Recent acquittal is more evidence that Black lives don’t matter
1st June 2015 · 0 Comments
By Frederick H. Lowe
Contributing Writer
(Special from NorthStar News Today) — Last month, African-American men received more evidence that Black lives don’t matter to police, judges, prosecutors and the entire law-enforcement system.
Cleveland Judge John P. O’Donnell acquitted Michael Brelo, a white Cleveland cop of manslaughter in the shooting deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, following a car chase sparked by Russell’s car backfiring in front of a police station.
Cleveland cop Michael Brelo fired 49 times into a car holding Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, its
unarmed occupants. A judge found Brelo not guilty of manslaughter.
The cops fired 137 rounds and Brelo jumped onto the car’s hood and fired 49 times at the unarmed Russell and Williams who were sitting in the car’s front seat.
O’Donnell said prosecutors failed to prove that Brelo fired the fatal shots. Although Vanita Gupta, head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, the department will review testimony in the case, Brelo’s acquittal follows similar acquittals of cops shooting to death unarmed Black men and Black women.
In each instance, the cops claimed they feared for their lives.
On May 12, the Dane County, Wisconsin, District Attorney announced that Matt Kenney, a white Madison, Wisconsin, police officer, would not face charges in the March 6 shooting death of Tony Robinson Jr. Kenney, who killed another man in 2007, fired seven shots at the 19-year-old Robinson after chasing him inside an apartment. Kenney received reports Robinson was jumping in front of cars.
On May 14, the Lake County, Ill., District Attorney announced that it would not file charges against Eric Hill, a Zion, Ill., cop who shot and killed Justus Howard, 17, by shooting him twice in the back, following a foot chase. The deadly shooting occurred on April 4.
Hill claimed Howard had a gun when he looked at him, but witnesses disputed Hill’s version of events. Zion is 45 miles north of Chicago near the Wisconsin border.
Howard was shot in the back the same day North Charleston, S.C., cop Michael Slager killed a fleeing Walter Scott by shooting him eight times in the back over a traffic violation. Scott’s murder, however, was backed by a bystander’s cell ‘phone video.
In April, Cook County, III., Judge Dennis Porter ruled that Chicago Police Detective Dante Servin was not guilty in the killing of an unarmed Rekia Boyd by shooting her in the back of the head. The deadly shooting occurred in 2012.
Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez charged Servin, a white Hispanic, with acting recklessly in causing the death of 22-year-old Boyd.
In acquitting Servin, Porter ruled that Alvarez should have charged the 45-year old Servin with murder, not involuntary manslaughter.
Boyd’s supporters allege Alvarez deliberately blew the case because Servin cannot be retried on a murder charge because it would mean double jeopardy.
The United Nations Human Rights Council has condemned the nation’s police for violence and discrimination.
“I am not surprised that the world’s eyes are focused on the police issues in the U.S.,” said Alba Morales, who investigates the U.S. criminal justice system at Human Rights Watch.
It is only in Baltimore, following death of Freddie Gray who died in police custody that Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby got indictments of six police officers allegedly involved in Gray’s April 19 death.
This article originally published in the June 1, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
