By: Jael Jones

Seven gunshots. Seven rapid bullets released into the air. Seven times officer Jeronimo Yanez flexed his palmer muscles pulling that trigger, seven times, in just seconds. All caused by a broken tail light.

photo via Star Tribune — photo via *Star Tribune*

Watching the newly released dash cam video of the murder of Philando Castille almost makes you have sympathy for officer Yanez. I speak of a systematic sympathy. He is just as much of a victim of this passed down mental imprisonment from systematic racism as anyone but the difference is he will not pay for it with his life. In the video, you feel the fear and the disregard for black lives, and for black trauma, every time he pulled that trigger. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. No regard for the three black lives in front of him, one being just a toddler, who watched on as life was snatched from their loved one. You see the “fear” as he stood over Philando’s lifeless body with his gun still drawn for minutes afterward. “Sir, I have to tell you, I do have a firearm on me.” The last words Philando spoke were words that he thought would save his life as he reached for his gun permit, yet instead they ended it. This story is all too familiar.

We are constantly asking the question of what could we have done differently in these situations and the answer to that question is nothing. Be polite they tell you, be respectful, don’t be a threat. Comply. Philando was a citizen, a legal gun owner, a father, a boyfriend, a son, a human, a law-abiding citizen and also a black man in AmeriKKKa and for that he paid with his life. And his death is virtually met with no outrage from top officials. The NRA, a supposed champion of rights for legal gun owners, didn’t make an outcry when he died.

Instead of handling the situation as he was trained to do, Philando’s blackness posed such a threat that he decided in just 7 seconds he had to take his life instead. Afterwards, his response was all too common: he was fearful.

Reading the transcripts of officer Yanez from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension interview, taken hours after the altercation, reveal what we already knew. Officer Jeronimo Yanez went in to this situation with preconceived stereotypical notions of who he was dealing with. You can see that as he approached the vehicle with his hand already on his gun holster. He stated that the driver of the white vehicle he chose to follow on his patrol matched the physical description of the two black males from a previous robbery a week ago. “I remember that it was, the male had dreadlocks around shoulder length…or longer hair around shoulder length. And it wasn’t specified if it was cornrows or dreadlocks or straight hair, um and kind of distinct facial features with a wide set nose and uh I saw that in the driver of the vehicle.” He mentioned three different black male hairstyles.

He basically described about four of my family members, and about 10 or more of the men that I go to school with. And this makes me wonder will any of them be next? Will they be the next hashtag all because of what physical features they happen to have? When will following the laws be enough? When will we be able to not fear the day red and blue lights flash behind our vehicle as our last? When will black lives begin to matter?