Another black man has been killed by a police officer. What's new? It seems like we can’t go a couple of weeks without yelling "Justice for [insert black man’s name here]!!". What kills me the most is the level of victim blaming when incidents like these happen. Immediately after the man is dead, its now important for the public to know about his criminal record and how he has an “aggressive past.” We’ve seen it with Trayvon Martin, we’ve seen it with Mike Brown, we’ve seen it with Eric Garner. Now we’re talking about Walter Scott, another unarmed black man gunned down by police. But that’s not even everybody! Black men and women are profiled and become victims of excessive force by police on a daily basis. Many people are quick to justify the officer's actions saying “Well, they should have never did [ insert action that may have provoked police].” Yes, people should be careful when interacting with police. However, that does not take away from the fact that these “interactions” are more likely to become fatal when a minority is involved. There is obviously racial bias coupled with poor training that lead to these fatalities. But sadly, the media wants to blame the individual.
The other thing that annoys me is when people justify an officer’s actions by comparing what took place to what they would do in a similar situation. This is when things get problematic. You are not a trained police officer so you should not be saying "if I were him.." Because honestly, what you would do simply does not apply here. Sorry. There are some obvious flaws in Police training that need to be addressed. Police are not suppose to be acting impulsively like the rest of us untrained civilians. And when they do apply excessive force, they should be held accountable, not let off the hook. This is probably the main reason police brutality continues to happen today. Police think they are invincible simply because they hardly ever suffer serious consequences for acting inappropriately. It's time for this invincibility to end. Hopefully it will end when Michael Slager, the officer who recently shot Walter Scott eight times in the back (I counted myself), is convicted of murder. But that's just wishful thinking...
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