Yesterday yet another black man was shot and killed by a police officer in deeply troubling circumstances. Philando Castile was in his car, safety belt on, apparently reaching for his license, when the officer shot him during a traffic stop in a suburb of St. Paul Minnesota.
His girlfriend Diamond Reynolds, in the car with him, somehow maintained her composure enough to film the aftermath of the shooting, streaming it live to Facebook. (You can watch the footage here.)
Matt Forney — the internet-famous woman-hating white supremacist — has somehow convinced himself that it’s all an elaborate hoax. In a succession of Tweets, he lays out his case, such as it is. (Click on the screenshots to see the Tweets in context on Twitter.)
Forney — in several Tweets and in a post on his blog — sets forth a series of easily refutable “arguments” which in his mind prove his case. His first “argument” will give you a sense of Forney’s keen mind in action: `
She was never arrested; just detained. The cops threw her phone to the ground after detaining her. It was returned to her later. All of this is clear from watching the video.
I’m not going to bother with the rest of his arguments because, well, here’s the thing:
Philando Castile, a real person, is dead. He died in the hospital as a result of his wounds. Is the hospital that reported this part of the conspiracy? Did he volunteer to be killed in a random traffic stop in order to give BlackLivesMatter a new talking point? Did his girlfriend agree to go along with this bizarre plan?
The St. Anthony Police Department has acknowledged the shooting and Castile’s death and put the officer who shot Castile on leave. The St. Anthony Police Department is, in fact, a real police department, not a troupe of actors. Is the St. Anthony Police Department working in cahoots with BlackLivesMatter to make itself look bad? Is the officer who shot Castile — whom Reynolds has described as “Asian” — hoping that his actions will help BlackLivesMatter “slander” white men? Even though he apparently isn’t white?
The governor of Minnesota has asked the Justice Department to investigate. Is he part of the conspiracy too? Is the Justice Department?
I’ll stop here, but my basic point is this: There is a real world. Matt Forney clearly does not live in it.
*stream of expletives*
I have an easier time believing Matt Forney is a hoax to make white men look bad.
His first point is that “any reputable cop will take your phone away,” rather than willingly get filmed. So, he’s supporting his argument — that the police are trustworthy — by pointing out that the police don’t want their actions available for public viewing.
Right.
Throws up in mouth.
I think you’ll find the footage shows that these are not, in fact, reputable cops.
Damn! He makes the Flat Earthers sound sane.
Please no.
I wish I could give the girlfriend a hug right now. It must be terrifying seeing your boyfriend shot to death in front of you.
Conspiracy theorists gonna conspiracy theorize…
“Any reputable cop would have taken her phone away.”
What kind of reputation are we talking about, here?
It’s easier for him to assume this is all fake than to face the truth that there is systematic racism in the system, apparently.
Oh, and she has the right to record police activity. The police do not have the right to take away a phone when someone’s recording, because someone recording them is protected by the first amendment, which ALL Americans have, not just the cishet white dudes, Forney.
The police cannot take away your phone when you’re recording them, and in this day and age, it’ll only get them in trouble, as it should.
You have the right to bear arms, I have the right to record the police.
Joe, please refer back to the comments policy. We don’t say that stuff here.
Just when you think he couldn’t possibly be any more of a shitbird, he somehow manages to top himself. Unless he previously posted some #SandyHookTruth, in which case he has finally reached Peak Shitbird.
There was also a little girl, about 4 years old, in the car watching. I think she was his daughter but don’t quote me on that because right now I’m too broken up to go back and re-read the story again.
But I do remember that the little girl was also arrested and detained until 5am with no food, no water, and no human contact. She was kept in a separate room from the girlfriend too.
