Philando Castile was murdered by Jeronimo Yanez. We know this. We also know that earlier in June, a jury acquitted Yanez of that crime—as well as of the crime of endangering his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her 4-year-old daughter who were both in the car when Yanez fired seven shots into it. Knowing these things are not changed by watching the video footage that shows this. Yet, on Tuesday, the dashcam video was made public by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
It confirms exactly what Diamond Reynolds told us in her haunting Facebook live video last summer.
When the traffic stop began, the two men interacted calmly. Officer Jeronimo Yanez, a police officer in the Twin Cities suburbs, greeted Castile and examined his insurance card.
“Sir, I have to tell you that I do have a firearm on me,” Castile said 30 seconds after they began speaking.
“Okay,” Yanez interrupted, his voice remaining steady as he shifted his right hand onto the holster of his gun.
Yanez told Castile not to reach for the gun or pull it out. Castile said he was not, which was echoed by Diamond Reynolds, his girlfriend, sitting in the Oldsmobile’s passenger seat.
“I’m not pulling it out,” Castile responded. Yanez again yelled: “Don’t pull it out!” He then unholstered his gun and pushed it into the car.
“Don’t pull it out!” Yanez yelled. “I’m not!” Castile said as Yanez, seven seconds after being informed of the gun, began firing into the car.
There are varying opinions on what this footage means. The fact that it only took 64 seconds from the time that Castile and Reynolds were stopped until he is shot fatally can be offered as yet more proof that anti-blackness and an irrational fear of black people (otherwise known as negrophobia) routinely result in our deaths at the hands of state actors.
It is also evidence that even when juries see, literally when they are able to see video, how state violence and racism are responsible for needlessly killing us—they still choose to side with white supremacy. But again, we do not need to watch this video to prove that. This is what we as black people have known forever. This is what we have been saying forever; White supremacy thrives on portraying black people as out of control, as thugs and animals needing to be civilized and subdued. But it is those who uphold it that are actually out of control, not us.
“Based upon the release of the dashcam video today, it is clear that Officer Jeronimo Yanez was not in control, was nervous and acted in a reckless, willful and wanton fashion,” Larry R. Rogers Jr., an attorney for Reynolds, said in a statement Tuesday.
We do not have to participate in the consumption of more black death and trauma by watching this video. At this point, it does no good. We have all the evidence and lived experience we need to know that white supremacy is real, is dangerous and is taking black lives. It is deeply triggering and traumatizing to continue to ask black people to watch these images over and over again. What is to be gained from viewing them? This is just another confirmation that our lives don’t matter. It is psychologically damaging. But it’s also deeply fetishizing. Our nation has an obsession with consuming black pain that is exhausting and problematic. It feeds on it. It normalizes our tragedies while simultaneously becoming desensitized to it. We do not need to see videos and images of the slaying of black bodies to understand this is wrong. White people may need this type of terrible, violent shock and awe to understand what black people have always been saying about structural violence and white supremacy. Or they could finally try listening to us.
As for me, I’m choosing not to watch this video as an act to protect my mental and emotional well-being. The last 64 seconds of Philando’s life should have never happened the way they did. Jeronimo Yanez should be in jail, but he isn’t. Watching this video won’t bring Philando back and now it won’t get him justice either.