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reasoningdaily · 2 years ago

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if anybody thought police would be deterred by that apparent exception to the rule of holding police accountable for killing Black people, they should think again as it has been a quick resumption of law enforcement normalcy with continued shootings of Black men and boys with impunity since Chauvin’s murder conviction.

Case in point, Alaunte Scott was shot and killed by U.S. Marshals as he was taking the garbage out of his home on Tuesday afternoon in southeast Washington, D.C., the Washington Post reported. Scott’s mother said the Marsdhs claimed they were trying to execute an arrest for a parole violation before shooting her son in the back because they allegedly saw the 22-year-old holding a gun.

None of the Marshals were wearing body cameras.

Scott’s name joins a long list of too many other Black men and boys killed by the police, including people who have become household names for all the wrong reasons like Jayland Walker, Patrick Lyoya, Tamir Rice, Botham Jean, E.J. Bradford, and Michael Brown. But there are plenty of others whose police killings never went “viral,” including people like Michael Dean, a 28-year-old father who police shot in the head on Dec. 3, 2019, and Jamee Johnson, a 22-year-old HBCU student who police shot to death after a questionable traffic stop on Dec. 14, 2019.

One of the most distressing parts of this seemingly nonstop string of police killings of Black people is the fact that more times than not, the officer involved in the shooting can hide behind the claim that they feared for their lives — even if the victim was shot in the back, as has become the case for so many deadly episodes involving law enforcement. In a handful of those cases — such as Antwon Rose, a 13-year-old boy killed in Pittsburgh, and Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old killed in Sacramento, both of whom were unarmed — the officers either avoided being criminally charged altogether or were acquitted despite damning evidence that the cops’ lives were not threatened and there was no cause for them to resort to lethal force or any violence for that matter.

Crump, who has been retained in so many of these cases, described the above scenarios in his book, “Open Season,” as the “genocide” of Black people.

As NewsOne continues covering these shootings that so often go ignored by mainstream media, the below running list (in no certain order) of Black men and boys who have been shot and killed by police under suspicious circumstances can serve as a tragic reminder of the dangers Black and brown citizens face upon being born into a world of hate that has branded them as suspects since birth.

Scroll down to learn more about the Black men and boys who have lost their lives to police violence.

1. Gershun Freeman

Gershun Freeman, 33, died Oct. 5, 2022, inside Shelby County Jail after an encounter with his jailers in Memphis.

A 13-minute-long edited video released by the Nashville District Attorney’s Office shows officers handing out meals to inmates. When officers get to Freeman’s cell, the video shows Freeman lunging at officers and nearly a dozen officers trying to subdue him. In the video, Freeman can be seen getting kicked, punched and paper sprayed repeatedly by officers.

According to the autopsy summary, Freeman suffered cardiac arrest while he was restrained and his death has been classified as a homicide.

2. Darryl Tyree Williams

On Jan 17, Darryl Tyree Williams, 32, was violently arrested by Raleigh Police in North Carolina. During his arrest, he warned officers about a heart condition fearful that the arrest could complicate his condition. But officers didn’t heed his warning and repeatedly tasered him before he lost consciousness. Williams would later die in the hospital.

According to Yahoo, Williams was in the driver’s seat of a vehicle when officers conducting a proactive patrol approached the Black man. The incident obtained by AP states that officers noticed an open container of alcohol and marijuana in the car and asked the occupants to step out.

The report also says that an officer decided to arrest Willians after finding a dollar bill with a “white powdery substance consistent with the appearance of cocaine” during a strip search. But the bodycam video, which was released by police, tells a different story.

In the video, Williams can be seen telling officers about his heart condition, then asking “Why are you all doing this to me?”

3. Alonzo Bagley

Alonzo Bagley, 43, was shot in the chest by Shreveport officer Alexander Tyler after police responded to an alleged domestic disturbance call.

After receiving the complaint, officer Tyler and his partner arrived at Villa Norte Apartment Complex around 11 p.m. to investigate the call. When the officers encountered Bagley, he allegedly jumped from a balcony, trying to escape on foot.

Authorities then say that’s when officer Tyler saw Bagley round the corner of a building. Tyler then fired one shot, hitting the unarmed Black man in the chest. Bagley was given CPR and then taken to a hospital where he later died.

