https://socialistaction.org/2016/09/22/racist-cop-killings-spark-outrage/
Racist cop killings in two cities spark outrage
/ 22 hours ago
By MARK UGOLINI
The deeply racist character of police operations in Black communities is
again on display with two horrific murders by cops occurring within just
four days of each other. The latest victims are Terence Crutcher in
Tulsa, Okla., and Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, N.C.
Large-scale protests have erupted in both cities, with thousands
demanding that the killer cops be prosecuted and jailed. On Sept. 21,
protesters in Charlotte, shouting “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” were met by
police in riot gear. One protester was shot and critically wounded,
although police deny that they fired at him. The governor has declared a
state of emergency in Charlotte, and has called in the National Guard.
In Tulsa, on Friday, Sept. 16, a police video provides conclusive
evidence that 40-year-old Terence Crutcher, unarmed and a threat to no
one, was gunned down for no reason. The fatal shot rang out while
Crutcher had his hands in the air, standing next to his SUV, which was
stalled in the middle of the road. A father to four children, Crutcher
was on his way home from a class at a local community college.
Betty Shelby, a white cop who fired the fatal shot, was responding to a
complaint of an abandoned car, and justified the killing by saying she
“felt threatened” and that Crutcher had failed to respond to police
commands, despite the fact that the video shows absolutely no evidence
of any threatening behavior.
It’s hard to understand how Shelby could have felt threatened, with
three additional police officers standing by her side as she shot and
killed Crutcher. Initially, Shelby claimed that Crutcher was reaching
inside the car for a weapon, but later video evidence confirmed that the
car window was closed and splattered with Crutcher’s blood, proving that
Shelby’s claim was false.
Not surprisingly, as has become typical in many cases of police
violence, Shelby’s body camera was turned off at the time of the
shooting. Shelby, who was also carrying a stun gun, chose to use live
ammunition instead. None of the police at the scene made any attempt to
revive or provide medical assistance to Crutcher, as he lay dying on the
ground.
Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the Crutcher family, remarked: “When
unarmed people of color break down on the side of the road, we’re not
treated as citizens needing help. We’re treated as, I guess,
criminals—suspects that they fear,”
Adrian Colbert, a Black resident of Tulsa who lives near the scene of
the shooting, told The New York Times: “He had his hands up, and they
popped him. But that’s something we’re used to. It goes back to 1921.
What happens here usually gets swept under the rug.” Colbert was
referring to Tulsa’s 1921 racist rampage by white residents, in which
roughly 300 African Americans were massacred.
Another cop killing occurred just four days later on the afternoon of
Sept. 20. Keith Lamont Scott, 43, was shot and killed in the parking lot
of the University City apartment complex in Charlotte, N.C. Police
claimed that Scott posed an “imminent threat” to the safety of police
officers. As in the case of the Tulsa killing, the police in Charlotte
made no attempt to provide CPR or any other kind of medical assistance,
as Scott laid critically wounded in the parking lot.
Police had been waiting at the scene to serve a warrant on one of the
residents of the apartment complex. Scott’s family reports he was
reading a book in his parked car while waiting for his son to arrive
home from school.
Police were quick to develop a story that Scott had a gun in his
possession, even though family and some at the scene insisted he was
carrying a book when he was shot, and not a gun. According to police,
Officer Brentley Vinson fired the shot that killed Scott after Scott
opened the door of his car and got out while threatening police with a
gun. Family and some who witnessed the killing are charging a police
cover up.
Police claim to have a video of the moment when Scott got out of his car
but have not released it. The city’s chief of police has merely said
that the video does not show “definitive evidence” that Scott had drawn
a gun. The police say they are also reviewing the body cameras of some
of the cops that were at the scene. A police representative stated they
do not believe that Vinson was wearing a body camera.
The North Carolina NAACP and other groups protesting cop violence are
demanding the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department publicly release
the videos. “We call for the full release of all facts available,” said
NAACP President William Barber. “We ask that the city of Charlotte be
transparent with any video and any additional information held by the
city that can bring light in the tragic death.”
The district attorney in Charlotte has announced that he will ask for a
state inquiry into Scott’s killing. In most cases of police shootings,
of course, so-called “impartial” investigations by state authorities
take months and years to complete. In many cases, no charges at all are
brought against racist cops. In others, as took place in July in regard
to the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, the judicial process ends up
in a sequence of acquittals and dismissals of charges. In Chicago, one
culmination of all the investigations into the murder of Laquan McDonald
is the recent decision to hire nearly 1000 more cops!
“Everybody in Charlotte should be on notice that black people, today,
we’re tired of this,” said community activist B.J. Murphy to The New
York Times. “We’re tired of being killed and nobody saying nothing.
We’re tired of our political leaders going along to get along; they’re
so weak, they don’t have no sympathy for our grief. And we want justice.”
.Jeff Mackler, Socialist Action candidate for U.S. president, in a
recent statement condemned the so-called U.S. “justice” system as a
source of the problem: “It’s outrageous! In city after city we see the
same rotten features of U.S. capitalism that foster and promote
entrenched institutionalized racism. In city after city, racist cops
have been exposed, mostly through videos—proof for all to see of
barbaric abuse and killings of African American citizens whose only
‘crime’ is the color of their skin. Yet despite evidence of horrific
murders, in full view of the nation and the world, these racist cops are
backed to the hilt by a system that enables and supports their brutal
crimes every step of the way.
“It shows capitalism’s true colors. It’s a system that truly breeds
racism and profits from it. It will never, of its own accord, put a stop
to these horrors unless forced to through massive protest and struggle
of working people and oppressed. Ultimately, this means independent
political struggle directed squarely against the capitalist government,
and the twin parties of capitalist rule, the Democratic and Republican
parties.
“We support mass mobilizations to end racist violence in the streets of
Tulsa and Charlotte—as we did in Ferguson, Chicago, Baltimore, and so
many other cities across the U.S. We stand with all who rise up against
racist injustice. We demand an immediate end to cop violence in minority
and working-class communities across this country. Prosecute and jail
killer cops!”
Photo: Protesters in Charlotte, N.C.
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September 22, 2016 in Black Liberation, Police & FBI, Vote Socialist
Action.
Related posts
NYPD guns down another Black youth
Outrage at racist grand jury decisions
Anger spreads as killer cops go free
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