I used to hang out in Falcon Heights. The only reason I’m alive right now is because I’m white, I stg. I had to laugh when they said the police department had no problems when I know there are more than a few cops there who moonlight selling drugs and other things. x__x Well, who knows, maybe the moonlighting selling coke has changed, I hope so but it yeah this was NOT faked. Falcon Heights IS that bad when it comes to their cops, Roseville is a tad better, but FH, SP and MLPS have such a HUGE issue with the communities here that it isn’t even funny. I mean shit, a cop from the last on the list there attempted to murder my husband once. So yeah… the people of Minnesota may be nice(ish) but our cops are NOT. This was NOT faked. Forney can suck a toilet seat.
I really despise these racist *******, and as soon as I recover from this cancer (last chemo tomorrow, last radiation treatment Monday YAY!) I have made a pledge to join BLM and do my best to be a humble, effective white ally. I admire the movement and the brave men and women putting their lives on the line on a daily basis.
All I can say is I’m so sorry, to Philando Castile’s friends and family, to his poor, poor girlfriend who had to watch him die (I can’t even imagine how traumatizing that was), and to the entire black community who have once again lost a young person to police violence. I’m sorry that this happened, that this is still happening all the damn time, and I’m sorry that racist pieces of crap like Matt Forney try to revictimize you all.
Oh, and I got ninja’d on this bu several others, but I’d like to say this in a shorter way:
A reputable cop would not fear his actions being videotaped and shared with the public.
Johanna,
Yeah, nobody here in the Twin Cities who as been paying attention is at all surprised by this. Horrified. But not surprised. Every black person I’ve talked to about this issue has been harassed by the cops at least once. I, a white woman, never have.
I’ve seen people on other sites from out of state try to spin it as the cop being terrified because it’s a bad neighborhood. Can you believe that shit? Falcon Heights? A terrifying neighborhood? No.
For the rest of you who aren’t Minnesotan, Falcon Heights is a middle class area. It’s near the St Paul campus of University of Minnesota and the state fairgrounds.
Do manospherians actually just hold competitions to see who can be the literal worst person ever?
Hey, Forney, go fuck yourself.
“It’s a false flag operation!” and its variations has become a very popular idea in conspiracyland in recent years, so it’s not much of a surprise someone would claim this. I doubt he’s the only one doing it.
Anyone in this nation who’s paying attention shouldn’t be surprised anymore, sadly. The police anymore will gun down anyone for doing the most innocent of things and your chances of having that happen to you increase dramatically if you’re not white.
I’m white and the police in my town scare me. They showed up at my front door one evening about three months ago claiming my husband called in saying I was suicidal. Their policy is to take people who might harm themselves to the hospital for evaluation. They kept referring to me as “Sally” while I kept telling them my name was “Jane,” my husband never called the police and they had the wrong house. They would not listen to me or my husband, or allow me to get ID to show them I wasn’t “Sally.” Instead they threatened to have me involuntarily committed (which they can do in this state without even going before a judge) if I didn’t get into the police car and come down to the station while things were straightened out.
So I ended up locked in a interrogation room for an hour while my husband tried to get them to actually look at my driver’s license. The cops were too busy arguing with the ambulance crew who was refusing to transport me to the hospital because of the identity issue.
It took a call to a lawyer friend of mine to get them to pay attention. Meanwhile, poor “Sally,” who might have really needed some help, wasn’t getting it because the cops adamantly refused to look at my driver’s license — proof I wasn’t who they thought I was.
I’m in the process of figuring out if suing the department is feasible. I probably should be grateful they didn’t beat me, taze me or pull a gun on me. If I was black, I probably would have been beaten or worse. When did police become so disconnected with the people they’re supposed to serve?
As a white man, I have to say that the most slanderous thing here about white men is that Matt Forney thinks he represents us in some way.
I guess MN Gov. Dayton is also in on the hoax, since he just gave a speech about the shooting.
@Saphira
The City of New York Police Department, est. 1845
Now there’s an oxymoron if ever I saw one. Especially where black people are concerned. I’ve actually lost count of how many of them have died at the hands of killer cops. That’s how disreputable they are. (I almost wrote “have become”, but I’m pretty sure they’ve always been this way.)