When an innocent man dies at the hands of authority, the only rational course of action is to formally try those at fault. Anything less is unjust. Period.
Justice is for families who deserve judicial actions that hold their loved ones’ killers accountable and yet, it’s what many fail to get in the U.S.
U.S. police officers rarely get charged after they prejudicially kill in the line of duty.
Law enforcement officers kill about 1,000 people a year in this nation and only 121 officers have been arrested or charged with murder or manslaughter in the past 16 years, according to a data compilation by Philip Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Ohio.
In “On-Duty Police Shootings: Officers Charged with Murder or Manslaughter 2005-2018,” Stinson shows only 44 police officers have been convicted, often of a lesser charge, out of 95 who’ve had cases trials end.
Stinson has spent more than 15 years researching police behaviors including police crime, police corruption and police misconduct, according to a June 2020 BGSU news article.
It has been two years since police officers in Aurora, Colorado killed 23-year-old Elijah McClain.
Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser announced on Sept. 1 the five defendants in McClain’s case will face one count each of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, in addition to a 32-count indictment, according to a Sept. 1 NBC News article.
The defendants include: Aurora Police Department (APD) Officers Randy Roedema and Nathan Woodyard, former APD officer Jason Rosenblatt and Aurora Fire Rescue Paramedics Lt. Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper.
The indictment came after an eight-month grand jury investigation, according to the same NBC News article. Indictments will never be enough to reconcile wrongful deaths because those lives can never be brought back. Officers will continue to live, breathe and experience a life they robbed from someone else.
But, it's a minor step in the right direction. Rightful convictions and strong sentences are eminently overdue and every small victory counts.
McClain was a young man walking home from a convenience store when APD officers approached him in response to a call from an Aurora resident claiming a “sketchy,” unarmed individual was walking around in a ski mask.
According to the City of Aurora’s investigation report, the officers had no justification for this casual encounter.
Similarly to too many police brutality cases that never receive justice: McClain wasn’t committing a crime.
Yet, officers still forced McClain to the ground and handcuffed him.
The paramedics induced McClain with a strong ketamine anesthetic even though they never checked on his general health, according to the indictment report. He continued to groan and make guttural cries as the fatal drugs spread through his body.
The Drug Enforcement Administration defines ketamine as a drug that distorts perceptions of sight and sound and makes the user feel out of control.
The emergency medical care system failed McClain. The law enforcement system failed.
McClain was hooked to life support and died six days later, according to the same report.
The autopsy report concluded the cause of death was “undeterminable” and could have been a result of natural causes.
How can a person feel safe when the authorities that exist to protect us not only have the power to take away our safety, lives and humanity, but regularly act on that power?
He was innocent.
According to the same investigation report by the city of Aurora, body cameras recorded police officers mistreating McClain, using foul language and threatening him while he was already weak, unarmed and vulnerable.
About 98% of police involved in a police brutality case haven’t been convicted in the last seven years, according to a mapping police violence webpage.
There’s only been ten days where police officers haven’t killed someone this year as of Sept. 7, according to the same webpage.
Read that line again.
Because people of color, especially men of color, have been the biggest target.
According to a study done by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, one in 1,000 Black men are expected to die from police violence in their lifetimes.
Black men have been primary targets in low-income neighborhoods. In contrast to predominantly white neighborhoods, Black residents are at greater risk of police discrimination and persecution, according to the same study.
People of color live in fear for their safety and have no reason to trust those in power when they’ve been hearing about cases including McClain’s almost everyday for years.
The U.S. needs to wake up and take action toward this reality.
George Floyd’s murder in May 2020 helped shift the pattern of racial justice in this country as his case brought close attention to the world’s protests and demands.
The Black Lives Matter movement gained huge support and traction with Floyd’s murder and has highlighted the myriad unresolved, similar cases.
On Aug. 28, 500 members of families, who’ve had loved ones die at the hands of police from across the U.S., marched near the Washington Monument in the District of Columbia to push for fatal police shooting cases to be reopened, according to an Aug. 30 WGBH Radio Station article.
Breonna Taylor, Stephon Clark, Rayshard Brooks and Daunte Wright are just some cases of police brutality that have mass U.S. supporters that continue to seek justice.
Taylor was awakened in the night and shot to death by the police in her own home on March 13, 2020 and since then, Louisville has banned no-knock warrants, the police chief was fired and the on-scene officer was too, according to a Sept. 24, 2020 article.
Despite nationwide demands, no one was ever charged for her death.
Without these protests, it’s unlikely the three officers and two paramedics in McClain’s case would’ve been indicted.
This type of injustice doesn’t occur in abstract, far away places. It happens regularly in our own community.
Demetrius Stanley was shot and killed by a plainclothes officer outside his own home in the San Jose Berryessa neighborhood on May 31, according to a June 2 NBC Bay Area article.
Stanley approached an unmarked police vehicle sitting in front of his house, armed, and the officer inside shot him.
The officers were investigating Stanley for an armed robbery, but never identified themselves as police, according to the same NBC Bay Area article.
Stanley’s friends and family said they believed he thought he was protecting his home from strangers, according to the same article.
It’s been more than 100 days since the death of Stanley and the SJPD hasn’t released the identities of the officers involved. This is only one recent incident in a long history of San Jose’s police brutality.
Accountability has to be forced. We can’t sit idly by and we can’t pretend these cruel injustices aren't happening.
