Stephon Clark did not have to die. Rather than paying his family off, help them gain understanding and accept responsibility for his self-imposed death
The Fractured Fairy Tale of Stephon Clark
There was a time not long ago when a personal history mattered; past actions were considered in job offers and in criminal prosecutions. But the liberal left now considers past actions immaterial and irrelevant.
Consider the family of Stephon Clark, the 22-year old black male shot to death by two Sacramento police officers in March after a chase: The family has filed wrongful death claims with the city of Sacramento, seeking up to $35 million for Clark's death, the Sacramento Bee
reported this week. And, the Sacramento Bee also once again reported Clark as an "
unarmed 22-year-old black man."
Stephon Clark's family looked the other way on his lengthy history of violent, illegal behavior, and now they want $35 million? Can you imagine the private family conversations about filing a lawsuit against the city?
Clark had been residing at his grandparents' residence "off and on" for over a month, after he was released from jail, his family told The Sacramento Bee.
Stephon Clark was out of jail just one month, when he was breaking into the cars and homes of his grandmother's neighbors... 'unarmed black man,' my tushie. While a death sentence isn't warranted for breaking into cars and homes, Stephon Clark's life choices--and choices that night--led him to his untimely death at the hands of police.
Stephon Clark's life and death is sadly an all-too-familiar script. The left would have you believe that the Sacramento police hunted Stephon Clark down like a rabid dog because he was a black male--not that they were actually responding to a 9-1-1 call reporting crimes taking place by a fearful neighbor.
The police shooting of Stephon Clark happened following a 9-1-1 call reporting a man breaking into vehicles, according to
The Sacramento Bee. Investigators later found three vehicles that had been broken into.
However, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department helicopter quickly located Clark using a "tool bar" to break the rear sliding glass door of the occupied home of 88-year-old Bill Wong, who was unaware that his home was being broken into.
The incident was captured on camera, so everyone can see what actually happened. (
See Here)
Despite the facts surrounding the case, newspapers across the state and across the country, ran with nearly identical headlines:
Stephon Clark and the Shooting of Black Men, Armed and Unarmed ...
Stephon Clark, inequality and shooting of unarmed black men | The ...
"California Cops Fatally Shoot Unarmed Black Man Stephon Clark In His Own Backyard"
How Stephon Clark Was Killed by Police in His Backyard | NYT--Visual Investigations
Sacramento Bee columnist
Marcos Bretón portrayed
Stephon Clark as some sort of martyred saint: He's a "loving father of two," and "killed in his grandmother's backyard." The Los Angeles Times said of Clark: "Beloved, troubled young life cut short in police shooting."
Heavy.com said he was was "a stay-at-home father of two young sons." Another headline read: "Sacramento resident Stephon Clark, unarmed, was fatally shot by police in his backyard." CNN said "the man shot and killed by Sacramento police was turning his life around, his brother says."
The media continue to make this police shooting about race, despite that one of the police officers was also black. This isn't just about race. The outcome would have been the same regardless of who was running after not following police orders. And if it was a white guy who was shot by police, the media would be silent.
The Video Evidence
The video shows Stephon Clark running from officers after he was witnessed breaking into cars. He ignored their commands, and pointed an object at the officers with an extended arm. Stephon Clark did not stop as ordered, and that made him dangerous to everyone, and not just to the police.
"He looked back at our officers and faced them," Sacramento Police Department Sergeant Vance Chandler said, according to WGNO. "[He] had something, an object in his hand, and pointed it at our officers, and at that time our officers believed it was a firearm, and out of fear for their own lives they fired their service weapons."
"Based on the videos alone, I cannot second-guess the split-second decisions of our officers and I'm not going to do that," Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said in a statement.
"He was the father of two boys, ages 1 and 3," the Los Angeles Times
reported. "Friends and family have described him as fun-loving, devoted to his family. He loved football, video games, shoes and was trying to turn his life around, they said."
According to the media, Stephon Clark was Mama's little angel who one month out of jail was trying to turn his life around by breaking into cars of his grandmother's neighbors.
The reality is that Clark had quite a criminal history, which does not paint the same rosy picture his family wants the public (and prospective jurors) to believe.
History and Headlines has the facts:
"A criminal since his teen years, the 22 year old had a juvenile record of grand theft, robbery and receiving stolen property. As an adult, Clark pled guilty to felony armed robbery, assault, and child endangering in one case, and "pimping" a prostitute in another case for which he pled no contest. In a third adult case, Clark was arrested for domestic violence for punching a woman in the face, and in yet another case from this year, Clark was again arrested for domestic violence. Why do people make a hero out of someone who has assaulted women?"
The media has played a huge part in the manipulation of black males, convincing them that the police want them dead. And the left never asks
Why do so many "unarmed young black males" now choose to run, resist arrest, and even assault law enforcement when committing even minor offenses, rather than to comply?
Activists and community leaders have been adamant that Clark's criminal record was immaterial to how he died, and continue to say the officers who killed him are the ones who ought to be scrutinized--thus the lawsuit. Stephon Clark never understood that only he was accountable for his own actions--and that's a failure in family and society, who all too often made excuses for his behavior.
One of the two officers involved in the shooting of Stephon Clark was confronted by Black Lives Matter protesters on his wedding day just before the ceremony. According to the
video released by Black Lives Matter, the officer was  in a room with his groomsmen Saturday when protesters barged in,
CBSlocal.com reported.
One Bee reader
commented, "If Mr. Clark had been at home with his family like a good father instead of burglarizing his grandparents neighborhood, he would still be alive today. Remember, somebody called the cops on a thief. Act like a punk you get treated like a punk."
In all the videos, it is clear Stephon Clark took a shooter stance towards the officers. And it is as important to note that he also had several opportunities to end the incident well before the shooting. Had he dropped to the ground with his arms spread, and hands open, when told by the police, Stephon Clark would be alive today.
It's the SacBee editorial board, LA Times, NY Times, and rabid leftists like them that are what's wrong with America. It's President Johnson's "Great Society" which failed black America. It's Democrats and their deluded policies, who use minorities and the poor as sociological experiments over and over again, despite the atrocious outcomes.
Stephon Clark did not have to die. Rather than paying his family off, help them gain understanding and accept responsibility for his self-imposed death.
Katy Grimes -- Bio and
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Katy Grimes is an investigative journalist, Senior Correspondent with the Flash Report, ReaganBabe, and Senior Media Fellow with Energy and Environmental Institute. A longtime political analyst, she has written for The Sacramento Union, The Washington Examiner, Watchdog.org, The Pacific Research Institute’s CalWatchdog, The San Francisco Examiner, The Business Journal, E&E Legal, The Sacramento Bee, Legal Insurrection, Canada Free Press, and Laura Ingraham’s LifeZette, and can be heard regularly on many talk radio shows each week.
