Racism is Alive And Well in Police Departments
I think we’ve all recently seen the news and have seen that a very heated topic is officers shooting unarmed civilians. After watching several of these incidents, I started to notice a trend and so I decided analyze the data and compare it to mass shootings. Here is what I found.
On March 18, six people were shot and one was killed in the city of Mesa, according to nevalleynews.org. They shooting spree was carried out by Ryan Giroux a 41 year-old white supremacist. After several hours, police finally took Giroux into custody. At this point, you might be wondering what a shooting spree has to do with race. Well, if we brake things down a lot.
Now, let’s look at another scenario where police have to apprehend a subject, but his time the subject is African American. Last year, According to the New York Times, a 12 year-old boy was shot and killed by a Cincinnati police officer. According to the same article, a witness called 911 call saying that there was a person pointing a gun at people, but that the gun was probably fake. When police arrived, they confronted the boy, the boy reportedly reached for his gun and that’s when police shot him.
Here are two instances. One is an active shooter and the other one is a little boy with a fake gun. The irony is the real shooter and threat to society is still alive and the little boy who might have had a bright future is dead.
This is just one example, but over the last several years, there have been several controversial encounters where a minority had a confrontation with police and they were killed.
Recently, according to NBC News, Officer Michael Slagger was charged with murder after he shot an unarmed black man eight times in the back. According to NBC news, Walter Scott was stopped for a broken tail lights. After he was stopped for the broken taillight, according to NBC news, the officer claims that Scott took his taser, so he shot him eight times because he feared for his life. It is important to add, that a video surfaced showing Scott running away from the officer and the officer shooting him multiple times from the back.
About five years ago, James Holmes opened fire in a Colorado theater killing 12 and injuring dozens more. According to Bloomberg news, Holmes walked into the theater purchased a ticket watched part of the movie and then left, but later came back inside and that’s when he opened fire. After being confronted by the cops, he surrendered, according to Bloomberg news.
In these examples, you have two completely different situations occurring. In one, you have an unarmed black man being stopped for a civil violation and getting shot eight times and in the other you have Caucasian active shooter killing several people and injuring dozens more, but doesn’t get shot once.
Furthermore, in another recent situation. A police officer shot an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Missouri. According to usatoday.com, Officer Darren Wilson stopped Michael Brown for walking in the middle of the street. The same article says that Brown tried to raise his hands to and that when he got shot. Wilson was shot several times by Officer Wilson.
About five years ago, a shooter opened fire in an elementary school in New Town, Connecticut. The incident left over two dozen children dead. After committing this heinous act, the perpetuator committed suicide.
Once again, here we have an unarmed black man getting shot multiple times and active shooter not being shot once.
By now, I think you might have noticed the trend. All the black people who encountered the police were shot and killed by them. On the other hand, most of the active shooters mentioned were apprehended or committed suicide. Why is it that police can safely apprehend an active shooter, but cannot do the same with minorities?
This trend is not just a coincidence this is a major problem in America. America has a race problem and that problem is affecting how police officers carry out their duties as officers on a daily basis.
Published by http://nevalleynews.org – Francisco Dominguez
