Legality and morality often sit at opposite ends of the spectrum. One need only look at the legacy of slavery, segregation, and racial discrimination in America to understand that point. With this context in mind, the announcement that no police officers will be arrested after the fatal shooting of Kohen Wiley, a 1-year-old Black baby, in a Walmart parking lot in Senatobia, Mississippi, is widely seen as an injustice within the Black community. The state attorney general described the officer’s use of force as “justified,” but for many, this terminology exposes a system that fails to deliver justice, even for the most vulnerable.

It’s common for white people in this country to defend the actions of police officers, even when they shoot an unarmed Black person.In this case, some online argued that the two Black women, one of whom was Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, reportedly stole diapers, and when confronted by police officers, drove toward them, putting them in danger. Yet bodycam footage obtained by The Mississippi Free Press shows the officer who fired into the passenger side of the vehicle standing on the side of the car, a positioning that contradicts the initial statement that officers only discharged their weapons in self-defense.

Vellesiya Wiley, who was the passenger at the time of the shooting, not the driver, stated that she “was holding the baby up and attempting to get out of the car to surrender,”right before the officer fired into the passenger side of the vehicle. Yet as soon as the story broke, some suggested the Black mother used Kohen as a shield. Their assumption seems racist, as there is no evidence to support this narrative. Black mothers are typically protective of their children, but this didn’t stop “back-the-blue” supporters from arguing that this Black mom didn’t care about her baby’s life.

To justify the disproportionate rate of police brutality Black people endure, some suggest Black people don’t care about their own lives, with the subtle suggestion that no one else should either. They’ll bring up black-on-black crime, overlooking that this rate is similar to that found in white communities, or they will blame the victims of police violence. Some will see a Black man, like George Floyd, deprived of oxygen as a White officer holds him in a chokehold, and slyly ask, “Why didn’t he comply?” or learn that a Black woman like Breonna Taylor was killed due to an officer shooting blindly inside the house, and blame her for being in the “wrong place” at the “wrong time.” In the case of Kohen Wiley, when the victim is too young to cast specific blame, they’re targeting his mother, claiming she showed no regard for his life. This talking point is an effort to bypass discussions about police violence.

While some cast blame on Kohen’s mother, fewer seem willing to ask why the officers discharged their firearms into a vehicle in a Walmart parking lot, despite seeing a baby in the passenger seat and the suspects being unarmed. Couldn’t they have taken a picture or written down the license plate if they suspected either woman committed theft and requested an arrest warrant for their known address? Why was the decision made to take a life, and why did Mississippi’s attorney general refer to the death of Kohen Wiley as “justified”? It’s one thing to tell his family and the rest of the black community that his death was an accident or due to poor judgment, but to call it “justified” is a bridge too far.

A Black baby being killed is, in itself, an unjustified act. Yet, the term “justified” seems to suggest that killing Kohen Wiley was an acceptable use of force, exposing a clear disparity between legality and morality, a gap that, quite frankly, may never fully close in America. There’s also a callousness in the way people are speaking about the Black women in this case, as if they deserved to die. While neither has been convicted of a crime, it’s concerning that some believe theft warrants capital punishment. Leading up to this tragedy, police were so thirsty to apprehend these women that they disregarded the safety of someone undeniably innocent. Common sense tells us that a 1-year-old baby isn’t guilty of anything, and the cost of items employees believe were stolen couldn’t possibly be more valuable than a Black life.

The irony shouldn’t be lost on you that so many white conservatives claim they’re pro-life yet do not apply this principle to addressing the high rate of Black infant mortality, or to asserting a level of protection for Black babies, who are subjected to mistreatment in foster care or by law enforcement. It’s a very convenient ideology, one whose limits are exposed in moments like this. The shooting of Kohen Wiley is salt in the wound, a painful reminder that racism affects even the youngest, most vulnerable among us. While authorities claim their use of force was justified, the black community has not and will not accept this decision. To many Black people, the district attorney is trying to justify an unjustifiable act of violence.