caseybruce:Black and unarmed. A black man is killed every 28 hours by a cop or vigilante. Rem
caseybruce: Black and unarmed. A black man is killed every 28 hours by a cop or vigilante. Remember the names of unarmed Black men who were killed by police or vigilantes. This is only a short list, please reply with other names so we may remember these men. Trayvon MartinThe fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman took place on the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida. Martin was a 17-year-old, African American high school student. He was unarmed and headed home after buying skittles and sweet tea from a gas station close to his home. George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old multi-racial, Hispanic-American, claimed to be the captain of the Neighborhood Watch was the neighborhood watch coordinator cl for the gated community where Martin was temporarily staying and where the shooting took place. Zimmerman, against the instructions of the Emergency dispatcher pursued Martin on foot calling him “the suspect.” When the case garnered international attention, sparking protests all over the world, the state of Florida filled charges against him 46 days after Martin’s death. Zimmerman was tried for second-degree murder and manslaughter, and found not guilty on July 13, 2013. Ervin JeffersonThe 18-year-old was shot and killed by two security guards — also African American — outside his Atlanta home on March 24, 2012. He was unarmed and his mother says he was trying to protect his sister from a crowd that was threatening her. Amadou Diallo22-year-old Amadou Ahmed Diallo, a Guinnea-Bissau immigrant, was killed when four white, New York police officers in plain clothes fired 41 shots at him; 19 of which hit his body. The officers said they thought Diallo was reaching for a gun when they shot him in the doorway of his apartment. It was just his wallet. During the trial, the officers admitted that they never considered the situation (four strangers in an unmarked car with guns approaching a guy on his stoop at night) from Diallo’s point of view. They were acquitted of all charges. Patrick DorismondThe 26-year-old father was shot to death in 2000 during a confrontation with undercover police officers who asked him where they could purchase drugs. An officer claimed that Dorismond, who was unarmed, grabbed his gun and caused his own death. The incident made many wonder whether the acquittal of officers in the Amadou Diallo case (see above) sent a signal that police had a license to kill without consequence Ousmane ZongoIn 2003 Officer Bryan A. Conroy confronted and killed Zongo in New York City during a raid on a counterfeit-CD ring with which Zongo had no involvement. Relatives of the 43-year-old man from Burkina Faso settled a lawsuit against the city for $3 million. The judge in the trial of the officer who shot him (and was convicted of criminally negligent homicide but did not serve jail time) said he was “insufficiently trained, insufficiently supervised and insufficiently led.” Timothy StansburyUnarmed and with no criminal record, 19-year-old Timothy Stansbury was killed in 2004 in a Brooklyn, N.Y., stairwell. The officer who shot him said he was startled and fired by mistake. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly called his death “a tragic incident that compels us to take an in-depth look at our tactics and training, both for new and veteran officers.” A grand jury deemed it an accident. Sean BellHours before his wedding, 23-year-old Sean Bell left a strip club that hosted his bachelor party, jumped into a car with two friends, and was killed when police fired 50 shots into his vehicle. Police say they opened fire after Bell rammed his car into an unmarked police van filled with plainclothes officers. They say they followed Bell and his friends outside the club suspecting that one person in their group had a gun. Referring to Bell and his friends, Mayor Bloomberg told the Associated Press ”there is no evidence that they did anything wrong.” A judge acquitted the officers of all charges in 2008. Read More -- source link