The Dillon Taylor shooting verdict is in, and the “non-white” officer who killed the unarmed white man in August will not face charges, a grand jury has decided.
The Taylor case has been referred to in conservative blog circles as the “non-Ferguson.” in that the circumstances were somewhat similar, just reversed, to that of the Michael Brown shooting that grabbed national attention.
The feeling on the right is that the Brown case was not about race, and that opportunistic talking heads were just making it about race in order to grab headlines.
In Brown’s case, he can be seen on video committing a “strong-arm robbery” prior to his fatal encounter with Officer Darren Wilson. Wilson claimed that Brown assaulted him first and then tried to flee.
Wilson maintains that he did nothing wrong in the incident, and a multiracial grand jury found that the evidence supported his claim.
Meanwhile, there is the Dillon Taylor shooting. Taylor was a homeless young man with a blood alcohol content of point-18, much higher than the legal limit of point-08.
In the Taylor case, Officer Bron Cruz, again described by WREG as “non-white,” wore a camera on his uniform and was able to record the deadly shooting.
The video shows that Taylor was backing away from the officer, but refusing to comply with his demands, even uttering at one demand the phrase “Nah, fool.”
Defenders of Cruz note that Taylor made like he was pulling something out of his waistband when Cruz, who said he was “fearing for his life,” shot twice, killing the unarmed suspect.
Taylor had also made some suicidal Facebook posts prior to the incident.
After reviewing the video and other evidence, the grand jury found there was nothing to support indictment, thus reaching the same conclusion as the Ferguson case.
The difference, conservative bloggers have noted, is that the white population isn’t rioting and burning businesses in protest.
Of course, to be fair, there isn’t video of the Michael Brown shooting, only the video of the strong-arm robbery prior to the shooting and then the physical evidence, which, as the Washington Post notes , does seem to back up Wilson’s story that the officer had sufficient cause to feel Brown was a threat.
But what do you think, readers?
Does the verdict in the Michael Brown case and the verdict in the Dillon Taylor shooting coinciding with one another prove that race wasn’t an issue in either case? Sound off in our comments section below.