I know that a lot of my friends - and I myself - are very pro-Police in general. But at what point does it stop becoming acceptable to turn away for a series of death at the hands of police to Black Men? Seriously. Because this seems more than a few isolated incidents. Do we just not give a shit anymore? Or have we become so knee-jerk pro-police we can't even ask if maybe they are going too far?
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| Freddie Gray - pre-dead. Death Penalty for Running |
On April 12th - Freddie Grey was chased, beat - thrown into a metal police van and driven to the police station. Where, sometime between 1 and 2 hours later he was turned over to the hospital in a coma and died, with a partially severed spine. He was accused and charged with nothing. Beaten to death for running seems excessive to me.
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| Walter Scott - somewhere between shots 3 and 7. Death Penalty for having a broken tail-light |
On April 4th, Walter Scott was shot in the back - EIGHT TIMES after running away from a traffic stop due to a broken taillight.
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| Eric Harris - His Killer (accidental or not) is recovering from this horrible accident in the Bahamas. Mr. Harris is dead. |
On April 2, Eric Harris was running away from a sting operation and was caught, after being put down on the ground, he was shot by Reserve Officer (and big donor) Robert Gates. Seriously - the man was ON THE GROUND and Robert Harris shot him and killed him. Shot and killed him. Right now, Eric Harris is dead and buried in Oklahoma. Reserver Officer Harris was granted leave to a previously planned vacation in the Bahamas. Are we okay with that?
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| Tamir Rice - 12 Years Old - Death Penalty for being a child and playing in the Park with a toy gun |
Last year on November 22, in Cleveland a 12 year old boy was playing with a toy pistol in a park. Someone called the police and said that a child might have a play pistol in the park. After arriving and giving the child (A FUCKING CHILD OF 12) two seconds to put down the toy (one one- thousand, two one-thousand), they shot him. Fearing that his older sister might comfort him, they locked the sister in the patrol car while her brother lay dead. The Police were cleared of any wrong doing.
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| Eric Garner - the Coroner says this is a chock hold. The Grand Jury says this street administered Death Penalty was appropriate for the horrific crime of selling a lose cigarette. |
Last year on July 17th Eric Garner was killed in Staten Island for selling lose cigarettes. Medical examiners concluded that Garner was killed by "compression of neck (choke hold), compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police", though no damage to his windpipe or neck bones was found. The medical examiner ruled Garner's death a homicide. According to the medical examiner's definition, a homicide is a death caused by the intentional actions of another person or persons, which is not necessarily an intentional death or a criminal death. The Police were cleared and Staten Island is down one seller of lose cigarettes - saints be praised.
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| John Crawford, Death Penalty for shopping for a BB Gun |
In August of last year in Beavercreek Ohio a black man, John Crawford, was shopping in a Walmart, selected a BB Gun, and continued shopping. He was never approached by police to put down the gun (again, which he was buying at the store) or to surrender, but was shot immediately on being seen. The Police were cleared by a Grand Jury,
perhaps correctly, since the 911 caller said "a black man was aiming a rifle at people". That caller, by the way, no charges. The Police who shot and never said "hands up" - no charges.
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I only used the examples were there was actual video footage of what happened. These aren't really "questions"; there is footage. Of all of these, the only officers that were ever punished is the man who shot Walter Scott in the back 8 times, and only after cell phone footage shows him shooting him and possibly planting a taser on the dead body - after lying about the facts
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So again, my question.
At what point does this become an issue? Or, do we just continue to chalk this up to "whoops - sorry a black man was killed for no reason". Of these ,at least two were killed without any chance to respond to police requests. One was a kid.