham Shen Jean in his apartment in cold blood. The story is that Guyger “mistakenly” entered Jean’s apartment thinking it was her own. When she encountered the young man, she believed him to be an intruder and promptly drew her service weapon and shot and killed him while he was standing in his own apartment. That’s the story! Officer Guyger was coming off duty and the police immediately began to circle the wagons claiming the accidental shooting of Jean was because the officer was tired, it was dark, she couldn’t see, she felt threatened and so on.
Perhaps some of the claims offered by the Dallas Police were true, but in most cases the authorities wait until there has been a criminal investigation before they begin to “explain” the facts of the case. It is more than unusual for law enforcement authorities to offer mitigating circumstances in support of the suspect in a criminal investigation where someone has been fatally shot. The Blue Wall of protection was in full effect and the victim’s family was left to mourn his death without any answers as to how and why their loved one was killed by an intruder in his own apartment? The police knew who shot and killed Botham Jean, they had a suspect, but Jean’s family and the public did not have that information for days after the murder.
In holding on to information that in other cases would have been released to the public as soon as a suspect was known, the police allowed social media and amateur detectives to fill the airways with false information about both the suspect and the victim. These false narratives clearly served to muddy the waters and characterized the young white female police officer in a more sympathetic light, while tarnishing the life and reputation of the victim, Botham Shen Jean, as yet another Black man of dubious character because they found marijuana in his apartment. The same old playbook with the same old plays to diminish, demean and devalue Black Lives wherever they are, even while living in the privacy of their own homes.
Officer Amber Guyger’s record, home, reputation were never brought into question even though, in this case, she was clearly the suspect, not the victim. The ensuing investigation should’ve been into her life, her motives and her person. Amber Guyger was the suspect and she’s the one that should have been under scrutiny and criminal investigation pending charges being filed. Instead, here we are once again experiencing law enforcement changing the rules in order to give the benefit of the doubt to an off-duty police officer who shot and killed an unarmed Black man in his own apartment because of her implicit bias. She recklessly took his life. No matter whether she mistakenly entered the wrong apartment or not, her life is NOT more important nor is it more valuable than Botham Shen Jean. JUSTICE better open her eyes and SEE the Truth. THIS IS WHY WE KNEEL.
