August 17, 2014
Police Shoot and Kill Unarmed Black Men With No Meaningful Repercussions
By Frederick H. Lowe
Ezell Ford
Michael Brown
John Crawford
Jonathan Ferrell
Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from TheNorthStarNews.com
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Police in five cities have conducted summary executions of five unarmed Black men for minor incidents or for seeking help, which the cops ratchet up to capital crimes, deserving of a death sentence meted out by them.
The latest police shooting death of an unarmed, mentally ill Black man occurred Monday night in Los Angeles.
Ezell Ford was lying face down as he had been ordered to do by LAPD officers, according to eyewitnesses who dispute the police department's version of the story. The police, however, shot Ford three times in the back, and he died later in a hospital from his wounds.
Police tell a different story. They said they stopped Ford because he was making "suspicious movements." What made the movements suspicious is not explained. He did not have a gun or the police would have mentioned it. Ford allegedly attempted to grab a gun from one of the cops. His partner fired his weapon, according to the LAPD. The other cop fired his backup gun. The cops were not identified.
When the murder of Ford occurred, the nation was still fixated on the police murder of Michael Brown, an 18 year-old who lived in the St. Louis, Mo., suburb of Ferguson.
The cop, now identified as 28-year-old Darren Wilson, then shot the unarmed Brown several more times and his dead body was left lying in the street for four and a half hours. Witnesses said, however, Brown had raised his arms in the air when he was shot to death on August 9.
President Barack Obama was so disturbed by Brown's death that he sent the teenager's family a message. President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama called Brown's death heartbreaking and the first couple sent their deepest condolences to Brown's family and to the community.
The president also said that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has indicated that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating the shooting death along with local authorities.
The police murder of an unarmed Brown comes on the heels of the murder of Eric Garner, a 43 year-old father and grandfather, at the hands of the New York City Police.
Daniel Pantaleo, a member of the NYPD, murdered Garner, by using an illegal chokehold to kill Garner. The New York Medical Examiner ruled that Garner's death, which occurred in Staten Island on July 17, a homicide.
Garner's murder was video recorded and went viral over the Internet. Ramsey Orta, 22, recorded the video. The cops, however, took their revenge, arresting Orta on weapons charges. They also arrested his wife in a separate incident.
Orta claims police set him up. When police initially searched him, they did not find a gun. "I would be stupid to walk around with a gun after being in the spotlight, " he said.
In another deadly police shooting of an unarmed black man, Beavercreek, Ohio, police shot to death 22-year-old John Crawford in the toy department of a Wal-mart store. Crawford was holding a pellet gun.
A customer panicked and said Crawford was waving "what appeared to be an AR-15 at children and others." Police officers Sean Williams and Sgt. David Darkow murdered Crawford by shooting him in the stomach. The Montgomery County's coroner's office in Dayton, Ohio, ruled that Crawford's death was a homicide.
A resulting customer stampede caused by police gun fire also killed Angela Williams, 37, a shopper who was an innocent bystander. Williams suffered an unspecified medical emergency.
All the cases are tragic, but the police murder of Jonathan Ferrell, which occurred in September 2013, falls into its own category.
The 24 year-old Ferrell was involved in a one car accident in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C. He went to the nearest home for help and knocked on the door. In response, the woman homeowner, like the man in the Beavercreek Wal-mart store, panicked. She called 911 and said Ferrell was breaking into her home.
When Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers arrived, the unarmed Ferrell thought they were there to help. It turned out he was dead wrong. Ferrell approached the cops with outstretched arms. Randall Kerrick, a cop, pulled his gun and shot Ferrell 10 times, killing him instantly.
In most, if not all of the cases, in which police murder unarmed Black men, the police claim they feared for their lives, a police department mantra. In most cases, the deadly shooting occurred as a result of struggle, but police know how to provoke struggles, which gives them a reason to fire their guns.
High Crime Means More Police Jobs
Ben Haith, a blogger, brings up another reason. Haith said that some police departments believe if there is less criminal activity in the Black community, they will lose their jobs.
He gave as an example former members of Boston Fire Department. They set 216 fires that destroyed $22 million worth of property between 1982 and 1986 in the hope that the fire department would re-hire them after widespread layoffs in 1980s. Members of the arson ring, all ex-firefighters, were sentenced from five to 40 years in prison, according to several newspaper reports.
Police, however, are not as on guard when it comes to Whites.
Last June, Jerad and Amanda Miller, members of the White supremacist Patriot movement, shot to death three people, including two Las Vegas cops. The couple then took the cops' weapons.
The Millers had been supporters of Nevada rancher Cliven "I know the Negro" Bundy, a one-time Fox News favorite. Fox News has blasted New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's handling of the Garner murder.
On his Facebook page, Jerad Miller wrote about his tangles with law enforcement and the unfairness of the nation's drug laws.
Since vigils and marches have had little, if any, effect on the police murders of Black men, the African-American community needs to develop a much more aggressive strategy.