Thursday afternoon, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton delivered remarks to the press regarding the officer involved shooting of an African-American man in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area following a traffic stop. As reported here at Hot Air, the victim’s girlfriend live-streamed the immediate aftermath of the shooting via Facebook Live.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlZVCyJoz0o

The Washington Post pulls some of the more remarkable comments:

“Would this have happened if those passengers, the driver and the passengers, were white?” said Dayton (D). “I don’t think it would have. So I’m forced to confront, and I think all of us in Minnesota are forced to confront, that this kind of racism exists.”

A Falcon Heights traffic stop turned deadly Wednesday evening when a police officer opened fire on Castile and killed him — less than 48 hours after another fatal police shooting in Louisiana.

“Nobody should be shot and killed in Minnesota … for a taillight being out of function,” the governor said. “Nobody should be shot and killed while seated still in their car. I’m heartbroken.”

The definitive assertion that race played a role in the shooting is somewhat stunning considering it is extremely early in the investigative process.

Dayton revealed that he has asked the Justice Department to investigate this shooting. This is a truly remarkable development considering Dayton’s decision to turn to Washington DC to intervene came just hours after the shooting took place and in the midst of the investigation conducted by the police force involved. Dayton’s reflex reaction in asking the DOJ to investigate from a civil rights perspective presupposes that his own local law enforcement agency is incapable of investigating themselves.

How is that helping?