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On Saturday in Milwaukee, WI, a police officer reportedly
identified as Dominique Heaggan-Brown, an African American and amateur rapper, shot and killed 23-year-old Sylville Smith after a routine traffic stop. Smith allegedly ran from Heaggan-Brown, proceeded to remove a firearm, and provoked two shots from the police. Of course this is the police's version and without the release of bodycam footage we can't know the truth. It is certainly not uncommon for the police to lie about these events in order to protect themselves from public scrutiny. Just this
week two cops in Missouri were caught faking a story about being shot at - and their supervisor helped cover it up. So, at this time, there is no reason to assume the police are telling the truth.
But immediately after the shooting, protesters took to the street and began using social media accounts to spread the news to their friends. The riots raged until shops and police vehicles were destroyed, and the National Guard was
called in. On Sunday RT would
report sounds of 'automatic fire' in the city as riot police attempted to squash the riots.
On Monday Sylville Smith's sister would
state her suspicions in an interview: '"[Heagan] knew my brother personally from high school. They knew each other. You knew exactly how my brother was and you shot and killed him." It is distinctly possible that there is much more to this story than what meets the eye. But, predictably, the details and the context are not the focus of mainstream attention - instead this is fanning the flames of an even more authoritarian and pathological agenda.
Comment: Care to wager on whether or not al-Qaeda in Aleppo will abide by the ceasefire?