There Is No Justice In America For Black People Killed By Cops. By Julia Craven
At least 991 people were shot and killed by police in 2015, and no officers were convicted. Video footage showed the
questionable deaths of Terence Crutcher, Tamir Rice and Freddie Gray, to name a few. But that also didn’t lead to
any convictions. Justice Department
investigations into police departments nationwide - most notably in Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland and Ferguson, Missouri - have found widespread systemic
issues and evidence of officers routinely violating the rights of
citizens.
It’s happening again. I have to write about
Philando Castile, the 32-year-old black man who was shot and killed by a
Minnesota police officer last July. I have to compose myself, sit at this
laptop and write something profound about another black life taken by a police
officer, another officer found not guilty for killing a black person. And, you know, I have
nothing much to say. On Friday, St. Anthony
police Officer Jeronimo Yanez was found not guilty in Castile’s death. In audio recording from just before the encounter, Yanez
can be heard saying: “I’m going to stop a car. I’m going to check IDs. I have
reason to pull it over. The two occupants just look like people that were
involved in a robbery.”
“The driver looks more
like one of our suspects, just ’cause of the wide-set nose,” Yanez continues.
He later confirmed that he believed Castile matched the description of a
suspect, something cops often say about black men. Yanez pulled the car
over. Things escalated. Yanez shot seven times into the vehicle. He thought
Castile was reaching for his weapon, a gun that Castile was licensed to carry
and that he had informed the officer about moments before. Castile’s
girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, says he was reaching for his wallet. She began filming on her phone. The resulting video, with Castile
bleeding to death on camera as Reynolds calmly complies with the officer’s
screamed instructions, is impossible to forget.
The officer was placed
on leave. The officer was charged. And now, nearly a year later, the officer is
acquitted and goes home to his family, unlike his victim. It’s almost textbook... read more:
