In a recent op/ed, Democratic presidential contender Julián Castro repeated his refrain from last month’s primary debate by claiming that “police violence is gun violence.”
That’s why I’m the only candidate with a stand-alone plan to reform policing and why I don’t hesitate to say the names of victims. Police violence is gun violence too, and we must speak out for Black and Brown people who often don’t have an effective first chance at life.
From Castro’s remarks last October:
“But also, in the places that I grew up in, we weren’t exactly looking for another reason for cops to come banging on the door,” the former mayor of San Antonio continued. “I am not going to give these police officers another reason to go door-to-door in certain communities because police violence is also gun violence and we need to address that.”
His remarks came days after the killing of Atatiana Jefferson, the 28 year-old woman who was shot and killed by a Ft. Worth police officer during a wellness check:
Police said officers went to Jefferson’s home early Saturday morning for a wellness check after her neighbor called the department’s non-emergency number, saying the front door of the home had been left open. The department said an officer perceived a threat while outside the home and fired a shot, striking Jefferson inside through a window. Body camera video shows Dean fired less than a second after yelling for Jefferson to show her hands and that he never identified himself as a police officer.
Jefferson was in lawful possession of her firearm and was reported to be a concealed carry permit holder. Lawyers for the family stated that she was up late playing video games with her nephew and retrieved her firearm after the pair heard noises outside of her bedroom window. The officer involved never identified himself, and Ft. Worth’s interim Police Chief Ed Kraus told the public that had the officer not resigned, he would have been fired for “for violations of several policies including our use of force policy, our de-escalation policy, and unprofessional conduct.”
The tragedy of Ms. Jefferson’s death highlights exactly what would happen if the red flag laws that Castro supports are implemented. So-called red flag laws, which I’ve written about previously, are a suspension of due process wherein a person can be adjudicated a prohibited possessor in an ex parte process that requires the lowest standard of proof. Most states do not include advance notice prior to enforcement. The policy has already claimed one life and Florida’s red flag policy led to the suspension of one innocent man’s CHL and confiscation of his firearms because authorities mistook him for the wrong man. Even though it was quite clear that authorities had the wrong man, the innocent man was still forced to forfeit his rights, and pay to prove in court what the authorities already knew. Were it not for the intervention of a captain within the department, who knows what would have happened:
A sympathetic Captain in the police department decided to help out the Marine veteran. He took it upon himself to take a picture of Carpenter and had another officer bring it to the woman who took out the restraining order.
The woman confirmed to the police that they had the wrong Jonathan Edward Carpenter. The Sheriff’s Department quickly was able to get the restraining order removed from the father and husband.
It took them seconds to suspend a permit they now claim it will take two months to restore.
This is what Castro supports. It does nothing to increase safety and everything to endanger more innocent lives: That of innocent gun owners and hard-working law enforcement officers who are careful to serve and most importantly, protect.
