EXCERPT:
Today, a White police officer kills a Black person every 28 hours. In Utah, police are responsible for more homicides than gangs, drug dealers, and child abusers combined. And the number of Black people killed by police has now outpaced the number of Black people who were lynched during the Jim Crow era (which never really ended, when you consider this statistic). FBI data shows that Black teenagers are three times more likely to be killed by police than White teenagers. In 2012, FBI statistics show police departments claimed “justifiable homicide” 426 times. To compare with another Western nation, police in Germany only fired a total of 85 shots over the course of 2011.
Forty of those were warning shots, and only six were fatal. In Japan and the UK, there were zero police killings of civilians that year. The U.S. is far and away the leader in police acting as judge, jury, and executioner. Now, can you start to understand why the Ferguson community is so distraught by the loss of a teenager and the lack of even a show trial for the White police officer who killed him?
But the anger Black America is currently expressing is more than just anger over Michael Brown’s killer walking away unscathed. Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice was just recently killed in Cleveland for playing with a toy gun. Seven-year-old Aiyana Jones was killed in Detroit by a police officer conducting a raid who accidentally discharged his weapon (the officer, Joseph Weekley, has escaped charges twice). And Black America isn’t just targeted by the police. In the last several years, Black youths were killed by racist vigilantes for playing loud music and wearing hoodies. Only one of those vigilantes was brought to justice, and that was after he was taken to trial for a second time. Darren Wilson’s non-indictment means he won’t even face a trial for firing 12 rounds at an unarmed teenager who was over 100 feet away from him at the time of his death.
FOCUS: Carl
Gibson | Our Silence Means More Violence: An Open Letter to Fellow White
People
Carl Gibson, Reader Supported News
Gibson writes: "As White people who aren't seething with racism, we have the duty to show solidarity with our Black brothers and sisters in the aftermath of the Ferguson decision."
READ MORE
Carl Gibson, Reader Supported News
Gibson writes: "As White people who aren't seething with racism, we have the duty to show solidarity with our Black brothers and sisters in the aftermath of the Ferguson decision."
READ MORE
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