On June 16, in St. Anthony, Minnesota, police officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted on all counts in the shooting of Philando Castile. The dashcam footage of the shooting was released to the public yesterday and it is horrifying to watch. The most astute analysis of the incident came from @ChrisCJackson, who noted, “If the first instinct to a black man informing you that he's legally armed is fearing for your life, maybe you shouldn't be a cop.”
In the video, the officer is a panicky mess--swearing and screaming at Castile’s partner to remain calm and not move. He’s doing this (not calmly himself) after shooting her husband and still pointing a gun into the car. Yanez was terminated by his department the day of his acquittal. The man is not fit to wear a badge or serve in any capacity in law enforcement.
On Sunday morning, while I was talking to local columnist Matt Driscoll about the Castile verdict, Charleena Lyles, a pregnant 30 year-old black woman, was shot and killed by Seattle Police in front of her children. She was the 558th person killed by American law enforcement this year. There have been eight more since then (as of 7:30am on 6/21).
In 2016, that total was 1161. In 2015, it was 1216. I refuse to accept this. You should as well.
Sadly, many folks are actually quite okay with it. In the days since the Castile verdict and the Lyles shooting, I’ve seen more than the usual logical gymnastics and rhetorical contortion to justify the taking of Castile’s, Lyles’ and hundreds of other lives. People on the internet, particularly certain white males (every one of the following is a quote or paraphrase of a response from a white male) seem to able to justify or explain away an incredible amount of violence to black bodies:
I say stop killing black people, y’all say stop making it about race.
I say stop killing black people, y’all say I’m playing the race card.
I say stop killing black people, y'all say the officer feared for his life.
I say stop killing black people, y'all say all lives matter.
I say stop killing black people, y'all wanna talk about black-on-black crime.
I say stop killing black people, y'all say he was smoking weed.
I say stop killing black people, y'all say she had a prior record.
I say stop killing black people, y'all say what about the violence in Baltimore & Chicago?
I say stop killing black people, y'all wanna talk about pulling our pants up.
I say stop killing black people, y'all wanna talk about hoodies and dreads.
I say stop killing black people, y’all wanna talk about black unemployment.
I say stop killing black people, y'all wanna talk about how there are too many single moms.
I say stop killing black people, y'all wanna talk about the music our kids listen to.
I say stop killing black people, y'all wanna talk about how the victim was no angel.
I say stop killing black people, y'all wanna talk about our kids having no discipline.
I say stop killing black people, y'all say we have to wait and hear both sides.
I say stop killing black people, y'all say we have to let the investigation play out.
I say stop killing black people, y’all call me a cop hating faggot.
I say stop killing black people, y'all excuse the officer’s panic, but expect perfection from their victim.
I say stop killing black people, y'all find every excuse you can to justify our deaths.
Fellas, next time I say "stop killing black people," just admit it, you really don't care.
We spend a fair amount of time in my classroom talking about encounters with law enforcement. I started after the Mike Brown shooting; it generates buy-in and is relevant for my students. I use the frame of police encounters to teach about the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 14th Amendments. As a part of that teaching we do a workshop on dealing with police officers with three takeaways:
- First, remain calm, always--even if the officer doesn’t.
- Second, seek to disengage and end the encounter. Ask, “Am I being detained? Or am I free to go?”
- Third, film the police.
None of this advice should be controversial, but it is--especially when coming from a black face. But, if getting called “divisive,” a “racebaiter”, an “idiot”, or a “cop hating faggot” are the price of doing business, I’m here for that work.
Before this year is up, American police will kill another 500-600 people on our streets. We have the power to stop this: We can change use-of-force policies for local departments. We can end the capricious enforcement of petty traffic laws in order to generate municipal revenue. We can implement the common sense policy recommendations of Campaign Zero. We just have to care enough about the victims to do so.
And by we, I mean you.