Folks, I almost spilled my coffee reading this one. The Mississippi attorney general has concluded that a Senatobia police officer was justified in the shooting death of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley back in June. I mean, what a mess. The officer was responding to a shoplifting call at a Walmart, and things escalated quickly. The mother, Vellesiya Wiley, was carrying her son as she and a friend left the store and got into a car. Police reports say the car drove toward the officers, prompting one of them to fire into the car, striking Kohen and his mother’s friend.
The investigation into the shooting has been ongoing for months, with many calling for justice for Kohen’s family. Ben Crump, a well-known civil rights attorney, is representing the family and has disputed the officers’ claims that the car was heading toward them. He says a preliminary independent autopsy shows Kohen was shot from the side of the car, not the front. You can’t help but wonder what really happened here.
The shooting has sparked a lot of tension between the Senatobia police department and the city’s Black citizens. There have been other incidents in the past, like the time a Senatobia officer threatened a Black woman with a Taser over a handicapped parking space, or when an officer was fired for arresting a 10-year-old boy for urinating in public. It’s no wonder people are upset. And just recently, the former police chief, Harold Vanderford, was fired after allegations surfaced that he used racist slurs in private text messages. Bless their hearts.
The city’s board of aldermen made the decision to fire Vanderford, which is probably a good start. But it’s clear that there’s a lot of work to be done to rebuild trust between the police department and the community. I mean, it’s not like this is the first time we’ve seen something like this happen. Somewhere in Atlanta, a producer thought this sounded terrifying, and now it’s all over the news. You can’t make this stuff up.
The fact that the attorney general has concluded the officer was justified is just the latest twist in this sad story. I’m not sure what’s more disturbing, the fact that a 1-year-old boy was shot and killed, or the fact that the officer who did it might not face any consequences. The whole thing is just a big mess, and I’m not sure how it’s all going to play out. But one thing’s for sure, it’s a reminder that we’ve still got a long way to go when it comes to policing and racial tensions in this country.
In the end, it’s just a sad story all around. A young boy lost his life, and a community is left to pick up the pieces. I just hope that somehow, someway, we can learn from this and move forward. And maybe, just maybe, we can find a way to make sure something like this never happens again. But until then, I’ll just be over here, shaking my head and wondering what’s wrong with the world.
Armchair patriot. Believes in the free market, cold beer, and that there’s always a guy named George behind every CNN segment.
Former remote-throwing champion turned #1 couch commentator on liberal panic in the media. Born in Texas (or so his mug says), he earned a degree in Fake Newsology & Beer Philosophy from YouTube University.
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