Louisiana State Police Superintendent Col. Lamar Davis told the public during a recent press conference that the incident was recorded on police body camera, and will be made public, though his timetable for the release was vague. Davis has asked the public to “remain patient as we continue to conduct a very thorough investigation.”

A spokesperson for the family told KSLA, that the incident started when a neighbor called the police because the music was too loud in Bagley’s apartment. He went on to say that Bagley and his wife were both inside the apartment when police came and at some point, Bagley did run from the police before he was shot.

The family has also hired attorney Ron Haley, whose clients include the family of Ronald Greene, a Black motorist killed in 2019 by Louisiana state police.

4. Anthony Lowe

Anthony Lowe, 36, died in late January after officers from the Huntington Park Police Department chased him while he fled on the stumps of his legs, video footage recorded by a bystander shows.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Lowe was “holding a long-bladed knife” during the slow chase last Thursday. The rate at which Lowe was fleeing did not appear to be fast enough to elude officers. Still, they opted for lethal force after they claim the deployment of a Taser was “ineffective.”

A 30-second long clip posted on social media showed Lowe scurrying away from a wheelchair as the police pointed guns at him. While the footage does show Lowe motion as if he was about to throw the knife — and the officers do flinch — it never appeared as though the officers’ lives were under a direct threat.

Police said in a press release that Lowe was shot in the “upper torso” and pronounced dead on the scene.

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s homicide unit is investigating the shooting.

Huntington Park Police Department officers are not equipped with body-worn cameras, so the bystander’s video is crucial to the investigation.

Police claim officers responded to a call reporting a stabbing by a man in a wheelchair.

5. Tyre Nichols

On Jan. 7, Tyre Nichols was violently arrested after Memphis PD suspected him of reckless driving.

According to MPD, “a confrontation occurred” after officers approached Nichols, who “fled on foot.” A second unspecified “confrontation” occurred when MPD tried to take Nichols into custody, police said.

“Afterward, the suspect complained of having a shortness of breath, at which time an ambulance was called to the scene. The suspect was transported to St. Francis Hospital in critical condition,” MPD said of Nichols, who died Jan. 10 at the age of 29.

Police body camera footage, which is expected to be released this week has been called “disgusting and “damaging.” Some city officials believed the video is so bad that police officers involved should prepare to face criminal charges.

On Friday, the Memphis Police Department (MPD) fired the five officers involved stemming from their roles Jan. 7 when, according to the law enforcement narrative, Nichols was suspected of reckless driving. MPD said “a confrontation occurred” after officers approached Nichols, who “fled on foot.” A second unspecified “confrontation” occurred when MPD tried to take Nichols into custody, police said.

Three fire department employees were fired and 13 police officers have been disciplined after the death of Tyre Nichols. Five former police officers have been charged with murder.

6. Takar Smith

On Jan. 2, Takar Smith, 45, was shot and killed by two LAPD officers after he raised a 10-inch (25-centimeter) butcher-style knife above his head during an altercation with officers. Before using lethal force, police also used a stun gun and pepper spray.

According to AP, Smith’s wife called the police to enforce a restraining order against him but warned officers that her husband had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had not been taking his medication. She also warned of his aggressive nature telling the dispatcher, “He’s not in his right mind.”

Instead of calling for a specially trained mental health team, LAPD took an aggressive approach and approached Smith with their weapon drawn. After a 15-minute altercation with police, Smith became increasingly manic and incoherent, grabbing a knife from the kitchen counter. Officers yelled at Smith to “drop the knife,” pepper spraying then tasing him until he fell to his knees pleading with officers to “get away!”

Smith then picked the knife up he a dropped after being stunned and lifted it above his head. Two officers then fired seven shots, killing Smith on the scene.

7. Keenan Anderson

On Jan. 3, Keenan Anderson was tased and killed by Los Angeles Police after a traffic accident led to a police altercation.

According to the LAPD, when officers arrived on the scene, Anderson was acting erratically and was running in the middle of the street. The officer began to talk with Anderson and called for backup to conduct a DUI investigation.

Officials said once more units arrived, Anderson started to get nervous and began to flee the scene.

That’s when, “officers struggled with Anderson for several minutes, utilizing a TASER, bodyweight, firm grips, and joint locks to overcome resistance,” the LAPD said in a written press release.

