Police shootings and race: some real progress, at last?
March 17, 2016 11:22 AM Subscribe
More than 4 years after the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, and a shocking string of highly publicized police killings of unarmed African Americans, there are suddenly several signs of progress: officers indicted and even convicted, sheriffs deputies suspended without pay, weak-kneed DAs voted out, and a big consent decree. Is this a turning point? Has Donald Trump sensitized people to racism? Is Black Lives Matter mattering? And/or has the steady stream of unarmed victims and -- until recently -- unindicted officers just made the problem undeniable?
Since March 7th,
-- The city council of Ferguson MO finally accepted a consent decree with the Justice Department to "overhaul the city's court's and police to protect citizens' rights."
-- Officer Randall Kerrick was indicted in North Carolina for shooting Jonathan Ferrell, an unarmed former college football player who had been in a car accident, just one week after a different grand jury declined to charge him.
-- District attorneys in Chicago's Cook Country (Anita Alvarez) and Cleveland's Cuyahoga County(Tim McGinty) lost re-election bids Tuesday after being accused of slow-rolling indictments of officers in for excessive force shootings.
-- Five deputies with the Cumberland County NC sheriff's office were suspended without pay, after failing to arrest a man who sucker-punched an anti-Trump protesters while arresting the victim after tackling him to the ground.
In February, NYC officer Peter Liang was convicted of manslaughter for shooting an unarmed suspect in a stairwell.
Since March 7th,
-- The city council of Ferguson MO finally accepted a consent decree with the Justice Department to "overhaul the city's court's and police to protect citizens' rights."
-- Officer Randall Kerrick was indicted in North Carolina for shooting Jonathan Ferrell, an unarmed former college football player who had been in a car accident, just one week after a different grand jury declined to charge him.
-- District attorneys in Chicago's Cook Country (Anita Alvarez) and Cleveland's Cuyahoga County(Tim McGinty) lost re-election bids Tuesday after being accused of slow-rolling indictments of officers in for excessive force shootings.
-- Five deputies with the Cumberland County NC sheriff's office were suspended without pay, after failing to arrest a man who sucker-punched an anti-Trump protesters while arresting the victim after tackling him to the ground.
In February, NYC officer Peter Liang was convicted of manslaughter for shooting an unarmed suspect in a stairwell.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Sorry, the discussion-starter questions are really not a good way to frame things for Mefi, especially when the roundup is "here are a few developments seemingly in the right direction, and it's impossible to say yet if it's a turning point" -- LobsterMitten
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posted by dinty_moore at 11:30 AM on March 17, 2016 [3 favorites]