Police confront protestors in FergusonAP
Ferguson, Missouri, has been consumed with protests since Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager, was shot to death by police on Saturday. Brown was not the only African-American man killed by police in recent weeks under disputed circumstances. Consider these three other recent incidents:
Eric Garner, Staten Island, New York / July 17: Eric Garner, a 43-year-old asthmatic father of six, was confronted by New York City police officers for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes. When he resisted being cuffed, an officer appeared to put him in a chokehold—a tactic banned by the department since 1993. A video of the arrest, first obtained by the New York Daily News, shows Garner gasping,”I can’t breathe!” while officers relentlessly smother him:
The city medical examiner later ruled Garner’s death a homicide, saying neck compression from the chokehold killed him. But the officers involved in the arrest may not face charges if the homicide is found to be justifiable. Staten Island district attorney Daniel Donovan is investigating the case.
John Crawford, Beavercreek, Ohio / August 5: Two police officers responded to a 911 call about a man waving a gun at customers inside a Walmart store. According the Beavercreek police department, 22-year-old John Crawford disregarded officers’ orders to disarm before being fatally shot in the chest. Crawford’s gun turned out to be a .177 calibre BB rifle that he’d picked up from a store shelf. Walmart surveillance camera footage was turned over to the police but hasn’t been released to the public or Crawford’s family. “Why did John Crawford, a Walmart customer, get shot and killed carrying a BB gun in a store that sells BB guns?” asked Michael Wright, the family’s attorney, during a joint press conference with the NAACP. “All the family demands is answers.” The Ohio Attorney General’s Office is investigating the case.
Ezell Ford, Los Angeles, California / August 11: When police conducted an “investigative stop” of 25-year-old Ezell Ford on a Los Angeles sidewalk, he “wheeled around and basically tackled the lead officer,” then went after his weapon, an LAPD spokesperson told the LA Times. But in an interview with KTLA News, a woman who identified herself as Ford’s mother said he was lying on the ground, complying with the officers’ orders, when he was shot in the back. On Sunday afternoon, a handful of people protested the shooting outside LAPD’s headquarters. The LA County District Attorney and the department’s Force Investigation Unit are looking into the shooting.
So how often are unarmed African-American men getting shot by the police? The short answer is that nobody really knows, but it’s clear that blacks are often disproportionately targeted by law enforcement. In Missouri, for example, African Americans were 66 percent more likely than whites to be stopped by police in 2013, according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch. A similar disparity exists in many other states and cities.
UPDATE (8/14/14): Another case has come to light in California:
Dante Parker, Victorville, California / August 12: A Victorville resident told police that a robbery suspect had fled on a bicycle. The police detained Dante Parker, a 36-year-old pressman at the Daily Press newspaper, apparently because they found him nearby on a bike. Though Parker had no criminal record (other than a DUI), a scuffle ensued and Parker was tased repeatedly when he resisted arrest, according to witnesses. He began breathing heavily and was taken to a hospital, where he died. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department is conducting an investigation.