But body camera footage, which was released this week, paints a picture of a scared Black man pleading for help as officers overwhelm him from all angles.

Video from the arrest shows officers struggling to detain Anderson and tasing him for more than 30 seconds straight before an officer pauses and then tases him again for five more seconds.

Once Anderson was detained and arrested, he was transported to a local hospital where he went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead.

Anderson, who is the cousin of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, was a dedicated high school teacher and father. His tragic death has sparked outrage in the community as family and friends demand justice and accountability for his death.

“My cousin was asking for help, and he didn’t receive it. He was killed,” Cullors told the Guardian after watching LAPD’s footage. “Nobody deserves to die in fear, panicking and scared for their life. My cousin was scared for his life. He spent the last 10 years witnessing a movement challenging the killing of Black people. He knew what was at stake and he was trying to protect himself. Nobody was willing to protect him.”

8. Derrick Kittling

A local police officer shot and killed a Black male driver who was allegedly unarmed for reasons that were not immediately disclosed. Video footage recorded at the scene includes one account that claimed the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s deputy behind the shooting in the city of Alexandria shot the driver “in the head.”

The driver was ultimately identified as Derrick Kittling, 45, whose brother is a high-ranking official in the Louisiana State Police department, which is the law enforcement agency tasked with investigating the shooting.

Kittling was shot and killed on Sunday afternoon, but details beyond that are unclear.

Local media reported a narrative provided by law enforcement that described Kittling as the aggressor.

The graphic footage showed an apparently lifeless body lying on a street as the still-unidentified police officer who shot him rummages through the trunk of his cruiser. The officer then goes over to the body and begins putting on handcuffs, according to bystanders who could be heard speaking on the video.

“He ain’t have no gun or nothing,” a voice can be heard saying as the camera pans across the scene. “He just shot that man in the head.”

9. Jaheim McMillan

Jaheim McMillan died on Oct. 8, 2022, after being taken off life support more than two days after a police officer gunned down the 15-year-old over suspicions he was armed, according to the law enforcement narrative. McMillan was one of five young teens in a car that was reported to have threatened drivers by waving guns when police arrived outside of a local Family Dollar store on Thursday. The police presence prompted two people in the car to flee, leaving behind McMillan and two others.

During a press briefing, Gulfport Police Chief Adam Cooper said “McMillan was armed” and did not comply with orders to drop a gun.

“McMillan turned both his body and his weapon toward the officer,” Cooper continued. “The officer fired at McMillan,” striking the teenager.

Eyewitnesses have said McMillan did not have a gun and complied before he was shot once in his head.

10. Ali Osman

Police in Phoenix, Arizona, killed 34-year-old Ali Osman while he was in the throes of a mental health crisis on Sept. 24, 2022. The killing sparked outrage from the city’s Somali community, according to the Phoenix New Times.

Police said Osman was throwing rocks at officers’ cars.

“Commands were given for the man to stop. He did not; that’s when the officer involved shooting occurred,” Phoenix police said in a statement.

It was later determined that Osman was not armed with any weapons.

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#144 Black Men And Boys Killed By Police

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iamafanofcartoons · 3 years ago

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A 13-year-old girl speaking at the Grand Rapids City Commission meeting in regards to the murder of Patrick Lyoya

https://twitter.com/Imposter_Edits/status/1547364174124224521

Her voice needs to be heard.

#Patrick Lyoya #Grand Rapids City #politics #hold the police accountable #iamafanofcartoons

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radicalgraff · 3 years ago

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Sticker seen in Detroit demanding justice for Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-old Congolese refugee, who was executed by police in Grand Rapids, Michigan on April 4.

#patrick lyoya #sticker #stickers #sticker bombing #acab #acab 1312

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eternaleepy · 3 years ago

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the fact that there are so many people that bend over backwards to justify police killings makes me fucking sick. every time another person of color gets murdered by police hoards of people on twitter always spew bullshit like “well they should’ve just complied with the authorities, it’s their own fault” like ????? do you not even have a shred of empathy in your soulless body you boot-licking fuck?

anyway, Patrick Lyoya did not deserve to be murdered and nothing will ever justify his murder. fuck the police forever and ever, and fuck you if you defend cops.

