by Allison Lee
Once in a while, our cosmic creator decides that it would be high time to send us a glimmer of hope as if to remind us not to throw in the towel in our never-ending fight for equality in all aspects. Recently, that came in the form of Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict.
On April 20, the former Minneapolis police officer was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter, all tied to the case of George Floyd. The prosecutor in Chauvin’s case concluded the trial with a closing statement that would perhaps linger in our minds: “You were told Mr. Floyd died because his heart was too big. After seeing the evidence, you know Mr. Floyd died because Derek Chauvin’s heart was too small.” Chauvin’s conviction dissipated part of the weight on the Black community’s shoulders and was hailed proudly as a delivery of justice, with Floyd’s brother commenting: “We are able to breathe again.”
Is that true?
Less than ten miles away from the courtroom where Chauvin would be convicted, on April 11, twenty-year-old Daunte Wright’s car was stopped in Brooklyn Center for expired license plate tabs. After the vehicle had come to a halt, Wright stepped out of the car and stood with his hands behind his back. An officer present tried to cuff Wright, but before the cuffs were clicked, Wright sat back into the driver’s seat, causing a brief moment of struggle and confusion for the officers. The other officer, Kim Potter, then reached for her handgun while threatening to tase Wright.
“I’ll tase you,” she yelled. “Taser, Taser, Taser.”
What came next was not the zapping nor popping of a taser, but the firing shots of a deadly weapon. The bullet collided with Wright’s torso as Potter processed what had happened. In the bodycam footage, we hear Potter say: “Holy shit, I just shot him”.
Wright’s car drove for a few blocks before it crashed into another car. It was only moments before Daunte Wright was pronounced dead at the scene, another name remembered for the wrong reasons.
The then-Police Chief released a statement on Monday, explaining that Officer Potter mistook her gun for her taser. This explanation was not well-received by the public and Wright’s family. Law enforcement officers are trained to keep their guns on their dominant side and their tasers on the other. Furthermore, there is a distinguishable color and weight difference between the two weapons that could not be more distinct. The two are manufactured to look and feel different to avoid exactly what had happened with Potter. Not to mention that Potter had been on the force for twenty-six years, a decent amount of time to not perform such a foolish mistake.
As of now, Potter has been charged with second-degree manslaughter and has resigned from the police. Even though Potter might be punished by the court of law later on, it is the Wright family that has been hit hardest with the consequences. Their attorney, Thomas Bowers, told reporters that the family has been receiving threats and racist calls, some taking it to the extreme and expressing their happiness that Daunte was killed. Not only is this behavior insensitive but it is appalling and disturbing to know that there is a percentage of the population out there who will always see color as a threat, a population that is the byproduct of years of racism and classism.
It’s a different feeling when you hear a gunshot and know that the person on the end of the barrel will not be back on their feet. To know that it’s not a Hollywood creation jack-packed with action scenes. A fatal gunshot pierce through the air and your heart falls into your stomach. The air goes static. The bones inside of you freeze so they don’t clatter into each other, yet your organs find ways to dislocate themselves. Bitterness swells in your tongue. Your breathing hitches. The shot echoes in your ears and you worry you might lose all sense of hearing. You wonder what went through the head of the person who fired the shot. You think about the victim’s family. You grieve that their future has been cut short by a bullet.
Right before Chauvin was pronounced guilty in Minneapolis, another Black life was lost at the hands of law enforcement in Columbus, Ohio. Ma’Khia Bryant was a sixteen-year-old teenager placed in foster care. She had gotten into an argument with two other people regarding an issue of housekeeping, which quickly escalated to Bryant brandishing a knife and advancing toward one of them.
Then, officer Nicholas Reardon got out of the police cruiser before Bryant changed her target to the other person. Within the eleven seconds of exiting the vehicle, Reardon shouted “Get down!” and proceeded to shoot in Bryant’s direction.
Ma’Khia Bryant was shot in the chest. Four times the gun was fired. It was almost as if the officer wanted to stop her heart right there and then. Four times.
A sixteen-year-old girl brandishing a knife does not warrant the end of her life via the police. As her body went limp on the concrete, a man shouted “She was just a kid!”. And that she was.
Michael Woods, the interim police chief, said: “… when officers are faced with someone employing deadly force, deadly force can be the response the officer gives.” This statement is problematic in many ways. It without a doubt confirms our beliefs that law enforcement is allowed to take a life when they deem necessary. Police forces are not dispatched to punish the wrongdoing(s) of an individual. Their job is to prevent harm from occurring to bystanders; it is ultimately the court of law that gets to decide the proper penalties.
It also tells us that Woods, and perhaps many other officers, think that the first line of action when confronted with someone employing deadly force is to match their level, when what should be done is a situational de-escalation.
Back in late March, 13-year-old Adam Toledo was similarly ill-fated to have taken a bullet in his chest. The only difference between him and Bryant was that he was Latino, but at this point, many officers are just indifferent to the fact. According to the Chicago Police Department, Toledo was shot and killed by Officer Eric Stillman 838 milliseconds after Toledo dropped his handgun in compliance with Stillman.
Police academy training covers de-escalation techniques to defuse dangerous situations. The fact that the officers in these cases have failed to equip those techniques speaks volumes about their inadequacy to be on the force. The point is plain as day: If you cannot deescalate situations involving children without reaching for your firearm, you should not be in uniform.
In any case, if your first instinct to calm a dispute is to whip out a life-taking weapon, you have already failed as a member of the force meant to protect your community.
Many who attempt to display ignorance toward the cases of police brutality will conjure up nonsensical excuses. Some argued that had the officer not interject, Bryant would’ve hurt the other two people involved in her altercation, proceeding to praise the officer for doing what ‘had to be done for the safety of the majority’. I would like to raise a flag here and say that it is fortunate more people were not harmed in the incident; however, it was not a situation that warranted the firing of a gun four times toward a teenage girl.
In Toledo’s case, which happened around two in the morning, negative internet comments wag their fingers at Toledo’s mother for letting her young child out at late hours. The alleged negligence of Toledo’s mother does not excuse the fact that the boy, being out late at night, should’ve been under the police’s protection, not his gunfire.
There is no use in playing the blame game when we are certain that more incidents will mirror those of Floyd, Bryant, Wright, and Toledo in the future. As long as the current criminal justice system stands, the situation will not be remedied. We cannot stop at ‘#saytheirnames’ and posting black squares and defunding the police. We cannot stop at holding officers accountable because that isn’t justice—it’s accountability, which is a bare minimum.
Sure, Chauvin’s trial might set a precedent for future cases but making an example out of someone doesn’t always work and it requires something tragic to have already happened. We don’t need a reformation of the criminal justice system. Not when the current one isn’t broken. In fact, it has been working perfectly fine all along. The foundation of the system in the United States has always been racism and classism. The country cannot uplift its white population without suppressing the non-white communities.
You can’t fix something that isn’t broken, so what needs to be done is a dismantlement of the whole system, followed by a rebuilding, this time keeping in mind all the people that have to be protected—which is every single living person. No one should be exempted from the protection of the system, such is their inalienable right.
The blue will keep spilling red because ‘the aggressor was armed and dangerous’.
How can they not be when you think the weapon is the color of their skin?
