cell phone.
In many cases police officers use what they refer to as a ‘perceived threat to the officers’ as the primary justification for the use of excessive violence. Nevertheless, several of the unarmed killings in the past couple of years were executed by officers shooting suspects in the back or while the suspect was in a position of submission and while even laying prostrated on the ground. While the officers involved in Clark’s case enjoyed paid administrative leave and were able to relax and watch the NBA finals on television in their homes with their loved ones, the Clark family has been delivered a crushing, and brutal lifestyle change without their son, father, and provider no longer available to them. In overwhelming sadness, despite the officer’s perceived threat, rationale, and/or excuses for killing Mr. Clark, the police officers have permanently removed any and every opportunity for his children to receive a hug from their dad in this life. The officer’s use of excessive force was unwarranted, and their decision will last a lifetime for the Clark family.
Another more recent and deeply deplorable cases of a police officer killing an unarmed man happened in Dallas, Texas. A young, single black male accountant named Botham Jean was quietly relaxing in his apartment on a chilly January evening when he lost his life. Mr. Jean was 26 years old when he was killed by former officer Amber Guyger. The former Pricewaterhouse Coopers firm accountant was alone in his apartment eating ice cream when Ms. Guyger placed two rounds from her pistol in his chest.
During her trial, she was emotional and continued to state that she was “afraid for her life.” She accused Mr. Botham of being in her apartment when in fact she ←16 | 17→was mistaken and accidently gone to Mr. Botham’s apartment. The prosecuting attorneys delineated that the former officer behaved with incredible error and distraction as she was exchanging romantic texts with another officer moments before the shooting.
In the end, she was fired from the police force, and convicted of murder. The victim’s brother Brandt Jean made international headlines by requesting to hug the defendant during her sentencing. He told her that “she was forgiven.” Amber was subsequently sentenced to ten years in prison. Civil rights community and community members believe that the sentence was shockingly light, another example of racial inequality and injustice. Guyger was given a ten-year prison sentence for the murder of an armed African American male eating ice cream alone in his apartment.
An even more frightening twist to this story is Mr. Jean’s death did not stop with him. Just a few days after the trial concluded, Jean’s neighbor Joshua Brown was also gunned down five miles from his former apartment complex where Jean was killed. Was Brown’s death a coincidence or a random incident? That would be difficult to believe for any intelligent person especially since Mr. Brown moved to another apartment complex shortly after testifying in court regarding the death of his neighbor. The scales of justice are not balanced for African Americans in the United States. America is unable to control its rampant gun violence presenting another barrier to the rebuilding of the African American community.
References
1. ABC13.com. (September 2016). Sandra Bland’s family says civil suit settled for $1.9M. Retrieved from https://abc13.com/news/sandra-bland-family-says-civil-suit-settled-for-$19m/1512442/
2. Ali, S. Nbcnews.com. (May 2017). Cop in Jordan Edwards shooting was ordered to anger management for past behavior. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cop-jordan- edwards-shooting-was-ordered-anger-management-past-behavior-n754996
3. Chammah, M. (September 2016). The Marshall project. Sandra Bland, one year later. Her death at a Texas jail spurred a striking amount of reform talk across political lines. Retrieved from https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/07/12/sandra-bland-one-year-later#.hoViWWsQm
4. Dart, T., The Guardian.com. (July 2015). Sandra Bland’s death in police custody puts spotlight on Texas jail standards. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/29/sandra-bland-police- custody-deaths
5. DataUSA. (2018). Police officers. Retrieved from https://datausa.io/profile/soc/333050/
6. Mappingpoliceviolence.org. (2014/2015). Police violence report. Retrieved from https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/2015
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7. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. (October 2018). Criminal justice fact sheet. Retrieved from https://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/
8. Salinger, T., New York Daily News. (July 2016). Nearly 7000 people died in Texas police and jail custody in the past decade, report finds. Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/7-000-people-died-custody-texas-decade-article-1.2730186
9. Vagianos, A., Huffington Post. (2018). Terry Crews explained why fighting off his assailant wasn’t an option as a black man. The “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” actor discussed his sexual assault before a Senate committee. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/terry-crews- fighting-off-assailant-not-an-option_us_5b326908e4b0b5e692f1cb36
10. Washington Post. (December 2015). A year of reckoning: Police fatally shoot nearly 1,000. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/12/26/a-year-of- reckoning-police-fatally-shoot-nearly-1000/?utm_term=.26f9eecdb688
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3 The Oppressed Always Rebel Eventually
The oppressed always rebel eventually. Do you agree with this statement? Whether you do or not, it has been proven true throughout the course of human history. Whether these endeavors were successful, well-planned, carefully executed, or hopelessly inept, nothing seems to unite people together more than a revolt against oppression. Even in the face of certain death, and where victory seemed to be a very far stretch, human beings often choose freedom over tyranny and oppression and are generally willing to risk death to obtain it.
Most are familiar with some classic examples such as the ancient Israelites who rebelled against the tyranny of Roman occupation. The Romans crushed the Jewish rebellion in 70 A.D. resulting in Jerusalem’s total annihilation and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Hebrews including the destruction of their beloved holy temple. In an act of defiance, over 900 Jews chose to committ suicide at the fort of Masada as an alternative to imprisonment and torture by Roman soldiers who were closely moving in to capture them. Similarly, from the beginning of their enslavement in the 17th century, Africans attempted to escape and revolt against their white rulers.
Consider also the steadfast American colonists, though smaller in number and ill equipped, who revolted against the tyranny of the British Empire, which ←19 | 20→possessed the most formidable navy in the world at that time. During the 1970s many Cambodians, Thai, Burmese, and Vietnamese people rebelled against the Khmer Rouge regime,