#black lives matter #Patrick Lyoya #ACAB #1312

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megashadowdragon · 3 years ago

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GOP Prosecutor FOLDS To WOKE Mob! Charges Police Officer With 2nd Degree Murder Of Patrick Loyola!!

comments on youtube

Noticing that one guy that "says" he is innocent until proven guilty, but then advocates for a guilty until proven innocent style pressure.

the problem here is even if the officer isn't convicted his law enforcement career is over. he is done as a cop.

They have been "calling for accountability".......you know....not for the criminal who fkkn RAN AWAY, RESISTED ARREST, FOUGHT THE OFFICER and TRIED TO GRAB THE OFFICER'S WEAPON, but for the police officer who was trying to do his JOB.

I'll agree, him getting shot in the head was horrific. It was so disturbing it made me cry, but that man put HIMSELF in that position with all his fuckery.

What kind of message does this send to these criminals that consistently resist arrest and fight the officers….These people wanting this officer charged are part of the bigger problem….teach these broken individuals accountability instead of victimhood.

This is going to ruin this country, what person in their right mind would want to be a police officer when you will likely be charged with murder for defending your own life!

This is unbelieveable. Look, if you grab an officers taser while struggling with him on the ground and that officer fears that you may gain control of that taser he MUST move to lethal means to ensure that the combatant doesn't tase him and then take his gun off him and kill him with it. The people making these decision for the police officers that are put in these extraordinary situations have a COLOSSOL lack of understanding of why they make the decisions they do while under pressure. If we don't start standing up for these officers we're going to find ourselves without a police force and the beginning of an even more lawless society than we already have. This is mission critical!!Show less

its only a matter of time before cops stop responding to black callers

The prosecutor is a coward but more importantly we have lost our moral compass, now once again police are going to say it's not worth it and crime increases even more!!

As a life long grand rapids resident who went to 8 different schools I can tell you the liberal white guilt is crazy. So much racism towards whites. I was jumped several times simply for being white in the wrong neighborhood. Or the only white kid on the 8th grade youth center basketball team . Told the cops who run it the next day and they didn't care at all so I quit and said you can tell the coach why I'm not at practice and threw my I.D. in his face and never went back... I was never so proud to have made a team and looking back feel sick about it.Show less

Lets hope this doesnt go the Floyd route where a innocent man in convicted of a crime he didnt commit. Lets instead hope this goes the Rittenhouse route and he is found innocent and sues EVERYONE who lied about the case. I believe he deserves a early retirement for making the world a better place.

anyone who tries to claim that the cop shouldnt have chased after the perp o that the cop chasing the perp means he loses the self defense argument has no respect or value of life if the perp manages to escape it would lead to them committing another crime and hurting someone else

he is an officer of the law he is supposed to chase after the perp who runs away to arrest them he isnt responsible if the perp escalates

#black conservative perspective #patrick loyola #patrick lyoya

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angelsaxis · 3 years ago

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(full article under the cut)

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – In America, always listen for the we.

Not the pluralis majestati, the “royal we” that signifies the power of the elevated person. Not the “we” of American politics, used—or some might say abused—to position a candidate inside some calculated group. This we is the one used to convey kinship, shared values and concerns, joys and pains.

That we signifies connections have been forged, sometimes in fire. It was that we the Rev. Al Sharpton turned to on Friday as he began to preach at the funeral of Patrick Lyoya, a Congolese refugee killed April 4 when a Grand Rapids, Mich., police officer fired a shot into the back of his head.

“They took us from the shores of Africa and brought us across the Atlantic and made us slaves,” Sharpton, who demanded that the officer’s name be released, told those gathered, as a translator echoed him in Swahili. “And they devalued our human worth by teaching their children that we were less than they were…. But I come almost 400 years later to tell you that we were not created to be your boys and girls… And you thought we wouldn’t come from all over the world and let you know that enough is enough?”

It was that we, enunciated inside the Renaissance Church of God in Christ, a predominantly Black American congregation in Grand Rapids, that prompted Delvil Basengezi, another Congolese refugee and a co-worker of the dead man lying in the white casket at the front of the sanctuary, to slowly wave a massive blue, yellow, and red banner—the Democratic Republic of Congo’s flag. If anyone thought it was discordant that Sharpton’s message prompted such a display from someone who measured his history in the United States in years, not centuries, nobody said so. After all, those words marked moments in some ways emblematic of a day in which elements of the Black American and Congolese immigrant experience seemed to mingle. They were a fitting indicator of the burgeoning relationships some have found in Western Michigan in the 18 days since Lyoya was killed.

