I can’t sleep tonight.
I can’t sleep because a man I don’t know, a man named Philando Castile, was shot to death by a police officer on a routine traffic stop. He had a broken brake light. He was black and he was killed by an officer sworn to serve and protect him, killed like over a hundred other black people since January.
He’s dead because he didn’t fix his taillight.
My taillight has been out for three months. I keep meaning to get around to fixing it. I haven’t been pulled over.
He’s dead because he was carrying a legal firearm, which he announced to the officer.
I’ll be interested to hear what the NRA has to say about that. A man dead for exercising his second amendment rights.
He’s dead because he was black.
And blackness creates fear in this culture. We’ve been told black is evil. Black is death, is crime is fear is poverty is sickness is gangs is thugs is dangerous.
I watched the video. It wasn’t easy. I watched it because I believe to speak truth to our culture, to speak truth to one another, to speak truth to power we first have to know what is true. We can’t blink. We can’t look away. We have to see injustice to destroy injustice. We have to speak against it, stand against it, fight against it.
In the days to come I know some of my majority culture friends will be arguing on social media about how “if you just do what you’re told you’ll be fine.” Or it was understandable what happened, the officer was scared, the guy moved his hands, and on and on as we try to fit this terrible tragedy into our world views, into our worldview that tells us that this is a safe country, a just country, a place that is fair and anyone can achieve the American dream.
If I see you writing that on your facebook wall, I’ll ask you one question: Was this just?
Pile on all the hypotheticals you want. Make some up. What if he was speeding? What if he stole some cigarettes? What if had an arrest warrant or was in a gang? Would it be just then?
WAS THIS JUST?
No. Whatever happened, we can all agree, this was not justice for Philando Castile. We live in a culture that is unjust to people of color. Don’t close your eyes or look away. This is true.
It’s unjust to a lot of other people, too. Unjust not just to African Americans but to many different people of color. Unjust to the poor. Unjust to people of differing sexual orientations. Unjust to the unborn. Unjust to immigrants, unjust to people of unfamiliar religions. Unjust to women.
But we know this already. Injustice isn’t something new here in these United States. We can mourn and cry together and work to change things but I can’t imagine many of think justice is coming here and now. One far off day, maybe, but not today.
So it’s not the injustice of it all that’s keeping me awake. It’s the little girl. It’s the little girl who broke my heart.
In that video — and I understand if you don’t watch it, it’s horrible — after Philando’s girlfriend is handcuffed, his girlfriend begins to wail and cry. Her boyfriend had just bled out. He was shot multiple times in the arm and bled to death in the driver’s seat.
And her little girl was in the back seat.
When it’s clear Philandro is gone, his girlfriend starts to wail and scream.
And her little girl says, “It’s okay, I’m right here with you.” Her little girl. I don’t know how old, but one news source says four years old. She just saw a man shot to death, her mom is crying and screaming and she says, “It’s okay, I’m right here with you.”
Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord, how can this be the place we have come to?
I can’t even say what that little girl said. “It’s okay, I’m right here with you.”
I can’t say that it’s okay. It’s not okay. We have a long way to okay.
But I’m with you.
It’s not okay but I’m with you. We can change this together, I know we can.
Rest in peace, Philando Castile. Blessings on your family and friends.
11 replies on “Philando Castile”
“But we don’t know what happened before the camera went on”, I’ve heard said probably 100 times. The truth is, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what his record was, it doesn’t matter anything he said before the camera went on. He was executed. Plain and simple.
Everyone knows that had he been white, he would still be alive and have a $35 ticket.
This was very moving. Thank you.
This BLM group is a racist organization. They yell racism and want to play judge, jury and executioner even before the facts of each case get out. That’s called a lynch mob. The BLM group is not interested in facts which is why they DON’T WAIT until these cases are decided in a court of law, but instead, only look at skin color (which is racist) so they can incite violence and become violent because they want to inflame the country against the police. Notice that in most of these cases when the facts DID get out the officers were acquitted by a jury. Furthermore, I have no doubt that this officer has stopped MANY blacks for minor offenses and nothing bad happened because those blacks didn’t disobey the police or resist arrest. So if this cop was a racist, he would have killed as many black people as he could from the beginning, which he has NOT. So STOP yelling racism before the facts get out because THAT is what deliberately incites violence and chaos, and ruins people’s lives. If they really want to stop racism, then they need to STOP focusing on the color of people’s skins and just look at the BEHAVIOR of everyone involved in each case. But they don’t because they’re racists. So I wouldn’t blame the police if they all resigned and let these thugs do what they like to do best; incite violence without being stopped.
You don’t seem to understand… on a very basic level… either 1) what racism is or 2) what BLM stands for. May I suggest extensive research before you comment on anything else on the internet or IRL?
Lol. The ignorant one is you, JR. No group of people have been more persecuted than the Jews. They’ve been kicked out of most countries to which they fled, were almost wiped out as a race during the holocaust and they’re STILL hated by much of the world because they want a TINY strip of land on earth to call home. Yet they don’t stand on street corners anywhere on earth DEMANDING that everyone approve of them or they’ll sue them, fine them, burn down their towns or kill them. NOBODY gets 100% approval on earth, JR. Nobody. Even popular politicians still have MILLIONS of enemies. Christians have also been hated and killed throughout the centuries. I, personally, have THOUSANDS of enemies and as a Christian have MILLIONS of enemies. In fact, Christianity is BANNED in many countries on earth and thousands of Christians are killed DAILY. Is there outrage? NO. Does ANY country on earth BAN black people?? NO. So sorry, JR. the “poor me” attitude that the BLM group displays as an excuse to commit violence and murder holds no water. We will all be held accountable on judgment day for the way we act, INCLUDING how we handle disapproval. So these militant blacks had better grow up and learn how to handle disapproval since God sees NO ONE as a victim on judgment day. 😉
Furthermore, a rush to judgment in any criminal case is what lynch mobs do. The BLM group does NOT WAIT until the facts come out in any of their claims. So justice is NOT what they want, vengeance is. That’s why it’s no surprise that most of these officers were acquitted when the facts DO come out. But the goal of the BLM group is to INFLAME people against the police and brand them as racists which only FUELS violence and hatred. This is a coercive racist group who CANNOT handle disapproval and wants to blame other people for their unhappiness. That breeds more slander, racism and violence. And that’s exactly whats ahead in America. Martin Luther King would be APPALLED if he saw how this BLM group today because he preached PEACE, not violence.
Let’s imagine for a moment that Philando put his hands down when the officer asked him to put them up. There’s no indication that happened but let’s just pretend. Do you think it’s just for a citizen of the united States to be shot to death for failing to put his hands in the right place? There’s certainly no law encouraging the death penalty for such an action.
Also, fyi, describing BLM as a “lynch mob” is, at best, ironic. I’d encourage you to spend a few minutes reflecting on how we got the term.
I’m guessing this was a drive by trolling post so I’m not going to dissect the rest of the troubling implications of your comment, but if I’m wrong and you’re interested in a respectful dialogue please say so.
Lastly: an innocent man is dead. If you comment further show some respect.
Sorry I just had to block someone. She was asked to engage with respect but moved from implied racism to straight out racist garbage and personal attacks. This is a safe place to share thoughts respectfully but not to advance hate speech of any kind. Apologies for those who may have had to read that.
Glad you did because I was thinking the same thing. It’s mind boggling & disturbing that someone can rant about how persecuted Christians are as they claim to be a Christian while espousing hate speech against other ethnic groups, many of whom are followers of Jesus.