This week the news that hit the headlines sometimes back about black deaths in South Carolina has been brought to rest. South Carolina has forty-seven percent of its population being the black people, but the irony is that eighty percent of people in the police department are white. The killings of unarmed African Americans bring out the memories of some of the atrocities that have been committed against the African American over the past years.
A white officer was charged with the murder of an unarmed black man, and this made the citizens feel that justice was in place. The officer, Michael T Slager in his defense stated that he committed the crime since he was afraid for his life. Nonetheless, the crime footage shows a completely different story. The footage shows that Mr. Slager drew the weapon and shot Mr. Scot while he was running and was twenty feet away.
The footage further shows the policeman handcuffing the man after killing him before moving a distance to pick something from the ground of which he returns and drops it next to the lifeless body. It should, however, be noted that it is not an isolated case of the senseless killings of the African Americans. Some of these other events that showed that it was a trend in the past few months includes.
Recently, Michael Brown who is a teenager in Ferguson was killed by another policeman. Eric Garner was not having any arm and was only selling loose cigarettes but was again shot by police in Staten Island by choking him.
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?
The answer also came this week in Ferguson. The African American population in the suburb of St. Louis has been growing from twenty-five percent in the year 1990 to about sixty-seven percent in the year 2010. With all these demographic developments, the power structure has remained over the years unchanged. By the time Brown was shot everyone in the council from the mayor to council members was white with one exception of only one black.
No black person was serving on the school board, and many of nearly over ninety percent of the police officers were white. With a population of 21000 that would not be acceptable. With such kind of unbalanced spread of power, it was likely that the blacks were more likely to be arrested, stopped and given harsher sentences than their white counterparts for the same crimes.
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.
A white officer was charged with the murder of an unarmed black man, and this made the citizens feel that justice was in place. The officer, Michael T Slager in his defense stated that he committed the crime since he was afraid for his life. Nonetheless, the crime footage shows a completely different story. The footage shows that Mr. Slager drew the weapon and shot Mr. Scot while he was running and was twenty feet away.
The footage further shows the policeman handcuffing the man after killing him before moving a distance to pick something from the ground of which he returns and drops it next to the lifeless body. It should, however, be noted that it is not an isolated case of the senseless killings of the African Americans. Some of these other events that showed that it was a trend in the past few months includes.
Recently, Michael Brown who is a teenager in Ferguson was killed by another policeman. Eric Garner was not having any arm and was only selling loose cigarettes but was again shot by police in Staten Island by choking him.
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?
The answer also came this week in Ferguson. The African American population in the suburb of St. Louis has been growing from twenty-five percent in the year 1990 to about sixty-seven percent in the year 2010. With all these demographic developments, the power structure has remained over the years unchanged. By the time Brown was shot everyone in the council from the mayor to council members was white with one exception of only one black.
No black person was serving on the school board, and many of nearly over ninety percent of the police officers were white. With a population of 21000 that would not be acceptable. With such kind of unbalanced spread of power, it was likely that the blacks were more likely to be arrested, stopped and given harsher sentences than their white counterparts for the same crimes.
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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