I am not anti-police per se, but the reality is that America has far too many police officers who have no business wearing a badge and carrying a gun. Far too many are bigots hiding behind a badge and too many internal affairs departments are focused solely on protecting police officers and the department's reputation. (As I have noted before in prior posts, I got to see the anti-gay bigotry of some Norfolk, Virginia, police officers when Wayne Besen I were headed to a local gay bar). Now,in the wake of incidents in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York, New, York, yet another police murder in North Charleston, South Carolina, is filling the media airwaves with the shooting of an unarmed black man caught on video. Once again, we hear that residents "are not surprised." One take away is that it should be mandatory that police officers wear body cams. A column in the New York Times looks at this latest police atrocity. Here are excerpts:
I am truly weary, deep in my bones, of writing these columns about the killings of unarmed people of color by the police. Indeed, you may be weary of reading them. Still, our weariness is but a dim shadow that falls near the darkness of despair that a family is thrust into when a child or parent or sibling is lost, and that family must wonder if the use of deadly force was appropriate and whether justice will be served.And so, we can’t stop focusing on these cases until there are no more cases on which to focus.Which brings me to the latest case, a truly chilling one: A video shows an apparently unarmed 50-year-old black man, Walter L. Scott, running away from an officer after an incident during a traffic stop in North Charleston, S.C.The officer, Michael T. Slager, fires his weapon eight times, striking Scott in the back, upper buttocks and ear.The Times continues:“Something — it is not clear whether it is the stun gun — is either tossed or knocked to the ground behind the two men, and Officer Slager draws his gun, the video shows. When the officer fires, Mr. Scott appears to be 15 to 20 feet away and fleeing. He falls after the last of eight shots.“The officer then runs back toward where the initial scuffle occurred and picks something up off the ground. Moments later, he drops an object near Mr. Scott’s body, the video shows.”In fact, the video appears to dispute much of what the police reports claim. Scott, of course, dies of his injuries.After the video surfaces, the officer is charged with murder and fired from the police force.A life has been taken. And, if the video shows what it appears to show, there may have been some attempts by the officer to “misrepresent the truth,” a phrase that one could also argue may diminish the severity of what is alleged to have happened.This case is yet another in a horrifyingly familiar succession of cases that have elevated the issue of use of force, particularly deadly force, by officers against people of color and inflamed the conversation that surrounds it.And it further erodes an already tenuous trust by people of color in the police as an institution.This case has also refocused attention on the power of video evidence and is likely to redouble calls for the universal implementation of police body cameras (the video in this case came from a witness). What would have happened if video of this incident had not surfaced? Would the officer’s version of events have stood? How many such cases must there be where there is no video?But I would argue that the issue we are facing in these cases is not one of equipment, or even policy, but culture.
There's more, so read the entire column. The take away is that some lives - those of blacks, immigrants, gays and transgendered - simply do not matter as much as white heterosexual lives. Yes, body cams on all officers is a step in the right direction. The real answer is a change in mindsets where ALL citizens are viewed as worthy and with inalienable rights. That mindset, of course, is diametrically opposed to the agenda of today's GOP.
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