Elon Musk Suggests Mourning Sydney Wilson’s Life After Police Shooting Is A ‘BLM Hoax’
Sydney Wilson. | Source: Facebook
Attempts to mourn the death of a Black woman who was recently gunned down by a police officer in her Virginia apartment building have been disingenuously described by conservatives as a “BLM hoax,” including Elon Musk.
Sydney Wilson, 33, was in the throes of a mental health crisis when a police officer knocked on her door on Sept. 16 in Reston to perform a wellness check after receiving a request from a mental health professional to check on her.
As the officer identified himself, Wilson shut the door in his face. The officer knocked again and a few minutes later, Wilson opened the door wielding a knife.
Bodycam video released this week shows Wilson attacking the officer, slashing him in the face a few times before he pulled his gun and began retreating down the hallway. When Wilson started to follow the officer, he fired his weapon three times, striking the woman. A plainclothes officer arrived and tried to administer Wilson CPR, but she died shortly after, according to NBC Washington.
Wilson was a former college basketball player at Georgetown University, and the women’s hoops team mourned her death in a social media post in September that described the loss of life as being “tragic.”
“Georgetown women’s basketball mourns the tragic loss of Sydney Wilson (C’13). Forever a Hoya,” the post said.
After the bodycam video was released this week, social media users on X, formerly Twitter, “added context” to Georgetown’s post in what’s called a community note, which is defined in part as “empowering people on X to collaboratively add helpful notes to posts that might be misleading.”
Of course, Georgetown’s post was anything but misleading and did not contain any false information, nor was there any reference to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.
But that didn’t stop right-wing detractors from taking umbrage with the social media commemoration of Wilson’s life.
An X account calling itself “The Rabbit Hole” that dabbles in conspiracy theories responded on Tuesday with a post of its own claiming: “Community Notes stopping a BLM hoax before it takes off.”
That post, which went viral, pushed the term “BLM hoax” to become a top trending topic, a circumstance that may or may not have been manipulated by Musk, the world’s richest man who just happens to also own X, courtesy of a whopping $44 billion purchase last year.
As such, Musk responded to The Rabbit Hole’s post by claiming that “Community Notes is hoax kryptonite,” suggesting he ascribes to the belief that mourning Wilson’s life was being done deceptively to redirect attention from the circumstances under which Wilson was shot.
Source: X screenshot
What Musk, The Rabbit Hole and others sharing that sentiment on social media conveniently omitted from their criticism is that Wilson might still be alive had the officer arrived at her apartment with a mental health professional co-responder, which is protocol.
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis admitted that when officers usually respond to welfare checks, they are accompanied by a mental health co-responder. The mental health co-responder who was closest to Wilson’s apartment “was on another call,” NBC Washington reported.
That said, Davis did go on to mourn the loss of Wilson’s life in terms that were similar to the Georgetown women’s basketball team’s post.
“Any loss of life is something that we all mourn,” Davis added. “The person whose life was lost in this particular case is no different; she has a family and friends and loved ones who love her very much, who care about her and undoubtedly are grieving and upset and we acknowledge that and we pray and our thoughts are with this particular family.”
X Community Notes be damned, the Georgetown women’s basketball team has continued to mourn Wilson’s life, as it did in a subsequent post on Oct. 4 that carried the message: “We love you Syd!”
The investigation into Wilson’s fatal shooting is ongoing, and the officer was placed on administrative leave.
This is America.
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