Philando Castile, Four Months Later

It's been four months since Philando Castile was shot a mile or so from my house. The cop who shot him came back to work from suspension briefly, but was soon resuspended after public outcry. He hasn't been charged; the Ramsey County attorney is still thinking about that.

The protests at the governor's mansion finally died down, partly because the police moved on them aggressively without provocation.

People from the town of Falcon Heights, where the shooting occurred, and St. Anthony, whose police department employs the shooter, are still hearing about it a lot from their citizens and other people in the area. Falcon Heights may yet cancel its contract with the St. Anthony police, and St. Anthony is (supposedly) working on training and bias issues.

Here's what the memorials to Philando — immediately adjacent to the spot in the road where he was killed — look like today:


The flowers line the street where his car was stopped:


Over time, these memorials have been put up:


The blue apron is from the St. Paul school cafeteria where he was a supervisor:


Some of the pieces are clearly thoughtful sculptures:


While others look more like the kind of thing you'd see at a spot in the road where someone died in a car crash:


There are signs of the protest:




And messages written:






Meanwhile, the trial of the cop who shot Walter Scott in the back in South Carolina is underway. I'm hoping for something like justice in that case. If it can't happen there, I don't know what hope there is for any other case, including Philando's.