Tribal, political and other conflicts that separated people back home in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nyembwe says, can carry over after emigration, creating stubborn divides in the community. “But we are a family. The one who passed away, who got killed, to me I treat him as a Congolese because I don’t think about tribes. I think about my country,” Nyembwe says. And in every country, every civilized nation, he says, justice is an essential element.

To him, that drive for justice is enough to unite people across dividing lines—not just within the immigrant community, but also across the divide between those born in the United States and those born in Africa.

“It’s been a growing relationship,” agrees LaKiya Thompson-Jenkins, executive director of LincUp, a nonprofit organization that has been pushing for police reform in Grand Rapids. “I don’t think things are where they needed to be [in terms of including African immigrants in local conversations about justice] but there has been progress. There has been intentionality in making sure Africans are really represented at the various tables in the city of Grand Rapids.”

The weeks since Lyoya’s death have put a harsh spotlight on that developing relationship. It was on display eight days after Lyoya’s death, in a gray-walled Grand Rapids City Hall meeting chamber, at a time when people in other parts of the country had just begun to hear the name of the 26-year-old auto-parts factory worker whose passions included teaching young people traditional Congolese dance. In Grand Rapids, angry that Lyoya’s mother and father had not been allowed to see his body and that video of the incident had not been made public, people had marched on the city’s streets. On April 12, at the first City Commission meeting since Lyoya’s death, so many came to share their outrage in the three-minute intervals allotted for individual public comments that the meeting stretched to five hours.

Some of those who spoke were themselves African refugees and immigrants. A few were white Americans. Most were Black Americans who spoke about Lyoya’s shooting as part of a larger pattern about which they have long been concerned. traced not by national origin but by skin color.

“This young man came here with dreams of a future,” said a young Black woman with an American accent and a leather jacket who did not give her name, in a statement now preserved on the video record of the meeting. “I am ashamed that this city…brought death to this young man who came here with dreams for a future. You too should be ashamed.”

Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss, who is white, had at the start of the meeting banned applause, describing it as a disruptive time waste, so the room erupted in a low din of snaps and murmurs when the young woman in the leather coat was done. The next speaker, who’d been nodding along vigorously, was Fridah Kanini, a woman with a Kenyan accent who had earlier offered to interpret for Swahili speakers in the room.

“Many of us as refugees and immigrants, we came to America for safety and… you took it away,” she said, detailing how in her experience it has seemed that when police hear African accents, they assume there will be few consequences for violating residents’ rights. “Beyond the racism that we face, we also face other barriers,” she said.

In the past, she added, she has suffered rights violations in silence. If Lyoya had not been killed, she said, he likely would have gone home and done the same. But, she said, that silence ends now.

“Africans, we are people who want peace. We want just to be able to provide for our families, go to school, work hard, become [executives], do the best things we can for this city,” she said. “We are here. We are staying and we need to be factored into everything that you plan to do. …We don’t need to wait for another tragedy to happen so that you can hear us.”

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was the bond given to Mama and Papa Lyoya,” says Bethlehem Kongwa Shekanena, when she rises to speak at the funeral on Friday. A young woman who is the daughter of Congolese refugees, she speaks English with an accent no different than others born in Michigan. She is a first generation American. But like Patrick Lyoya and his parents, she and her family are also members of the Bafuliru tribe, one of more than 400 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the president of the Bafuliru Tribe in America had earlier explained to mourners. It’s Shekenena’s words that prompt both of Lyoya’s parents to weep. “Like many… including my own family, Mama and Papa Lyoya came to this country with an assurance, a promise that they and their children would not be presented with turmoil and death…The very foundation of what makes America, America—it was broken when Patrick Lyoya was killed in the street.”

Peter Lyoya learned about the death of his eldest son, Patrick, from a phone call, says Israel Siku, the primary interpreter and spokesman for the Lyoya family. Starting then and every day since, all the facts, figures and details he has learned about Patrick’s fate have come at him fast, in his third language—English, which the French and Swahili speaker began acquiring less than a decade ago.

