Montini: What if Daniel Shaver, Philip Brailsford's victim, was black?

EJ Montini: There were no demonstrations after a jury acquitted a former Mesa officer of murdering an unarmed man. Should there have been?

EJ Montini
The Republic |
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Former officer Philip 'Mitch' Brailsford

There were no public demonstrations after the verdict in which former Mesa police officer Philip “Mitch” Brailsford was acquitted of murder and reckless manslaughter in the killing of an unarmed man.

Is that because the victim, Daniel Shaver, was white?

Brailsford, also a white man, was answering a call of someone pointing a gun out of a motel window.

Brailsford deserves benefit of doubt

We must give the benefit of the doubt to an officer answering such a call.

We ask that officer to walk down a narrow hallway not knowing what he might face.

The video shown in court has Brailsford ordering Shaver to the ground and ordering him to crawl toward him.

The scene goes on for a while. Back and forth. Shaver was obviously frightened, crying, (also intoxicated) but an officer can’t take any chances.

Brailsford orders Shaver not to reach behind his back, but as he’s crawling along his baggy basket shorts apparently were creeping down.

When Shaver reached back Brailsford said he thought Shaver was reaching for a gun and he shot him.

There is an argument that says once Shaver is on his belly he could have been approached and handcuffed.

2 things we know in hindsight

Deputy County Attorney Susie Charbel didn't buy Brailsford's claim that he feared for his life. She told the jury, "(Brailsford) doesn’t get a pass because he was wearing a police uniform that night." 

The jury sided with the officer.

They found Brailsford not guilty.

There has been a lot of interest in the case but nothing inflammatory.

In hindsight two things seem obvious:

Shaver should not be dead.

Brailsford should not have been in that hallway.

I have to question the suitability of an officer whose AR-15 rifle had etched on it the phrase “You’re F***ed.” And I question as well a department that permits him to do so.

The judge didn’t allow that information in the trial, finding it prejudicial.

If he was black, there'd be more noise

There were enough questions about the incident that Brailsford, who was fired by the department, should have been charged. Give Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery credit for allowing a jury to decide. 

If Shaver were a black man the verdict might have been exactly the same. But I'd guess there would have been a lot more noise.

Public demonstrations frighten us. And they can get ugly.

But if Shaver were black I suspect there would be activists talking loudly to the press and demonstrators forcing us to look very closely at policing policies in Mesa and the rest of the Valley, and causing politicians and law enforcement professionals to evaluate the systems they have in place for selecting officers and training them.

That wouldn’t be a bad thing.


Trent Franks' lame excuse for quitting

Al Franken had two choices: Resign or become Republican

Jeff Flake's 'country over party' ploy is too little, too late


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