Aloysius Wolf, Worker-Correspondent
On Wednesday, February 22, 2023, an unarmed man was murdered by Fairfax Police on suspicion of stealing sunglasses. The initial statement put out by police contained three facts: Fairfax Police shot and killed a man on suspicion of theft, the man had a “violent criminal history”, and it was “unclear” if the man was armed. If this act wasn’t so heinous, and so common, one might be compelled to laugh at the sheer lack of creativity employed by the police in an attempt to stall and paint a narrative ahead of the facts. A clear indicator of a department that KNOWS its guilt and has made a conscious decision toclose ranks and endorse this murder. Rather than display even the most hollow, insincere accountability, they immediately have chosen the route of defaming their victim, and we have had enough.
At the time of writing this more information has been released, which you can find here, but first I think its important to dissect the “facts” given in the initial report, as it is a standard tactic, taught and employed by departments across the country.
The first fact is hard to argue with. The police did in fact shoot and kill a man on suspicion of theft. It’s written in a way intended to lead the politically undeveloped to the conclusion that it was ultimately the victims’ fault, a tactic well known by any victim of manipulation or violent crime known as victim blaming – as if any reasonable person should suspect a petty crime to be handled via summary execution while fleeing-, but ultimately, this is a factual statement.
The second fact is where we immediately take the accountability train off the rails into a gorge. As we find ourselves screaming into deaf ears over and over again. They did not know about his criminal past until he was DEAD. This information was NOT available to officers responding to the call, and its inclusion is a DISGUSTING and BLATANT attempt to paint a narrative that does not exist. The ONLY information the officers possessed was that a pair of sunglasses was stolen, and a brief description of the suspect. This would have been the EXACT SAME result if the victim had never done a single crime before in his entire life. It is an entirely irrelevant point, posted immediately as no more than an attempt to paint the man they murdered in a bad light, and invoke the politically undeveloped to believe they have done a good deed. They haven’t. Fairfax County Police murdered an unarmed man for a pair of sunglasses.
I truly am unable to decide which of their “facts” I find most detestable, but the third one is certainly the cherry on top, and the most laughable. They, with a straight face, would have us believe they were “unclear” on whether or not the man they murdered had a weapon. I’m sorry, I was under the impression that when the police shoot somebody the first two things they do are check for weapons and render aid. It would take a level of gullibility I truly can not bring myself to accept exists in our world to believe that whether he had a weapon was “unclear”. What that is code for is “he didn’t have a weapon, but we have not yet thoroughly looked through the bodycam footage to find any instance by which he possessed anything in his hands”. It is so egregiously obvious that they are in panic mode to save their own asses, and they should be, because we are not going to let this go.
You will be held accountable.
His name was Timothy Mcree Johnson. He was murdered for a pair of sunglasses, and we must take action.