In an April 8 radio interview with Kent County Commissioner Robert Womack, who is also the host of a local talk-radio program, the elder Lyoya explained how police called, looking for the father of Patrick Lyoya. Sir, an officer said, your son has been killed.

Before this moment, the idea that the police might target, injure, or kill any of his children was not, for Peter Lyoya, a prominent concern—despite what local activists say about the perception that immigrants often have their rights ignored. Nor were issues with race and policing a frequent topic of conversation inside the family, Siku says. He knows that for some people, Lyoya’s death can be reduced to one simple question: After getting out of his car during the traffic stop, after confirming to the officer that he did speak English, why did he run? But to Peter Lyoya, when he saw the tape, a possible answer came to mind easily. Wouldn’t his son have been—justifiably, it turned out—afraid?

In both of his jobs, Womack, who is Black, hears a lot of stories. He hears about the level of fear that a lot of Black men in the area live with, he says. “Now you have the added element of our African brothers and sisters who, like Patrick Lyoya’s father, believe police are handling them differently—no, dangerously. Peter Lyoya told me he does not believe that the officer would have killed his son like an animal, shot him in the head, if he were not an African.”

After Womack learned that although four days had passed since the fatal shooting, the elder Lyoya had not been allowed to see his son’s body, Womack contacted Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney perhaps best known for his work with the families of Trayvon Martin and George Floyd. (As recently as Friday, Siku says, the family has not heard from state police or the Grand Rapids Police, who did not respond to requests for comment. Michigan State Police issued a statement Friday morning saying that the investigation into Lyoya’s shooting continues and no timeline for its conclusion exists. The name of the officer involved has not yet been released.)

“This is what Patrick[‘s] family firmly believes, especially his father,” Siku tells me several days before the funeral, which was attended by more than 500 people. “[With Patrick] being an African, [officials] thought they will put it under the rug. They thought [the family] will not see any support like this.”

They thought, wrongly, Siku says, that local activists would not care. They thought Black Americans who have long paid close attention to policing in Grand Rapids would not see Lyoya as another loss close to home.

“They were wrong. We are one. We are all African,” he says.

The truth is likely more complicated than that. One indicator: during his homily, Sharpton alleged that more than one church in the area refused to give the Lyoya family a place to mourn, out of fear of crossing the police union and public officials. But in the emotion of Friday’s remembrances, it was possible to believe that unity could be found in strife. There was much that happened at every turn of Friday’s services—in the church and at the graveside—that was both Congolese and Black American. And if there is one thing with which a Black American church has ample practice, it is the management of deep painful emotions that can overflow out of a burdened human being.

As mourners filed past Lyoya’s open casket, a trio of Black American women stood to the side holding boxes of tissues and a basket to throw them away. Throughout the service, Black American women affiliated with the church, dressed in all white, fanned and comforted those who were overcome. A choir of 15 Black American people sang such a rousing rendition of “You Are (The Source of My Strength)” that Lyoya’s mother began to wail. And when two of Lyoya’s friends, young men who are also Congolese refugees, sang a song in Swahili with a Congolese sound over an almost hip-hop beat, other members of the family fell from their seats and had to be collected from the floor. The song had been written by the young men specifically for their dead friend.

It is a Congolese tradition for an eldest son like Patrick Lyoya to speak the final words before his father’s body is buried. But, as two police cruisers waited across the street, Peter and Dorcas Layoya had to bury their son.

It is also a Congolese tradition to watch a body be placed permanently in the ground; doing so wards off grave robbers and curses, a woman standing near me explains. So, as Dorcas Lyoya wailed about the pain of leaving her son in the graveyard on a cold rainy day, and mourners sang a song about happiness in heaven in Swahili, two white graveyard workers inserted her son’s casket into a concrete vault and moved it into the gaping grave, a deep pit in the Michigan red brown dirt.

Issues with policing in the United States don’t always rank near the top of refugees’ concerns, Crump tells me before the funeral began. But now the problem has come to them in an urgent way, and in his address to the mourners, Crump emphasizes that they are not alone in their grief.

“Where they shot this young brother in the back of the head,” Crump says during his speech at the funeral, “his Black life mattered. His African life mattered. His human life mattered. This is not just a legal issue. This is not just a civil-rights issue. This is a human-rights issue.”

#angel posts #police brutality #antiBlackness #racism #patrick lyoya #i see v few people talking about this #angel reads

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