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Showing posts with the label Justice

Being Black on a Saturday Night Will Get You Killed

Increasing awareness of the disparities of our judicial system will eventually lead to systemic changes in that process. Officer invovled shootings or OIFs in the judicial parlance are rarely deemed unjustified. In San Bernardino County, there have been no charges brought against officers who were involved in shootings even in the most egregious of circumstances. Being shot 5, 6, or 17 times are instances of overkill that should not be deem justified because law enforcement have semi-lethal methods to defend themselves. However, the District Attorney fails to prosecute because politically he needs the support of law enforcement to get reelected. As the chart above notes, black men are 21 times as likely to get shot by police than whites. 31 folks per 1 million might seem low, but multiplied by the total population of the United States (approximately 300 million) those numbers jump to 9405 black teenage men killed every year by law enforcement. To break this vicious cycle, we have to ...