It came to mind that I hadn't read of or seen anything about police shootings of unarmed black men recently in the paper. And I grew curious, I mean, in 2016 you couldn't go a week without hearing something, "Black Lives Matter", there were the disturbing videos live-streamed to Facebook, the US was at war.
But 2017 was different. There were no killings, that I could recollect, in the past few months, and I tried to fix a date upon when this sea-change happened...
Micah Xavier Johnson. The 2016 Dallas Police Shootings. The Wikipedia, Ambush - Fair enough, but they were armed, which is more than you can say about the 102 unarmed black people shot in 2015.
For a moment I thought that maybe he'd effected a difference, that somehow his pushing back made the police realize they couldn't continue this without the expectation of reasonable repercussions. For a moment. But a little further digging and I was disappointed...
Links:
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2017/
- http://www.killedbypolice.net/kbp2015.html
Sea-Change, See-Change, and I'm wondering if the under-reportage now is to protect the police, or because Dumbo has all the press...
Key Findings:
Police killed at least 102 unarmed black people in 2015, nearly twice each week. (See which police departments were responsible for these deaths)
Nearly 1 in 3 black people killed by police in 2015 were identified as unarmed, though the actual number is likely higher due to under-reporting
37% of unarmed people killed by police were black in 2015 despite black people being only 13% of the U.S. population
Unarmed black people were killed at 5x the rate of unarmed whites in 2015
Only 10 of the 102 cases in 2015 where an unarmed black person was killed by police resulted in officer(s) being charged with a crime, and only 2 of these deaths (Matthew Ajibade and Eric Harris) resulted in convictions of officers involved. Only 1 of 2 officers convicted for their involvement in Matthew Ajibade's death received jail time. He was sentenced to 1 year in jail and allowed to serve this time exclusively on weekends. Deputy Bates, who killed Eric Harris, will be sentenced May 31.
(from: https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/unarmed/)
In any event, there will come a time when he's seen as a hero, the one who pushed back and was the first to fight for justice and change, and his statue - with a rifle, will adorn the police station. Which is as it should be, only that time should be now...