As a black citizen of the United States representing the black community, I come to spread awareness of my community getting killed unjustly by police officers.
Here are two of the many commonly known cases:
Breonna Taylor – A black 26-year-old medical worker was shot in Louisville Kentucky by four police officers. The police raided her apartment with a warrant but how they got the warrant was illegal. They lied about a lot of things and had very few facts. No officer has been charged with her death, but on August 2, 2022, the justice department charged four officers with federal civil rights violations including lying to obtain the warrant. One officer pleaded guilty, the other one was fired, and the next one was facing federal charges for the raid but then later was found “ not guilty” and then found guilty of endangerment of the surrounding apartments.
But to this day, no one has been charged with her death. None of the officers were wearing body cams to capture anything which is another violation of the law. This all started because they suspected her boyfriend may have kept drugs in her house but again their intel was very poor and they had very little information. During the raid, the police continually banged on the door but did not announce who they were leaving Breonna terrified because she had no clue who could have been banging on her door late at night. The police eventually knocked her door down and the police still failed to announce it was them. They let out 16 rounds Killing Breonna Taylor, and landing six bullets in her body.
Breonna Taylor’s case is still a wonder as none of the officers have been officially convicted for her death even after shooting her six times. All the officers were charged with misconduct and rights violation charges. Also, the officers knew they did not have enough information to raid, so they had to lie to get the warrant which in the end is unethical and illegal. Instead of having their officers own up and accept the consequences of their actions, they brushed things off and avoided the real problem. This is a clear representation of police brutality against a black woman and this shows how officers can easily manipulate the system even with “ethical workers around”
The next case is a very big one that created huge protests all across the nation and began the BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement.
On May 25, 2022, in Minneapolis, officers arrested 46-year-old black male George Floyd after the police were called on him because he bought a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit 20-dollar bill. Seventeen minutes later, the first squad car pulled up. Then three police officers got Floyd down to the ground and one of the officers was kneeling on his neck leaving him unconscious at first but then officially dead. As George was getting pinned he was gasping for air saying, “I can’t breathe.” Officers ignored him and proceeded to kneel on his neck eventually blocking his airways and killing him.
If it were not for the former MPD officers, Mr.Floyd would still be alive today. Mr.Floyd pleaded for his life asking the officer “to let him breathe” 25 times. Even after medical specialists/professionals (Firefighters/EMT) were unable to revive George Floyd, it was later announced that the incident was a homicide. Derek Chauvin eventually entered a guilty plea and was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 22.5 years in prison. This case and the information provided show police brutality against blacks. George’s death could have been prevented. Even though the officer eventually ended up getting charged, the whole situation could have been avoided if the officer had stopped abusing his power.
Police brutality needs to be stopped and justice needs to be served the right way. People are dying that don’t deserve to die because of police brutality. Justice is not served to the people. Either some officers aren’t charged with the right charges, some officers aren’t charged at all, or some officers don’t get the time prison time that they deserve. This issue needs to be fixed and awareness has to be spread. We need to come together as a community and rise up for justice.
On behalf of the officers, we need to give policemen proper emotional control training and better de-escalating training due to many fearing for their lives from a misunderstanding. Now on behalf of the community what needs to be done to stop police brutality against blacks is to fund public awareness about going and filing police officer misconduct immediately and steadily so the station can see no games are being played after every situation and that change needs to be made.
Here at ACE we have a teacher, Glenda Armstrong, who is a part of the NAACP in Danbury. I interviewed her and asked about her position.
The first question I asked her was “What role do you play in the NAACP group?” She replied “I’m the president of the Danbury local chapters.” Then I asked “Why did you join and what was your favorite experience being part of the role?” She replied, “I joined because it is the most effective oldest civil rights organization in the United States and it supports people who are fighting for equal rights. As a minority I felt connected to it and I don’t have a favorite experience but I enjoy supporting people in civil fights and winning.”
Here at ACE we learn to stick together and we hope as a community we can all come together and put an end to this injustice.
