Sisters of royals-linked banker accused of being ‘Putney Pusher’

The video is the thing to remember. A woman is shoved from a sidewalk toward traffic, and a bus, and she has to scramble to stay alive. The man who did it had money, a job, royal connections. Now his sisters have an explanation for how his story ended, and it comes down to this: blame the police.

Police didn't push that woman. Police didn't make that choice that afternoon. Police investigated a man caught on camera doing something indefensible, and his family wants us to believe the investigation itself was the crime. It's a familiar trick, and it works on people who aren't paying close attention. The woman who nearly died gets one moment in the footage. The man who pushed her gets a tragedy narrative and a political point about law enforcement.

No one gets to trade places with their victim. The sisters say officers caused his death. They haven't said what officers should have done differently, because there was no right answer that let their brother walk away. He was on tape. Harrowing, unblurred, on tape.

Maybe the death will be investigated, and maybe questions will be asked, and that's fine. That's how it's supposed to work. What's not fine is pretending the accused was the one aggrieved. We keep our eyes on the video. The woman on that curb is the one deserving the sympathy. The rest is just spin.