Sourced from CNN – Jay Jenner/Austin American Statesman/USA Today Network

The man in the centre is Daniel Perry. On July 25, 2020, Perry drove into a crowd of BLM protesters. The protest was related to the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota. Perry was a US Army Sergeant, at the time He ran through a red light to encounter the protesters, who had blocked the road. Garrett Foster, a 28 year old open carrying, legally, (this is Texas after all) an AK 47, approached Perry’s car to stop him from ramming into the crowd Perry, shot and killed Foster and claimed self-defense. In April of this year, a jury found him guilty of murder and he is now awaiting sentencing, which could range from five years to life. One other thing. Perry is White. The man he killed was Black.

Since the trial, a number of quotes, made by Perry, have been uncovered, including the following.

“Black Lives Matter is racist to white people…It is official I am racist because I do not agree with people acting like monkeys.”

“to [sic] bad we can’t get paid for hunting Muslims in Europe.”

It also came out that in the weeks before the murder, Perry had been talking killing protesters and that he had also posted racist memes on Face Book. So, just a typical (if such a thing is ever typical) racist murder. Case closed. Not this time. Following the guilty verdict, Greg Abbott, the Governor, of Texas, tweeted the following,

“working as swiftly as Texas law allows regarding the pardon of Sgt. Perry,” 

Thatr was not a mis-tweet. The Governor wants to pardon a racist murderer, based on Texas’ ‘Stand Your Ground’ law, which is one of the strongest, of such laws, in the US. The law allows the use of deadly force to defend oneself if the person feels he/she is in danger. Witnesses say that Foster was not using the AK-47 in a threatening gesture. Texas law is such that both Foster and Perry were legally carrying at the time. . A District Attorney, in the district where the incident took place, said the following, about Abbott’s intervention.

“As this process continues, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office will continue to fight to uphold the rule of law and to hold accountable people who commit acts of gun violence in our community.”

Will keep you updated.