.2, April 2018 Stephon Clark
On March 18th, African-American, Stephon Clark was brutally gunned down by Sacramento police in a hail of 20 bullets. The police justification followed a familiar theme. They claimed Stephan was holding a gun which turned out to be a cellphone. They failed to issue any warning or use nonlethal weapons. In a clear effort to suppress incriminating evidence, the police officers shut off the audio of the video cam after they killed Stephon Clark. Stephon was only the latest victim of gross police misconduct. Remember 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was shot in the back with his hands in the air in 2014, Trayvon Martin, who was shot in 2012 by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, Eric Garner strangled by NYPD officers, 12-year-old Tamir Rice gunned down in 2002, and so many others. In each case, none of police offers or George Zimmerman were found guilty of generating a groundswell of outrage. Contrast how police responded to white domestic terrorists such as Nikolas Cruz, the mass shooter in Florida or Dylann Storm Roof, who gunned down the parishioners at the Mother Emanuel Church. In both cases, they escaped being killed by police. All Americans must raise their collective voices in solidarity with the African-American community who face racial indignities on a daily basis. President Trump tried to brush off this incident as a local issue. This is not a local issue. This is a national disgrace that demands our attention.
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