On December 9, 2017 President Donald Trump devoted his weekly address to a jury’s not guilty verdict in the killing of Kate Steinle by an undocumented immigrant. The jury found the man, who repeatedly had entered the country illegally, did not commit murder because the gun he was carrying slipped and accidentally went off.
Kate Steinle was “a precious young American woman killed in the prime of her life,” Trump told Americans in his video address. Her called her “beautiful” on Twitter:
The president countless times targeted the man whose gun killed Steinle in 2015 during his campaign speeches, and on Twitter.
There is no doubt Kate Steinle’s death was tragic. But so are the deaths of countless Black Americans at the hands of police, a fact this White House refuses to acknowledge or address.
The shooting death by police ten days ago of Stephon Clark, a 22-year old unarmed African American who was on his grandmother’s lawn – holding his cell phone, elicited no response from the White House Wednesday afternoon, when a reporter asked Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders about it.
Clark was shot to death by police, who poured 20 rounds into his body.
On Wednesday afternoon, the White House did not describe Clark as “beautiful.” The White House did not call Clark a precious young American man killed in the prime of his life.
No.
The White House made clear. The shooting of Stephon Clark is a “local matter” that “should be left up to the local authorities,” Huckabee Sanders told reporters Wednesday afternoon.
So is the police killing of Alton Sterling, the White House said.
“In these specific cases in these specific instances those would be left up to local authorities to make that determination,” Huckabee Sanders added.
Why the different treatment?