CASES
RESULT OF POLICE BRUTALITY
OUR
PEOPLE
Our Friends, Our Children, Our Family. Our People are the result of brute force by our law enforcement in our country and innocent lives were taken due to the case of this nation's growing epidemic; the epidemic of Police Brutality.
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On February 26th, 2012, a young African American male named Trayvon Martin, was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida, by a neighborhood watch member, George Zimmerman. Zimmerman claimed he saw a “suspicious person” in the neighborhood and began to follow Martin. As a neighborhood watch member, he is not instructed to get out of his car or even approach Martin but Zimmerman ignored the rules and pursued Martin out of suspicious. After confronting each other, neighbors heard gunfire which was caused by Zimmerman shooting Martin and ultimately killing him. In response, Zimmerman claimed he shot Martin out of self-defense, saying that he was attacked by Martin who also tried to grab his gun as well. Officer Timothy Smith said that Zimmerman was bleeding from his nose and from the back of his head as well. Zimmerman was later shown that he would have no federal civil rights charges brought against him. Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee stats that he was not charged due to lack of proof to disprove his story of the events. Sanford Police Department’s homicide detective Chris Serino viewed the case different and recommended that Zimmerman should’ve been charged with manslaughter due to the fact that Zimmerman “failed to identify himself” as a neighborhood watch member. Another note Serino added was that his wounds didn’t really add up because neither a deadly weapon or deadly force were used by Trayvon Martin that night. This case in 2012 was the ignition to this whole movement based around police brutality with “Black Lives Matter” being a key involvement that helped aware the nation of what African Americans are going through with the police.
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On July 4th, 2014, an African American male, Eric Garner, was killed in Staten Island, New York City, by Officer Daniel Pantaleo. The NYPD officer approached Garner due to the suspicion of selling single cigarettes from packs that did not have tax stamps. Garner said they he was not selling cigarettes and he was tired of being harassed by Officer Pantaleo. During the arrest, Pantaleo used excessive force on Garner which included an illegal choke hold that caused Garner limited access to breathe. When pressed against the ground, Garner repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe.” Soon after, Garner lost consciousness and remained lying on the pavement for 7 minutes before the EMT’s arrived. Neither the officers or the EMTs performed CPR due to the fact that they believed he was still breathing and that performing CPR was improper. Around 1 hour later, Eric Garner was pronounced dead at the hospital. They concluded that the cause of Garner’s death was the compression of his neck which was caused by the choke hold of Officer Pantaleo. This death was considered a homicide but they choose not to indict Pantaleo over the death of Garner. America reacted quickly to this case and protests of several sorts began to start. The words of Eric Garner were the root of most protests, making those last words meaningful to everyone who viewed this tragic death. These words were expressed in protests to help spread awareness of Eric Garner’s death and its impact on our societies epidemic with police brutality.
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On August 7th, 2014, a young African American male, Michael Brown, was shot and killed by white police officer, Darren Wilson, in Ferguson, Missouri. Brown was said to be shot 6 times, 2 shots being in the head of Brown while the other 4 where in his right arm. Officer Wilson was called to the scene due to Michael Brown being shown on surveillance camera stealing cigarillos from a Market and Liquor store. Wilson arrives on scene to see Mr. Brown and notices he fits the description of the suspect in a convenience store theft. An altercation began to break out resulting in Wilson firing two shots from his vehicle, one gazing Mr. Brown’s thumb and the other one missing him. Mr. Brown begins to run while Wilson follows behind. The two stop and turn toward each other, then Officer Wilson fires 6 shots at Brown, fatally wounding him. Witnesses say that Brown never made action towards Wilson and others say he did. The grand jury decided not to indict Mr. Wilson which ignited the community of Ferguson. Soon after the grand jury announcement, riots began to set off and the protests began to form. This had news stations swarming the scene and made an impact in America within hours. Still to this day, Michael Brown’s death remains a key source of evidence behind police brutality that many see as an unjustified death of an African American male due to police force.