The race of a suspect and an officer are literally the least important part of any police interaction. If two humans treat each other with respect: the eye color, hair color, fingernail length, or skin color have no relevancy. That should not be controversial – that should be boring common sense.
But it clearly isn’t.
The Grift
During the four months in between the incident and the video becoming public: the media “race-baited” for ratings, the family of the deceased tried to profit from the tragedy, people who don’t know any better (or who don’t care) protested in the streets, a police officer who was not involved in this incident received death threats, and the police officers who were involved were forced into bureaucratic silence.
This story was covered by local and national news outlets and exploited by anti-police activists.
Many of the headlines of the stories produced by The Guardian, Mother Jones, Daily Kos, The Huffington Post and others highlighted the race of the ‘victim’ while conveniently leaving out that he was armed with a gun.
Ever wonder why municipalities cannot recruit or retain decent cops?
What Happened?
Officers responded to the area and actually located the offender vehicle (good job!). A traffic stop was conducted and the vehicle stopped in the parking lot of a Family Dollar store.
Once the vehicle stopped, two young men exited the vehicle. Both were armed with handguns.
The Use of Force
Then (for some reason) Mr. McMillian ran around another parked car and turned towards the officer – while holding the gun. In this instant Mr. McMillian went from an armed fleeing felon to an armed felon who was rushing towards the police officer. It was at that point that the officer fired his weapon – killing Mr. McMillian.
This is an example of the involved police officer demonstrating great restraint. Two people who had reportedly committed felonies (by pointing guns at random drivers) and eluded police while armed with handguns. The officer did not use any level of force as the two young men ran away and the officer did not chase after either individual. The officer stood by his patrol car. However, once Mr. McMillian changed course and ran towards the officer with the handgun – only then did the officer fire his weapon. This indicates that the officer had no interest in using deadly force (or any force for that matter) until his life was in immediate danger.
The other teenager who kept running away from the officer was arrested later, without incident, and no force was utilized against him – as he posed no immediate threat to police officers.
According to a Grand Jury report – there was no criminal action by any police officer. The District Attorney will not be filing any charges against the officer.
In essence, this OIS was found to have been within the law.
Controversy
The problem is that there was a four month gap in between the OIS and the release of the police video footage.
During those four months, Mr. McMillian’s mother (Katrina Mateen) started a gofundme account with a stated goal to raise $200k. The fundraiser was started on October 7, 2022 (the day after her son died). The description of the gofundme states that Mr. McMillian was “unarmed” and had his “hands up” and was shot “in the back of the head” while holding a bag of “McDonald’s and keys”. The fundraiser states that the police had no reason to utilize force against him.
The description of the fundraiser also names the officer who was supposedly the one who shot Mr. McMillian. The officer’s name and rank are in the description for the fundraiser. The officer subsequently received months of death threats to himself and his family. However, the officer listed was not involved in this case. In fact, he was not even on scene, he was not working that day, and was out of state on vacation on the day that the OIS occurred. The chief of police was forced to make a public statement about this issue.
As of the writing of this article – the description still remains – despite the public video evidence. However, that dishonest description of this tragedy did help to raise over $90k for Ms. Mateen.
Release the Video
Here is how we know that there is overwhelming evidence that this was a lawful, justified, and objectively reasonable OIS.
Mr. Crump demanded the release of the police video footage. The footage was released. Since the release – Mr. Crump has not commented, complained, or made any statement about the use of deadly force by police.
We all know that if there was even the slightest whisper of the police officer making any error – Mr. Crump would not have been shy about creating a media carnival to expose the wrongdoing by police. The silence by Mr. Crump is blaring to those who pay attention to the playbook of anti-police activists.
Jaheim McMillian
- The police officer who responded to a call in reference to a car full of people pointing guns at random citizens – who utilized deadly force only after an immediate deadly threat was posed? or,
- The parents, guardians, teachers, coaches, and/or other adults in his life who failed to provide a good example for this young man and who also did not care enough to make sure that he was not running the streets with a gun?
If we are going to assign blame – it seems dishonest to put the majority of the fault on the police officer who was forced into a dynamic and violent situation – through no fault of his own – while simultaneously not blaming the other adults who allowed this situation to deteriorate to the point that Mr. McMillian was out and about with a group of criminals terrorizing random citizens.
The Double Standard
Mr. McMillian’s family has been allowed to establish such a fundraiser on this platform – despite the fact that he committed multiple crimes (felonies) before he was shot by a police officer – including Aggravated Assault against a Police Officer.
Gofundme is a private company and can/should be allowed to set their own standards. As customers we should request that they apply the same standards to every fundraiser. That is not an unreasonable request.
Final Thoughts
For example, the reason that the Ma’Khia Bryant OIS in Columbus, OH is not associated with ‘police violence’ is because politicians made the good decision to release the police body cam footage almost immediately. The release of this footage depicted literally one of the most justifiable and reasonable OIS incidents ever captured on police body camera. There were no riots, no dishonest narratives, and no police officers received serious threats. (Listen to Officer Nate discuss this incident on the incredible podcast On Being a Police Officer).
This is an honest playbook that politicians and police leaders in other communities should employ. The quick release of the footage in Mr. McMillian’s case could have stopped much of the chaos fueled by anti-police activists who only possess the goals to divide and destroy communities.
The only way that we can fight against dishonesty is with the willingness to promote truth. We should all be allowed and encouraged to express, discuss, and debate opinions. We should do that in a reasonable and respectful manner. But, we should be more aggressive when it comes to objective truth.
The time for meek silence is over.
This article originally appeared at Police Law News Substack.
