lundi 27 avril 2015

Killings Of Unarmed African Americans

By Alta Alexander


In the past few days, the judges in South Carolina had given a ruling on the arbitrary killing of black over the last few months. It comes as a reprieve for many because this is a nation that has 47 percent of the population being the African American. These senseless killings of unarmed African Americans bring to the fore memories of the struggle against racism that the Americans paid with blood years ago.

The jury found that the Mr T Slager policeman that had killed the unarmed person has performed the murder and was charged for it. Many across America felt that justice had been done because the video footage jot from the scene of crime shows that he had a case to answer. He defended himself by claiming that he did that for self-defense the claim could not hold waters because the evidence showed to the contrary. The video shows Mr Slager shooting Mr Scot when he was running and was 20 feet away. That proves that by virtue that Mr. Scot was unarmed he posed no danger to Mr. Slager at that distance.

The video then shows very disturbing events when Mr. Slager handcuffs Mr. Scott then returns to the area of where the struggle began before picking something from the ground. Mr. Slager then goes ahead and return to where the body then drops it next to the body. That was not the only isolated case among the different killings of unarmed black Americans. Some of the other instances that the same repeated itself include.

A policeman also shot Michael Brown a teenager in Ferguson and killed him. It happened after another police officer killed Garner who was also not having any weapons and was selling cigarettes through choking in the regions of Staten Island.

Another situation that sparked lots of protests across the nation was that of Tamir Rice. He was a twelve year old boy who was shot when playing using a pellet gun. It is not fair for all these things to happen to black people just like that. Why are police just killing innocent people without valid reasons?

We hope that the decision by the judges in Ferguson will cool the protests that have been continuous in this St. Louis. The irony is that this is a place with a population of over sixty percent of the population being the black people. It is a place that has seen a population rise from 25 percent in 90s to sixty percent in 2010. With the changes in the demography, the area power structure is still in the hands of most white minority. As at the time of browns shooting there was only one black member in the entire council.

No African American was servicing in any school board, and this unbalanced representation must be an indicator of the oppression the black people have been going through in the hands of the police department. Reports indicate that blacks got harsher penalties for the same crimes by the white people.

Finally, we want to believe the ruling settled the racist tendencies one and for all in this region. The protests have shaped the municipal politics because some of these candidates have joined the cause.




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