While Democrat-controlled cities are still experiencing riots night after night, supposedly as a result of the police-involved death of George Floyd, there was one person who was executed by a police officer a few nights before George Floyd died and no one has called for any sort of retribution for it. This man’s name was Ryan Whitaker. Whitaker, according to Arizona Central, had heard a knock at his apartment door one night earlier in the month of May. The knocker, however, was no longer there when Whitaker checked who was at the door. Later that same week, he heard another knock at his door, ready to answer to any potential danger with his legally-owned 9mm handgun, and opened the door to see who it was, presumably after he checked the peephole to find no one there (as the officers were standing at either side of the door), and decided to open it, quickly reaching for his gun just in case. One of the police officers shined a flashlight at Whitaker and as soon as he realized it was the police, he put his hands up and began to get on his knees, surrendering to the police. However, despite this, one of the two officers at the scene, Officer Cooke, who was standing on the other side (and whom Whitaker likely did not realize was there, as he visibly only saw and interacted with the officer that shone a flashlight to his face), was a bit too trigger-happy and fired three rounds into Whitaker (despite the fact that Whitaker had already begun to surrender), causing him to collapse on the ground and eventually die. Body cam footage (below) from Officer Ferragamo (the one with whom Whitaker interacted) shows these things as they happened. What prompted this incident was a 911 call from a neighbor who twice called the cops to complain about Whitaker. The first time, he complained to the police about people screaming and it bothered his sleep. The second time, the neighbor alleged that the screaming had turned physical (which was not true). The Arizona Central reports that the neighbor told the 911 dispatcher: “It could be physical. I could say yeah if that makes anybody hurry on up. Get anybody here faster.” So the guy was alleging something against his neighbor (bearing false witness) that was not true just to get the cops to show up sooner so the guy can get his sleep. While noisy neighbors can be bothersome, this is definitely crossing a line and the consequences can be plainly seen (not that I place the brunt of the blame on the neighbor, as it was the trigger-happy cop who is largely to blame). In the body-cam footage, even officer Ferragamo figured out the neighbor was b.s.-ing them, saying “Did you like all that helpful info we got from our complainant? ‘I’m just gonna say yes to all questions to get the officers here faster,’” Ferragamo mocked the neighbor. Once the officers reached Whitaker’s apartment, they knocked on the door, with Ferragamo saying “Phoenix police,” and, like I said earlier, the pair of officers stood at either side of the door. Now, I will put a bit of a pause on this to talk about this action for a moment. I have said before that I am not a cop, so I don’t know officer protocol for particular situations (especially since different districts have different policies for different situations). My personal theory here is that, in calls of potential domestic violence, even if the officers figure it’s a load of crap, they have to prioritize their own safety, as one of the possible offenders could be armed and present a threat to the officers as soon as they open the door. The cops likely did not stand in front of the door, where they could easily be seen through the peephole, because they needed to maintain a safe distance and be at a safe angle to take care of the situation, regardless of whether or not it was actually a domestic violence call. Like I said, this is my own personal theory, so I don’t know for sure if that was the reason, but I’m willing to give the officers the benefit of the doubt on this, since I really don’t know if that was proper procedure. In any case, eventually, Whitaker opens the door, visibly only in his underwear, and officer Ferragamo asks him “how are you doing?” As he asked this, Whitaker reached behind his back for his gun, likely not knowing if that was actually an officer or someone who could present a danger to him (and remember, he had heard a knock at his door on a previous night, so he might have been more cautious than he otherwise might’ve been, but I don’t want to pass my own head-canon as judgment). As Whitaker reached for his gun, things got a bit more hectic, but once Whitaker realized this really was the Phoenix police, he went to surrender. Despite no longer presenting a threat, Cooke fired three rounds into Whitaker, leading Whitaker to collapse on the ground, audibly struggling to breathe, and eventually die. Now, I will address one thing here: this was a split-second decision, even if it was ultimately the wrong one. In the middle of chaos, the officer failed to realize Whitaker was not a threat. He overreacted and was too quick on the trigger (even Ferragamo, who would’ve been the primary target of Whitaker if Whitaker had intended to be a threat, kept his composure to not fire). Despite this split-second decision, you can clearly tell Whitaker was getting on his knees and had his hands up. Only once he began this motion did Cooke fire, and there is simply no excuse for that, as Whitaker was very clearly not a threat and cops are trained in trigger-discipline to avoid circumstances exactly like this. Cops are supposed to be better than this, but this guy's overreaction at seeing Whitaker's gun (which was legal) led him to fire unnecessarily. I think he should be fired, at the very least, if not outright charged with homicide (not that I expect such charges to stick, as you will soon see that cops who execute civilians do not always get punished for it). Phoenix has a higher rate of