“It is possible to be in debt, to be lovelorn, and to be racist. They are not mutually exclusive.”
By Anna Daniels
The recent shooting rampage at the La Jolla Crossroads apartment complex in University City left one person dead and seven persons wounded. This is indisputable.
We also know that the dead victim and wounded were all African Americans and the shooter, who was subsequently shot by the police, was white.
Local news coverage of the event has unsurprisingly focused on the possible motives for San Diego’s scene of American Carnage. While shooter Peter Selis’ troubled financial history and recent break up with his girl friend appear to provide reasonable motivations, the possibility of racial animus has become a contentious issue. Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman said Monday that there was no reason to believe that the shootings were racially motivated. Zimmerman’s rush to judgement is concerning.
San Diego Democratic Party Chair Jessica Hayes has released a statement that questions the evidence Chief Zimmerman did or did not use as a basis for eliminating racism as a motive. It is worth quoting in its entirety:
“Less than 24 hours after the attack, San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman declared emphatically there was no evidence of a hate crime in the shootings in La Jolla. The Police Chief made this unequivocal pronouncement despite statements by witnesses present that a white woman went to render aid to the mother of three who lost her life, but was told by the shooter to leave her alone, and this woman was not shot.
“A reasonable human being on hearing the witnesses’ statements would naturally consider if racism was a key decision-making factor in the shooter’s choice of victims. It is possible to be in debt, to be lovelorn, and to be racist. They are not mutually exclusive.
“It may be 100 percent true that this murder had no racial motivation sufficient to designate it a hate crime; however, because the Chief failed to disclose what investigation the police conducted within this extraordinarily short time-frame prior to pronouncing it was ‘absolutely’ not a hate crime, Chief Zimmerman has done our fine women and men in blue a serious disservice by her statement and forestalled further investigation to discover once he armed himself whether or not race propelled him to select the dead and the wounded as his targets.
“If we, the public, as reasonable people, knew prior to her making her absolute statement that the police did consider the statements of the witnesses present, and that their statements generated a police search of his computer, his emails, the groups he belonged to, what he has posted online, interviews with his family members, his professional colleagues and friends, a search of his living quarters for paraphernalia or other materials that would indicate whether or not race was a factor for this person in his daily living, then the victims, their families, and we as the reasonable general public would have the security in knowing the San Diego Police Department did not dismiss examining whether the victims of this unthinkable crime were chosen because of the color of their skin. Did this happen? If so, why don’t we know the results?
“The victims, their families, friends and loved ones, the communities, the City, the County, are all reeling, and all deserve to know about the thorough investigation conducted by the SDPD before the Police Chief announced there was absolutely no racism involved in his victim selection process.”
Anna Daniels
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Whew! Thanks for this. Zimmerman is simply another in a long line of San Diego’s chiefs of police whose first instinct is public relations and protection of the department. Not all of them were toadies or bullies, but she’s the least courageous in her pursuit of leaving office with the town’s sunny reputation left intact.
A few decades ago, the SDPD killed people at a rate that exceeded that of the Los Angeles department (adjusted per capita). And the chief stayed in business. We have to care more. And thanks again for this quick response to the obviously political statement of Zimmerman.
This was a good article in SDCB: here.
As Seth Combs stated, the motive for the shooting may very well have not been racially motivated, but just as it’s too soon to state that it was, it’s too soon to state that it wasn’t. Personally, I have my doubts that it wasn’t racially motivated, but that’s just me.
I wish that the Police Chief was that quick to fire a bad cop!
Zimmerman’s statement is totally perplexing. Did she not see what she saw? If a white man shoots a large number of African-Americans, by definition it is a HATE crime, isn’t it? It’s right in front of our eyes. This is the evidence. A white male went on a shooting spree against African-Americans.
Furthermore, we have concrete evidence that the man was a misogynist. So why not call it both a hate crime and a crime motivated by misogyny? http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/07/mass-killers-terrorism-domestic-violence.html
We have a white male violence problem in this country. A large number of white males are racist and misogynist — and are perpetrating violence against women and people of color. The sooner we just acknowledge this, the sooner we can start actually addressing the problem and finding solutions.
I think Zimmerman’s claim is that this shooter would have done the same thing even if all the party attendees were white. whether or not she really believes her own words is another story. I’m going with no.
Back in the late 70s, as a reporter for the old and feisty Evening Tribune, I covered the police shooting of an African-American guy standing outside a flophouse on E St and showing a revolver in a standoff that lasted long enough for a news channel to film the unfolding event. He was ringed by police officers at one point who aimed their weapons at him and ordered him to put the gun down. Eventually, he started to do just that — the film revealed his hand lowering the gun — when he was shot several times by one of the cops. Maureen O’Connor, the mayor at the time, released a statement to one of the news channels condemning the cop’s actions. The next day the statement was missing from news accounts. No investigation.
People will just have to accept that there are crazy cops, crazy council members, crazy Representatives in the House and crazy bankers. We can’t continue to ignore what is on film.
Yea this is the kind of situation that a full time investigative reporter would be useful. Obviously the police and mainstream press will not do that. Needs a deeper look.