Hillary Clinton Meets With Family Of Philando Castile

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton held a meeting with the family of Philando Castile late on Monday in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Castile was shot and killed by a police officer in the midst of a traffic stop, when Castile was pulled over to be identified as a potential suspect of a robbery that occurred a day earlier.

Meeting with the families of black men slain by police is nothing new to Clinton. She also held meetings with the mothers of Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin.

Michael Brown was shot and killed in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, when he attempted to go after the gun of the officer who responded to Brown’s attempt to rob a convenient store.

Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012 in Sanford, Florida by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain who was patrolling the neighborhood during the time Martin was returning from a trip he made to a convenient store on foot. Martin was not armed and from all appearances it looks as if the killing was unjustified.

During the meeting with the Castile family, Clinton expressed her displeasure about the recent deadly police shootings, the Washington Times reported.

She stated, “We cannot let this madness continue. This violence cannot stand.”

The Times also reported that after the meeting with the Castile family, which consisted of Philando’s mother, sister and two uncles, Clinton gave a speech to the American Federation of Teachers, or AFT. The connection between Castile’s death and the AFT is the fact that he worked as a kitchen supervisor at a St. Paul public school.

NBC News penned an article about Clinton’s speech.

“A lot of people are still in pain right here, including his courageous family, his coworkers and students at the St. Paul public schools, and our AFT brothers and sisters in the Twin Cities who knew him as a fellow educator who cared deeply about this community and its children. His death, his loss, is ours as well.”

Clinton then switched gears to address the current killing spree of police officers, which began in Dallas on July 7 when Micah Xavier Johnson gunned down and executed five officers who were working to keep the peace at a Black Lives Matter parade.

“It can be true, both that we need law enforcement and that we need to improve law enforcement, to get back, to get back to the fundamental principle that everyone in every community benefits when there is respect for the law and everyone is respected by the law.”

Clinton’s tribute to Philando Castile and his family was interrupted by demonstrators making their way to the stage and chorusing “Hands up, don’t shoot!”

Despite the fact that the story that gave rise to “hands up, don’t shoot!” has been thoroughly debunked (Michael Brown was not surrendering with his hands up when he was shot) from multiple sources, Black Lives Matter, along with some mainstream news networks, continue to push the narrative and promote it as truth.

It looks as if Hillary Clinton also wants to advocate for the falsehood of “hands up, don’t shoot,” because the mother of Michael Brown, Lesley McSpadden, has been invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention.

It’s worth noting here that McSpadden believes her son was an innocent victim, despite evidence to the contrary.

As far as Philando Castile’s death goes, the actual shooting was not captured on video, leaving us with only the eyewitness accounts of Castile’s girlfriend, who was present during the fatal exchange, and the officer who shot him.

Castile’s family believes in his innocence, however. His mother, Valerie Castile, told WCCO, an affiliated CBS news outlet in Minnesota, that she’s proud of the man he had become.

“His mother, Valerie, says her son was given awards for perfect attendance. She was proud of the man he was.

“‘He did everything he was supposed to do as far as being a law abiding citizen. He worked every day,’ Valerie said.”

[Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images]