No Justice Allowed

It is getting more and more difficult to watch the trials of police officers that have killed black men. I am not anti police by any means, but it is just mind boggling how some of these officers can not be held accountable to the laws that normal citizens or human beings are held to, even when there is overwhelming evidence. A black man is stopped for a minor driving infraction. He tells the police officer he has a legal firearm in his possession. There is a woman and child in the vehicle. As he reaches for his identification, which he was asked for, he is shot several times by the officer. The officer says he was afraid and doesn't know why he fired. He is not found guilty of anything, even though a life was taken.

Another incident where a black man, in his fifties, stop for a tail light being out. He gets  out of the vehicle as requested. The officer has a Taser. The man ran (barely since he is pretty old) and gets shot in the back four times and dies. There is a bystander he video tapes the incident, which clearly shows that there was no struggle and that the officer just shots the man in the back while he is running. He then drops something (Taser?) down by the body. His defense is that there was a struggle, the man had the Taser on him and he feared for his life so he had to use deadly force. I don't know how much clearer the video could have been to refute this story but there was a mistrial because the jury could not come to a consensus as to finding him guilty of murder. The jury of course was comprised of his peers ( 5 white men, 6 white women, and 1 African American).

While murder may be off the table for police officers, who risk heir lives daily, the prosecutors in these cases should seek manslaughter, if nothing else, since that is what it is. Because they give the jury many choices, most of these cases will end in a hung jury. There have been many cases of police shootings and killing black men, including the case in Chicago that was covered up for months. A black man with no weapon in the street walking past the police, not towards, and being shot 16 times, even while on the ground. In these cases black lives mean nothing and in several, even those that don't end in death, illustrate this fact clearly. There will not be any justice because the system does not allow for justice if you are not of the white race in our society.

 

 I have lost faith that any police officer will ever be convicted of these types of crimes, under our current legal system. In Florida there are laws that protect the general white public from the criminals. A white motorist involved in a road rage incident can sit in their car and if a black man approaches and comes to the window to talk, they can shoot them and say they were threatened. This did happen and the man did not even get book at the police station after the black man died. If the roles had been reversed here is no way that you can make me believe that the same would have happened. It is also hard to see the families of these people, like Treyvon Martin's and Walter Scott's leave with no justice only to say that they have their faith in God and that they can forgive and will get justice. One of our country's guiding principles is "In God We Trust". I guess that is only for those who are not in control and make the policies and laws that rule this country.