What’s the life expectancy for black guys?
The system’s working effectively, that’s why.
— Kanye West, “Murder to Excellence”
When Marc Lamont Hill went on CNN after the murder of Michael Brown, and said that an unarmed black man was killed by police every 28 hours, America went into an uproar. The uproar was not so much over the fact that unarmed citizens are being killed by police–the very police who are supposed to protect and serve them–but rather over the fact that the study Hill quoted actually included some deaths that weren’t at the hands of officers, but vigilantes such as George Zimmerman, and the definition of “armed” was arguable upon review of the case studies; for example, some officers stated they fired on suspects who were charging them with a vehicle, which if indeed true, would obviously be a lethal threat.
Here’s one of the real, and even more soberingly disturbing problems: There’s no way Hill–or anyone else for that matter, including the FBI–could have given an accurate number on how many unarmed black men are killed police. They couldn’t tell you how many people are killed by police, period, and that includes justifiable homicides. According to the Wall Street Journal, there are literally hundreds of homicides happening by cop that aren’t being tracked and reported to the federal systems intended to track the national data.
Shockingly enough, the FBI has almost no records of police shootings from police departments in three of the most populous states in the country—Florida, New York, and Illinois; New York, of course, being home to multiple officer involved homicides, including the brutal murder of Eric Garner, for which the offending officer was not indicted.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
“New York revamped its reporting system in 2002 and 2006, but isn’t able to track information about justifiable police homicides, said a spokeswoman for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. She said the agency was ‘looking to modify our technology so we can reflect these numbers.'”
If there were to be a be a mandatory uniform reporting system implemented, should we find some way to demand and enforce more transparency in the wake of these killings, we may have a better idea how many unarmed citizens are killed by police. In the meantime, in the cases that we are hearing about, the prosecution rates are discouraging, to say the very least.
The grand jury in Ferguson regrettably failed to indict Darren Wilson, because he had a prosecutor who acted like his defense attorney instead of a prosecutor. Today, the grand jury in Staten Island grievously failed to indict Daniel Pantaleo.
Ironically enough, there’s an old joke amongst lawyers: “A grand jury could indict a ham sandwich.”
But it seems that these grand juries don’t like to indict pigs (no pun intended, I promise), because they have a real problem indicting police officers.
James Cohen, a law professor at Fordham University, told Gothamist that in these two cases, it’s because they were doing exactly what they were supposed to do, which is what the prosecutor wanted: to let the killers walk. “There is no question that a grand jury will do precisely what the prosecutor wants, virtually 100% of the time. This was, as was the case in Missouri, orchestrated by the prosecutor,” he was quoted as saying.
Legal experts agree that Pantaleo could have been charged with criminally negligent homicide, or manslaughter, at the very minimum. Something.
However, he wasn’t. He walked. Eric Garner, as we know, didn’t. He never got back up from the chokehold that took him down and out, ultimately taking his life.
In the cases of both murderous men, the officers testified in their own defense, which is unusual, and with no cross examination by the so-called prosecutor, which is questionable.
Also questionable is the so-called solution of body cameras worn by police, which Obama just requested $75 million for. The entire encounter and subsequent slaying of Eric Garner by the NYPD was caught on camera, and that did nothing to bring the officer(s) to justice. The idea is to hold officers accountable–but how can they be held accountable when the people who are supposed to hold them accountable–the prosecutors–are failing to do so?
The clip shows so many fatal errors, and opportunities for the situation to have gone differently–and Pantaleo is not the only one at fault. Garner was accused of selling loose cigarettes on the corner, which is basically the equivalent of jaywalking. Pantaleo used a prohibited chokehold. Garner said “I can’t breathe!” They waited too long to administer any kind of first aid. It’s all on film, the medical examiner ruled it a homicide, and this should have been a slam-dunk for the prosecution, but instead, this, like so many others, is a state-sanctioned killing.
It is not just the police officers we need to be concerned with and angry with anymore. It is the prosecutors, lawmakers, and the system in its entirety, as a whole. It’s the idea that a ham sandwich is worth more than black life.
Yet, sadly, all across social media, many responses are the same: “I’m not surprised.” “It doesn’t shock me anymore.”
I wrote this for you.
In the words of Kanye West, “The system’s working effectively, that’s why.”
You are being conditioned. We are being taught that it shouldn’t shock us; that this is what we should expect, so that we stop demanding the accountability that we are entitled to.
You have a right to be angry. You have a right to be outraged. You should be shocked by these gross miscarriages of justice.
Be angry. Be outraged. Be shocked. Stay shocked. Stay surprised that the (in)justice system doesn’t work, so that we can continue to demand accountability from it.
For all of the Eric Garners, and the Michael Browns, I beg you: Stay shocked.
