Best article Ive seen this morning on the non-indictment in the death of Eric Garner comes from Nick Chiles of the Atlanta Black Star on a day when, as he reports, the Wall Street Journal revealed that we have no idea how many black men (and others) American police have killed because no one evidently thinks its even important to keep a count. Tom Like a devastating one-two punch, a grand jury in Staten Island has decided not to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner—just nine days after the grand jury in St. Louis decided not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in Michael Brown’s death. But while many observers expected that outcome in St. Louis, this case was different because the entire world watched the raw cellphone videotape of Garner being dragged to the ground and dying from the officer’s chokehold. As attorney Lisa Bloom asked on MSNBC, If we can’t get an indictment in this case, we can’t get an indictment in any case where a police officer kills a Black man. If Ferguson wasn’t a wake up call, this has to be.... Ironically the Garner decision comes the same day as the Wall Street Journal published a devastating report revealing that the nation actually has no idea how often police kill Americans because a huge number of police departments—including some of the largest in the country, such as New York state—don’t report police killings to the FBI. The analysis by the Wall Street Journal found that more than 550 police killings were missing from the national tally, meaning the richest nation on earth seems unable to account for how often the police gun down Americans in the streets of the U.S.—a stunning lack of accountability and oversight on an issue that has enormous consequences for American families. If we can’t even count the number of killings of civilians, it’s unclear how the nation can make any progress anytime soon in cutting down the killings, particularly the killing of Black men. atlantablackstar/2014/12/03/another-shocker-grand-jury-decides-indictment-nypd-officer-chokehold-death-eric-garner/
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 16:00:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015