Cop Who Killed Unarmed Ashli Babbitt Cleared of All Wrongdoing, Capitol Police Say Officer Saved Lives
Many media narratives surrounding the incursion into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 have fallen apart after the facts have come to light — except the one we’ve intentionally been kept in the dark about.
When a group largely made up of former President Donald Trump’s supporters broke into the building that day, it wasn’t long before the left had its narrative that this protest was a political insurrection. However, the facts have since proven that story to be false.
News outlets also breathlessly reported on Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick’s alleged violent death at the hands of protesters. Then his autopsy revealed he died of natural causes.
But the one event still shrouded in mystery is the death of Ashli Babbitt, the 35-year-old unarmed protester who was shot by a police officer as she was crawling through a broken window toward congressional chambers.
The American people have remained in the dark about the circumstances surrounding her death months later, with the officer who shot her still remaining completely anonymous.
What we do know is that an internal investigation has now cleared this officer of any wrongdoing as has the Justice Department before that, leaving no other examination of this event except the family’s ongoing wrongful death lawsuit, according to The Washington Post.
According to a statement from the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility, the body that handles such inquiries, the internal investigation found that the officer’s actions were “lawful and within Department policy,” Politico reported.
The officer apparently met the standard to use deadly force, which is allowed “when the officer reasonably believes that action is in the defense of human life, including the officer’s own life, or in the defense of any person in immediate danger of serious physical injury.”
While the family has said Babbitt was “ambushed,” the officer said he shouted a warning to Babbitt, though none of the footage released on social media picked it up.
Despite these ongoing questions and the known fact that Babbitt did not have a weapon in her possession when she was killed, the official narrative has become that she was a threat to be neutralized.
In fact, the still-unidentified officer was hailed a hero for taking out a female Trump supporter.
“The actions of the officer in this case potentially saved Members and staff from serious injury and possible death from a large crowd of rioters who forced their way into the U.S. Capitol and to the House Chamber where Members and staff were steps away,” the Capitol Police boasted.
While it’s possible both investigations against the officer were above board and accurate, all the public really knows is that the cop was a crack shot who gunned down a defenseless Babbitt — and that’s the point.
Other police shootings become national news with the officers sometimes turning into household names like Derek Chauvin.
Then there was Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, officer Kimberly Potter, who made an honest though deadly mistake in shooting Duante Wright after pulling her gun instead of her Taser.
Not only was she quickly doxxed, but she was also condemned as a racist without a shred of evidence.
Such is the fate of just about any other officer involved in a shooting, particularly when it involves a black suspect.
Even basketball great LeBron James had his crack at the sinister game when he tweeted a photo of Columbus, Ohio, police officer Nicholas Reardon, who shot a black teen who was about to stab another, with an hourglass emoji and the words “you’re next,” though he eventually deleted the post.
“LeBron James deleted this tweet but only after it had 39,000+ likes. The man in the photo saved a young black girl from another young black girl who was going to stab her in the neck,” producer and director Robby Starbuck tweeted about the situation.
“He did his job. Now @KingJames put a target on his back. Is the @NBA okay with this???” he said of the organization that is all-in with the Black Lives Matter anti-police rhetoric.
LeBron James deleted this tweet but only after it had 39,000+ likes. The man in the photo saved a young black girl from another young black girl who was going to stab her in the neck. He did his job. Now @KingJames put a target on his back. Is the @NBA okay with this??? pic.twitter.com/QegzyySnsI
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) April 21, 2021
It’s entirely possible that the officer who shot Babbitt was acting in good faith and that it was a justifiable homicide.
However, there is so little transparency in this shooting compared to any others and particularly when they involve black victims.
These investigations into Babbitt’s death have yielded so little public knowledge about the officer or the circumstances involved that it becomes suspicious by comparison.
Nobody wants police officers to be named so they can be personally targeted, but how has this remained the best-kept secret in Washington, D.C.?
What’s more, this Trump supporter who the officer stopped with deadly force has been vilified as such a threat, such a danger to the officer and to society, that it was appropriate and justified to kill her.
There should be no difference in how someone is treated based on the color of their skin or the color of their hat; if Babbitt had been a black woman rather than someone fond of wearing a red “Make America Great Again” cap, there’s no doubt that the calls for justice and transparency would have been relentless and loud.
Instead, we’re left with a second exoneration of the officer without any further explanation — and based on the other lies eventually debunked only by the facts, it’s safe to wonder if the narrative would stick with more information.
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