Racism in the land of the free

Violence faced by minority communities, especially black men, at the hands of LEAs, has become a hot button issue

“Just black in the wrong place” is the reason Philando Castile’s mother believes her son was shot dead by a police officer in St Paul, Minnesota, on July 6. Like so much else these days, the immediate aftermath of his death was uploaded on Facebook by Mr Castile’s girlfriend, as she and her four-year-old daughter watched the tragedy unfold from the backseat of their car. Mr Castile’s death came swiftly in the wake of another incident of police officers shooting a black man — Alton Sterling — whose death was also captured on video by witnesses. The deaths have once again led to widespread protests across the United States, one of which turned violent when five police officers were shot and killed during a rally held in Dallas, Texas, and several more have been injured.

The violence faced by minority communities, especially black men, at the hands of law-enforcement personnel has, in recent years, become a hot button issue which generates strong emotional responses from the American public. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the response of the various police departments involved in these shootings whose immediate response is to protect their officers rather than to obtain justice for the victims. Often under suspicious circumstances and despite overwhelming evidence, law-enforcement personnel have a good chance of getting away with their actions and it is this injustice which is particularly grating for the victim’s families and the black community at large. The names of Mr Castile and Mr Sterling will be added to an ever growing list of victims of police brutality emanating from racial prejudice and permissive laws which give far too much leeway to the perpetrators of these crimes because of the uniforms they wear. This, combined with lax gun-control laws, has created an atmosphere of fear and distrust in which black men and sometimes children — such as Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy shot by police officers — are attacked simply because of their skin colour. America is by no means ‘post-racial’ and will not become so unless a sea change in attitudes occurs.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12^th, 2016.

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