(Partial) Police Blotter for one week in August 2014
Aug. 6th: Beavercreek OH police shoot and kill John Crawford inside a Walmart. John was apparently looking and handling an air rifle that is sold by Walmart.
Aug. 7th: A police officer shot and killed Jeremy Lake in Tulsa OK. Jeremy was dating the officer’s daughter and was walking up to the officer’s car to introduce himself when the officer shot him.
Aug. 9th: A Ferguson MO police officer shoots and kills Michael Brown.
Aug. 11th: A New Orleans police office shoots and injures Armand Bennett during a traffic stop. NOPD doesn’t disclose the shooting until after it was reported in the papers two days later. The officer who shot Armand had turned off her body camera shortly before the shooting.
Aug. 11th: Los Angeles police officers shoot and kill Ezell Ford. Ezell was known to the neighborhood and the police for having ongoing mental health issues. Witnesses say police shot him while he was on the ground.
All shooting victims were young, male, black and unarmed. These are facts. It is also a fact that many of us have only heard of Michael Brown’s death, and that had there not been massive protests we would most likely not even had heard of Michael Brown. But the facts remain.
Six days.
Five young black unarmed men shot by police.
Four of them are dead.
When greek police shot and killed 15-year old Alexis Grigoropoulos on December 6, 2008 the 42-day uprising that followed was fueled by the knowledge that Alex was not just some random kid, just somebody else’s kid. He was *our* kid. The cops had killed one of our kids. It didn’t matter if we had ever met him, if we knew him before December 6th. He was still one of our kids. And the cops had killed him.
Grief and rage.
It is a normal response of sentient humans when they kill one of our kids. The people of Ferguson know that Michael wasn’t just somebody else’s kid. He was their kid. If we learn anything from the people of Ferguson I hope we learn that Michael wasn’t only their kid. He is our kid too. As is John and Jeremy and Armand and Ezell, as are Oscar and Trayvon and Alonzo and Kimani and Amadou and the countless others who have been shot and killed by police. They are all our kids. And it is well past time that we stop accepting their deaths in the hands of those who claim to be our servants and protectors, and we start doing whatever we can, whatever we need to, so that no more of our kids are killed by police.
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