Lately, it seems protest mobs are just waiting to pounce any time a police officer fires his weapon, always ready to instantly vilify the officer while canonizing the suspected criminal.
Such was the case after San Diego police shot Leonardo Hurtado Ibarra on Saturday, sparking anti-police protests in the area, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.
The two officers involved in the shooting were driving in the city Saturday evening when they spotted Ibarra, whose face tattoos fit the description of a suspect in a robbery days prior, as he emerged from a building.
They attempted to approach Ibarra on foot, but when he spotted the police, the suspect dropped the parcels in his hand and reached into his waistband for a revolver, which he pointed at officers as he attempted to flee. The officers then opened fire.
Police cuffed the wounded suspect and administered first aid, but Ibarra ultimately died from his injuries Monday, according to KNSD-TV.
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Almost immediately, the virtue-signaling began with skeptical local politicians clamoring for authorities to release all information to the public.
“I join with my Council colleague, and the community in asking for police transparency,” San Diego City Councilmember Monica Montgomery wrote.
The Democrat shared fellow Councilmember Chris Ward’s tweet Saturday urging the San Diego Police Department to be “forthcoming with this incident.”
I join with my Council colleague, and the community in asking for police transparency. https://t.co/VZbNpFz3Cq
— Councilmember Monica Montgomery (@CD4Monica) June 28, 2020
The department had released a still image from one of the surveillance cameras and a photo of the suspect’s revolver lying in camo-patterned fabric it was bundled in, but protestors were already out on the street, armed only with the usual narratives and assumptions without any facts.
Some reportedly chanted “Hands up, don’t shoot,” alluding to the police killing of Michael Brown in 2014 as he surrendered (which has since been debunked).
And in the now-usual way, demonstrators knelt on the concrete and lit votive candles in a makeshift shrine to Ibarra as some held signs and crowded the sidewalk near the scene at the Justice 4 Leo rally Sunday.
“We’re out here because somebody died and the police don’t have a right to kill anybody,” San Diego State University student Simran Jain said.
“And they act like this is something that was necessary, but even if everything that they said was true, even if he had a gun, even if he was guilty, none of that should really matter,” she said.
Instead, Jain thought “police should have been able to de-escalate; that is literally their job,” and she went on to say she found reports that the gun was planted “completely believable considering all these crimes that police have committed on record.”
“I’m tired of black, brown, any kind of color you can say, tired of them getting mistreated, harrassed, and cops getting away with it,” a woman identified only as Vanessa said.
Brian Krohne, with his toddler daughter, Esther, seated on his shoulders, held a sign that said “Defund the Police” with the Black Lives Matter fist symbol.
“We need to defund the police department because they’re not the best response that we can have as a city. Use that money to fund other of the agencies that can de-escalate situations without violence,” Krohne said.
But despite the insinuations that Ibarra was unarmed, amid all the talk about “de-escalation” and painting the suspect as a victim, footage released just the day after the incident showed that Ibarra was in fact armed and attempting to shoot at police officers.
The San Diego Police Department compiled footage from both officers’ body cameras, a streetlight camera, stills from a security camera, and enhanced footage that all corroborated that fact.
The most compelling was the audio accompanying Officer No. 1’s body camera. As the suspect continued to walk away from the officer, he clearly told Ibarra “stop” at least three times, and said, “Let me see your hands” as the suspect ignored him and reached into his waistband, pulling out the gun.
The same can be heard in the footage from Officer No. 2, who approached Ibarra from the side and also said, “Hey, let me see your hands” — to no avail.
Sure, it would be nice if there were some way to rationalize with a man about to fire a gun, or if there were some expert who could “de-escalate” a situation where a suspect is pointing a gun, but all of the wishful thinking and pontificating from protesters won’t make it so.
Ibarra didn’t die because of police brutality or for the color of his skin; he died because he ignored police commands and attempted to fire at officers.
Because of Ibarra’s actions that day, someone was likely to die.
Had one of the officers been killed instead of Ibarra, how many of those protesters would be holding a vigil?
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.