police shootings per 1 million residents than New York, L.A., and other similar-sized cities, so that goes to show how inept the police are in that city. Getting back to the body-cam footage, eventually, Whitaker’s girlfriend comes out with her hands up and eventually explains to the police that she and Whitaker were playing a video game and they might have gotten a bit loud about it, though no domestic disturbance was present. So, yes, the entire situation was avoidable in a number of ways. However, allow me to get to the main objective of this article: this whole thing happened just days before the George Floyd incident. The Arizona Central only reported this on July 17th, nearly TWO MONTHS after it happened on May 21st. And you and I are only hearing about this in early-to-mid August, roughly two and a half months after this incident happened. Where was the outrage? Never mind that, WHERE WAS THE COVERAGE?! Where were the protests held in his name? Where are the NBA players demanding justice for Ryan Whitaker? Where are the NBA jerseys that demand you say his name? Where was the national legislation that would reform police departments as a result of this incident? Why are we only learning about this now and not when it happened, especially as it happened even before the George Floyd thing? You and I both know the only reason we have never heard of Ryan Whitaker until today: he wasn’t black. And since he wasn’t black, he was not politically expedient. His death does not bring any politician more donation money. His death does not drive voters to vote for a guy who promises to change the police department. His death does not push the media’s Leftist agenda. His death did not matter. His life did not matter. He was a straight, white man, whom we are told are exclusively the oppressors and abusers and killers, and not oppressed, abused or killed. Back in early June, when the riots were at some of their worst, I wrote an article where I noted of a couple of instances in which a white man was shot or generally killed by cops and no one batted an eye. I talked about a white man who was shot because he was car-hopping in a Chicago train station. I talked about Tony Timpa, who died in a similar fashion to George Floyd, being under the knee of a police officer (though I don’t think Timpa was under the influence of drugs or overexcited himself into a heart attack, so it was a bit different). One I wish I had mentioned back then was the case of Daniel Shaver, a case which can most easily point to a bad cop deciding to straight up execute a man who posed no risk at all to him. Back in 2016, Daniel Shaver was in Mesa, Arizona for a business trip and was staying at a hotel. Police got the call of “weapon(s) in a hotel room.” As such, a SWAT team was deployed to Shaver’s hotel and while there, they had Shaver, who was intoxicated, at gun point (unclear if they thought he was the one with the guns). The SWAT officer issued confusing and taunting commands (such as calling Shaver “young man” instead of the standard and less insulting “sir”, or saying: “Shut up! I’m not here to be tactful or diplomatic with you. You listen. You obey.” Even though the situation could have escalated from these things if Shaver had been an actual threat). Some confusing commands include ordering Shaver to cross his ankles (a common tactic to ensure officers enough reaction time if the suspect intends to pull out a weapon and fire) and then crawling towards the officers (this, however, is not common, according to a CNN law enforcement analyst, for what that’s worth). Once he got close enough, the officers began shouting again and opened fire on Shaver. The guy was drunk, unarmed and at no point did he pose a threat to the officers. He was given confusing commands and was repeatedly taunted and berated by an officer clearly drunk with power. He was, for all intents and purposes, executed in that hotel hallway. The officer leading the whole thing got off scot-free with all charges levied against him being dropped. This happened in 2016, but I only heard about it a little after the George Floyd killing. This was the closest thing to a Nazi or Soviet-style execution that you can get, save for being put up against the wall. It was brutal, horrific, savage and wrong. It was outright murder but no one cared at the time and no one cares now. However, I can guarantee one thing: if Daniel Shaver, Ryan Whitaker or Tony Timpa had been black, their stories would’ve been ingrained in this country’s memory. Trayvon Martin’s name is still remembered from back in early 2012. Rodney King’s name, though he was not killed, is still remembered nearly 30 years after that incident. They demand we remember Rayshard Brooks, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Freddy Gray, Michael Brown, but no one cared about Ryan Whitaker, Tony Timpa or Daniel Shaver. No one’s throwing 70 funerals for Whitaker. No one is demanding justice for Daniel Shaver. No one is demanding police reform for Tony Timpa. These three never got the nationwide coverage that similar circumstances happening to people of color get. When the cops kill a black person, intentionally or not, justifiably or not, they get demonized and everyone talks about how cops are evil. When the cops kill a white person, intentionally or not, justifiably or not, all they get is crickets. In the midst of a pandemic, I’m not even sure Whitaker got a funeral following his death, even as Floyd got numerous ones. The fake news media has an agenda. They are not journalists, but propagandists, and whatever doesn’t help their agenda simply does not get covered. Black people dying helps their agenda. White people dying runs contrary to their agenda. The fake news is the enemy of the people and no greater bigot exists than a Leftist. Isaiah 1:17 “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”
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