On April 8, author Jillian Shriner—a celebrated writer known for her memoirs and the book adaptation of the life of serial killer Samuel Little—was shot by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers from behind a fence in the backyard of her home in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Shriner, who was legally armed and on her own property, was shot in the shoulder by officers, who claim she pointed and fired her weapon at them. To make matters worse, the LAPD subsequently arrested and charged Shriner with attempted murder, a move widely seen as an effort to cover up what appears to be an unjustifiable and reckless police shooting.
Shriner is also the wife of Scott Shriner, bassist of the acclaimed rock band Weezer. This personal detail underscores the disturbing reality that even public figures and their families are not immune to the lawlessness of state violence in the United States.
The LAPD’s own bodycam footage, released under pressure, does little to clarify or justify their actions. It is riddled with edits and questionable omissions. Most notably, the crucial moments leading up to the shooting lack audio entirely, and what is shown has been selectively slowed, zoomed, and cut to cast Shriner in the worst possible light.
The official story—one that hinges entirely on Shriner pointing a gun at obscured figures whom she knew were police officers behind a fence—relies on unverifiable claims made during a segment of video that is silent and framed entirely from the police’s perspective.
The chain of events began when LAPD officers were pursuing suspects involved in a hit-and-run who briefly ran through Shriner’s yard. Shriner, apparently believing her home and safety to be threatened, exited her residence armed with a gun. From her perspective, someone had trespassed on her property and was possibly still hiding behind a tall, sight-obscuring fence.
A 911 call made from within the home during the incident even indicates that she thought she was confronting the trespasser. At no point does Shriner acknowledge knowing that police were behind the fence, and LAPD’s claim that she was warned to disarm is dubious given the distance, visual obstruction and lack of audio in the video.
Despite being shot, Shriner did not resist arrest. She calmly exited her home with another woman and was handcuffed while her gunshot wound went largely ignored by officers. The LAPD has never fully clarified what led to the shooting, other than vague accusations that she acted erratically and posed a threat. That Shriner, someone who acted within her legal rights on her own property, is now being prosecuted for attempted murder is a travesty that reeks of political scapegoating and an attempted cover-up.
This case, horrifying as it is, is not occurring in a vacuum. It reflects a toxic political environment shaped and inflamed by the increasingly authoritarian methods of the Trump administration and its enablers across federal and local law enforcement. Law enforcement officers in the United States already act with near-total impunity, killing more than 1,000 people every year, with vanishingly few ever facing criminal charges or serious punishment.
The Fourth Amendment, designed to protect Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures, has become a dead letter in practice. Warrantless raids and the growing militarization of the police force are attempting to normalize these violations.
Federal agents, including ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers, have repeatedly acted outside the bounds of constitutional law—detaining immigrants without warrants or identification, as seen in Charlottesville where masked ICE agents attempted to seize individuals at a courthouse. In another example, Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested without cause—an act that openly undermines the separation of powers and judicial independence. These incidents point to a deeply worrying pattern: Law enforcement agents no longer feel bound by constitutional norms or public accountability.
This environment did not arise by accident. It has been deliberately fostered by Donald Trump’s reactionary, fascistic policies and his rhetoric that glorifies state violence. The administration’s crackdown on immigrants and dissenters, its dismantling of civil liberties,and its use of federal forces as political tools have all contributed to a society in which gunfire from police is a more common response than dialogue or de-escalation. It has become clear that the purpose of these policies is not merely to enforce the law but to frighten, confuse and subjugate the public.
Worse still is the complicity of the Democratic Party, which, despite rhetorical gestures, has not mounted any real defense of democratic rights. Democrats have repeatedly echoed Trump’s framing of immigrants as threats and have supported bloated police budgets and surveillance powers under the guise of maintaining order.
In Los Angeles, scrutiny is growing over the LAPD’s out-of-control budget, particularly the massive sums paid in settlements for police misconduct. The public is beginning to connect the dots: Aggressive, militarized policing is not just a moral failure but part of the strategy of the ruling class. The capitalist ruling elite rely on the police to suppress dissent and maintain skyrocketing levels of social inequality. In Los Angeles, that elite is almost entirely part of the Democratic establishment.
The narrative that paints Shriner as an aggressor must be rejected. She is the victim of a lawless police department, of a reactionary political climate and of a justice system designed to protect capitalist interests, not the working class.
The defense democratic rights cannot rely on the political elites or establishment parties. Only through an independent political movement, built by and for working people, can there be any hope of putting an end to systemic police violence. Shriner’s case must not be buried in the bureaucracy of the courts. It must be raised as a rallying cry against the rising tide of state violence.
What is required is more than dropping the absurd attempted murder charge. It means exposing the capitalist system that created the conditions for this to happen and fighting to dismantle it.