I’m following this case a little because I was a little impressed with a public statement to the press Commissioner Outlaw made. She was trying to calm people down, of course, but asking for recognition of her (representing the police department) attempt to be as transparent as possible. Here’s a previous story about the same incident: inquirer.com/…/kensington-police-shooting-philade…
Earlier in the day, Outlaw acknowledged the family’s and community’s frustration.
“Sometimes I feel like we take 20 steps forward, and it just takes one incident and we take 50 steps backward,” she said. “I understand the reticence, I understand folks not really being sure whether or not they should even trust what we are saying today because of what we said initially. But I’m hoping that they see this is a genuine effort to do everything we can to share what we know when we have it.”
So, yeah, the cops on the scene lied and the body cam footage proved it, and as soon as they saw that internally – before it went public – the police department announced the initial statement was a lie. This feels more complicated than ‘all cops are bad’ or ‘respect their authority’. It is a mix and I am hoping to see honesty and integrity get rewarded in the end.