If you see something, say something blares the title on the Department of Homeland Security page.
Across the nation, we’re all part of communities. In cities, on farms, and in the suburbs, we share everyday moments with our neighbors, colleagues, family, and friends. It’s easy to take for granted the routine moments in our every day—going to work or school, the grocery store or the gas station. But your every day is different than your neighbor’s—filled with the moments that make it uniquely yours. So if you see something you know shouldn’t be there—or someone’s behavior that doesn’t seem quite right—say something. Because only you know what’s supposed to be in your everyday. Informed, alert communities play a critical role in keeping our nation safe. “If You See Something, Say Something™
Australian-born Justine Damond did just that and was killed for it. She called into the Minneapolis police department what she believed could be a possible sexual assault. Two officers were dispatched to the scene where and it all went bad:
Harrity told Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigators they were driving south through the alley between Washburn and Xerxes avenues S. with the squad lights turned off. At the moment they reached the end of the alley toward 51st Street he heard a “loud sound” and that Damond approached the driver’s side window of the squad car “immediately afterward.” Noor, who was in the passenger seat, fired past Harrity through the open driver’s side window, striking Damond in the abdomen. She died 20 minutes later.
Noor was startled by a blond white woman dressed in pajamas and felt compelled to shoot her. There are a great number of questions about this event, beginning with why the cops’ body cameras weren’t turned on, which is in violation of Department recommendations. The cop who killed Damond, Mohammed Noor, reached across his partner to shoot Damond. That’s very curious.
One wonders why his gun was drawn without having assessed the situation at all.
It wasn’t just Noor who killed Damond. The Mayor and the Police Chief of Minneapolis also contributed to her death. Noor is a Somali immigrant who was fast-tracked onto the Minneapolis Police Department.
Minneapolis made a significant financial investment in Mohamed Noor.
The officer who fatally shot Justine Damond graduated in 2015 from the city’s accelerated police cadet program. The seven-month training is a quicker, nontraditional route to policing aimed at helping those who already have a college degree enter law enforcement.
Noor switched careers to become a cop:
Before heading into law enforcement, Noor worked in commercial and residential property management and managed a hotel. He has a degree in business administration, management and economics from Augsburg College.
Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges said the killing “should not have happened.” This picture may help you understand why events transpired as they did:
Hodges made a big splash of Noor’s becoming a cop.
The Somali-born Minnesota police officer alleged to have shot and killed an unarmed Australian woman on Saturday had been lauded by Minneapolis’ mayor and feted by the local community when he joined the force in 2015.
“I want to take a moment to recognize Officer Mohamed Noor, the newest Somali officer in the Minneapolis Police Department,” Mayor Betsy Hodges wrote in a Facebook post when Noor began serving the city. “Officer Noor has been assigned to the 5th Precinct, where his arrival has been highly celebrated, particularly by the Somali community in and around Karmel Mall.”
In fact, The Washington Post reported that community threw a party for Noor – the first Somali-American officer to serve in the precinct. Minneapolis is home to one of the nation’s largest Somali communities.
“He came to the United States at a young age and is thankful to have had so many opportunities,” Thomas Plunkett, Noor’s attorney, said Monday. “…For him, being a police officer is a calling.”
In his short tenure as a cop, Noor has had 3 complaints filed against him and not everyone thinks Noor is a great guy:
Forklift driver Chris Miller, 49, has lived next door for the past two years and said he wasn’t surprised to learn Noor was the policeman making international headlines for firing on Ms Damond after she called 911 about what she thought was a sexual assault in the alley behind her house.
“He is extremely nervous … he is a little jumpy … he doesn’t really respect women, the least thing you say to him can set him off,” Mr Miller said.
“When they say a policeman shot an Australian lady I thought uh, oh but then when they said who it was I was like, ‘OK.’”
He said Noor, who has refused to explain to investigators what led him to shoot dead bride-to-be Damond, was a strict and ill-tempered presence in the townhouse block, where children play together in a playground in a small park between the units.
“He got into it with the kids, they were outside playing and something got stuck in a tree and he came out and he just started yelling at the kids because they were out here playing,” Mr Miller said.
“He has little respect for women he has little respect for blacks and kids,” said Mr Miller, who is African-American.
“He has an air like you just couldn’t really be around him.”
Minneapolis police seem to have a low rate of body cam usage:
Police department records indicate there were 420 officers who worked in March and were assigned a body camera on their shifts. The body camera policy is complicated, but essentially every officer who wears a body cam must turn it on while responding to critical incidents, traffic stops and domestic disturbances.
Those records show that on average officers across the city uploaded between 5.2 to 6.1 hours of body camera video footage for the entire month. The seven City Hall officers assigned to wear a body camera averaged 16 hours of uploaded video for the month.
Now Noor is reportedly refusing to be interviewed.
It appears that the Mayor, eyeing re-election, was ingratiating herself with the Somali Muslim community and helped push Noor onto the force. The Police Chief seems derelict in making certain Noor was properly trained and that those under her command turn on their body cams.
The killing of Justine Damond was a group effort.
Also notable in this race-reversal shooting case is the lack of rioting, blocking of traffic and torching of private property.
And press coverage:
The Minneapolis shooting has the added factor that the officer comes from a Muslim community that has received increased scrutiny due to the relatively large number of jihadis it has provided for ISIS. Somalis are also one of the national groups targeted by President Trump’s travel ban, which the media paints as un-American and fascistic.
So there’s an added incentive for journalists to obfuscate this case and cover this story with an unprecedented level of restraint. Urban elites don’t want to give those awful nativists an incentive to view an enriching immigrant community with suspicion.
That may explain why there’s such a dramatic difference in the coverage of Damond’s slaying versus other similar incidents.
Darren Wilson was crucified after the justified shooting of Michael Brown. To this day he remains in hiding as his life is still in danger. Mohammed Noor is being protected on all quarters. It will be interesting to see if The New Yorker magazine runs a damning article on Noor as they did Wilson.
Don’t hold your breath.
Addendum: Mark Steyn notes that the Washington Post story about this shooting doesn’t even include the name of the officer. In the Michael Brown shooting, Darren Wilson was the bad man and Brown was the victim. In this case, because the killer cop is Muslim and the dead woman is white, Noor is the victim.
UPDATE
Minneapolis cops don’t just shoot innocent people. They shoot innocent dogs too.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.