A day after Christmas, 30-year-old Navy Veteran died in a California hospital.
His name was Angelo Quinto.
Three days earlier, Angelo Quinto’s sister had called 911 after the veteran had a mental breakdown and the family needed assistance.
Antioch law enforcement arrived at the scene and allegedly knelt on the man’s neck for four and a half to five minutes.
The neck restraint on Angelo lasted until blood pooled from his mouth, he urinated on himself and went unconscious.
His mother began filming near the end of the incident as Angelo was being placed on a tarp-like stretcher.
As his body was carried out, only a pool of blood was left on the bedroom floor and his mother asked, “does he have a pulse?”
Moments later, Angelo’s body was seen receiving chest compressions.
The scene was reminiscent of the killing of George Floyd on a street in Minneapolis.
Even Angelo Quinto’s last words as police arrived were haunting: “Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me.”
Angelo never regained consciousness and three days later, he was dead.
Unlike with the death of George Floyd, there are no protesters gathering in the streets and social media has not exploded over his unnecessary death.
One day after the murder of Floyd, thousands had gathered in locations all over Minneapolis-Saint Paul to protest his death at the hands of local police.
The Floyd protests which started on March 26th, 2020, continue to this day. Nineteen Americans have died as a result, 14,000 have been arrested and up to $2 billion in property damage has been assessed.
Nearly two months after Angelo Quinto’s death, very few Americans have even heard his name.
The lack of outrage is outrageous but falls in line with the namesake of Black Lives Matter . . . because Angelo Quinto wasn’t black.
He was a Filipino American. He was veteran of the United States Navy and Angelo Quinto wasn’t committing a crime when police restrained him . . . he was suffering a mental health crisis as hundreds of our veterans experience every day.
Angelo Quinto is deserving of the same justice as George Floyd and any other American harmed or killed by those entrusted to protect and serve.
But without the outrage that government and law enforcement has been conditioned to respond to, it’s likely that the death of Angelo Quinto will pass quietly through the news cycle of the mainstream media as quickly as any opportunity his family may have for justice.
With no cities burning there are no ratings to be gained by the cameras of the networks and with no media, there will be no politicians walking onto a dais to shout and demand justice.
The hypocrisy of outrage-based activism is a cruel bitch.