Police account:
“Witnesses indicated to us that the suspect was verbally challenging to the officer”
As noted last night, White police officers can apparently legally put Black people to death for talking back to them. This is the same as the heyday of lynching in the American South.
The victim here will be smeared and painted as a dastardly criminal because of his various minor charges, convictions, and prison time in previous cases, but whatever his history might be, he didn’t deserve to die for it.
Witness account, saying victim did not argue:
“Who’s gonna argue with police?” Dickerson said. “He had no death wish yesterday.”
Ann Hart, chairwoman of the African American Police Advisory for South Phoenix:
“We need to take a deeper dive into why police officers are feeling compelled to shoot and kill as opposed to apprehend and detain, arrest and jail.”
Yep. That is the million dollar question. I think we know the answer but too many Americans want to live in their post-racial fantasies (or are just straight-up racists who assume it’s justified unless proven otherwise … which is never, in their minds).
