Black Lives In the Line of Fire

Two more senseless killings of Black people by the police

Terence Crutcher was killed with no justification by a Tulsa, Oklahoma police officer. Keith Lamont Scott was shot in Charlotte, North Carolina while the police were there to serve a warrant to someone else. We’re forced to ask the same question over and over: how many Black people have to die before we reassess policing in America?

Too many.

Terence Crutcher. Keith Lamont Scott. Korryn Gaines. Alton Sterling. Philando Castile. The truth is so many tragic killings at the hands of police are preventable. We’re just not doing enough to prevent them.

There’s a bill in Congress right now, the Preventing Tragedies Between Police and Communities Act of 2016, that aims to change policing practices to be about safety and police accountability.

If passed, the Preventing Tragedies bill would require officers to use non-lethal and de-escalation tactics and use the lowest level of force possible – the safest means – to deal with an identified threat. The bill also outlines accountability mechanisms to enable states and localities to make sure police officers use these tactics whenever possible.

The police left Terence, a father, to bleed to death on the street. Keith Lamont Scott was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We must transform our broken policing practices. We cannot afford another life lost to injustice and racism. 

Source: ACLU, Sept. 21, 2016

Terence Crutcher was left by the police to bleed and die. It happens a lot.

There are many disturbing moments in the video recordings of Terence Crutcher’s death at the hands of Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby. But officers’ conduct immediately after Shelby shot the 40-year-old stands out as particularly heartbreaking.

Three officers standing shoulder to shoulder retreat from the unarmed and dying man, weapons still leveled in his direction. Thirty seconds after Crutcher falls, the trio has moved off-screen. Officers can be seen walking back and forth to their cars over the following moments.

But for more than two minutes, no one attends to Crutcher’s wound. About 100 seconds after Shelby shot the unarmed man, another officer who arrived after the shooting puts on gloves and appears to check Crutcher’s pockets.

Nearly two-and-a-half minutes after Shelby’s “shots fired” radio call, another officer is heard saying “Hey we need a lane open so EMT can get in.” At about that same time, the gloved officer appears to begin unwrapping and applying bandages or gauze to Crutcher’s body.

The lack of immediate medical attention from officers on the scene attracted particular attention from local activist Marq Lewis, who noted that officer Shelby [the officer who shot Crutcher in the first place] is certified in basic emergency medical services.

“Betty Shelby is a trained EMS Basic,” said Lewis, a lead organizer with police accountability group We The People Oklahoma. “She’s trained. She did not render aid at all. She also has a trauma bag issued in her trunk. They let him lay there two-plus minutes. She did not even render aid at all.”

Such scenes are likely familiar to anyone who’s been paying attention as videos of violent, deadly police encounters with black people became more prevalent and available over the past few years. Officers commonly decline to render first aid, even after removing a wounded citizen’s weapon — or discovering they never had one at all.

Click here to read the full article

Source: Think Progress, Alan Pyke, Sept. 21, 2016

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