My little project to go through each of the people killed by police in September, and try to determine whether they were killed justifiably or murdered has been an eye-opening experience. It seems that there are many people killed by the police, and if there is even a hint that they were armed or were doing something criminal, no one cares about their death, or cares to ask questions to see whether they may have been murdered.

The Alton Sterling case is a reminder of that. It is a high profile case, AND it was caught on video. If Alton Sterling was armed (which is perfectly legal in America), we get to slap a medal on the killer cops’ chests, and forget the whole thing. But if he was unarmed, maybe it’s not so easy. There might be ramifications if they just let the cops murder people without consequence. There is a large incentive for the police to claim Sterling was armed, and that’s what they did.

From this CNN article, dated two days after the killing, the “Baton Rouge police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr. said Sterling was armed at the time he was killed…”

It turns out that is completely false. Alton Sterling was unarmed. The chief of police lied. Of course, police are famous for saying they’re “not going to release any information until we have all the facts. The officers involved in the shooting are going to be placed on administrative leave as per standard procedure, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah.” Unless they can get the media to report that the victim had a gun, then the whole thing will blow over, and they’re willing to tell what a dangerous criminal their victim was, whether it’s true or not.

So, it’s obvious they tried that tactic with Sterling, and it didn’t work. But the question then becomes: How often do they lie through their teeth, there is no cell phone video uploaded, the media reports their version of the story, and no one really looks into it? There’s no way of knowing.

There has to be someone other than another police agency to investigate every single shooting. Request any body or dash camera footage and hold their feet to the fire on every single police killing. This should be the job of the media, but citizens can do it as well.