Hands up. Don’t shoot. A history of unarmed black men and women being killed by police officers seems to reveal a connection between skin color and how members of law enforcement respond to “threats,” making one wonder if Michael Brown would’ve died if he was of a different race. | Justin Tijerina/The Cougar
Military tanks line the streets where protesters have gathered. Police are arresting protesters and reporters, even engaging in physical violence and using tear gas to disperse crowds. Protesters stand with their hands up; a sign of surrender, yet the brutality continues.
The scene described above is not one from a war-ravaged country. For nearly two weeks, this was the day-to-day reality in Ferguson, Mo. as massive protests seeking justice for Michael Brown became a daily practice that police sought to end.
On Aug. 9, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot by Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson Police Department. Brown was unarmed and walking in the street with a friend before Wilson pulled up; after asking Brown to get on the sidewalk, Wilson shot Brown six times. Brown was shot four times in the arm and twice in the head. He died on-site.
Much like the shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012, Brown’s shooting has brought national outrage and increased scrutiny of police brutality against young black men.
Anthropology senior Annie Pham said that the shooting has brought attention to an issue that’s never quite gone away.
“I feel like the Michael Brown shooting was the tip of the iceberg as far as subtle racism goes in America. Racism is not over. It’s never been quelled, and it’s not going to be over,” Pham said. “(The shooting) shows that people don’t understand racism, how it works, how oppressive it can be and how oppressive it still is to this very day.”
The Pew Research Center conducted a poll of 1,000 adults during Aug. 14 through Aug. 17. Results showed Americans are divided on the issue of race, with 44 percent saying “the case does raise important issues about race that require discussion” while another 40 percent thinking that “the issue of race is getting more attention than it deserves.”
When the poll is broken down by race, the results show that 80 percent of blacks and only 37 percent of whites believe that Brown’s shooting “raises important issues about race.”
“This is not only a black male issue. Black women are sexually assaulted by the police, and many have been killed,” said theatre junior Precious Merenu. “I think it is alienating to talk about issues that affect blacks and only talk about the men. The same issues also face other minorities, like Hispanics, as well.”
The poll also revealed that whites are divided in their view on police response to Ferguson protestors. 33 percent say police response “has gone too far,” 32 percent say police response “has been about right” and 35 percent say they don’t know.
“Racism is not over… (The shooting) shows that people don’t understand racism, how it works, how oppressive it can be and how oppressive it still is to this very day.”
– Annie Pham, on the shooting of Michael Brown and how it reflects racism in America.
Pham said that she attended a protest for Brown in D.C. earlier in August.
“The way the police are in D.C. compared to how they are in Ferguson, or even the rest of the South in general, is completely different. You do not tear gas the protesters. You do not shoot them. You do not shoot to kill at all. The police should have given the community in Ferguson a chance to voice their anger and to grieve. They didn’t do that,” Pham said.
“Across the board, police brutality is not okay. What they need to do is tear down and rebuild the police force across the nation. Tear down and rebuild what is apparently being taught at the police academy — to shoot and kill people if a ‘threat’ is felt, even if the person is unarmed.”
While there is talk about the police brutality exhibited by Wilson, he has gained many supporters and has raised more money than Brown in donations, with his totals exceeding $235,000 in just four days.
The details of what transpired between Wilson and Brown were not only difficult to come by when news first broke out, including Wilson’s identity, but conflicting reports from police and witnesses has caused confusion as well.
Ferguson police reported that Brown shoved Wilson and attempted to take his gun, causing Wilson to shoot. Brown’s friend and witness to the shooting, Dorian Johnson, says it was Wilson who initiated the violent encounter.
“I don’t believe (Wilson) was guilty of manslaughter. I believe he was straight-up guilty of murder,” Pham said. “Forensic evidence says so, his actions and the several witnesses who were there say so. The fact that the police tried to falsify evidence and took their sweet time releasing statements and (Wilson’s) name says so.”
“Michael walked away. Wilson bothered Michael for jay-walking, and when Michael ran, he could have ran after him without a gun, and tackled him down, called his parents, but no. He pulled out his gun and shot him several times — in cold blood.”
The Guardian reported that parallels exist between violence against blacks in the past and the violence against them today. Though there are differences, negative images and stereotypes of blacks persist.
The Guardian also argues that blacks are still targets for police violence when doing ordinary things. For Brown, that was jaywalking down the street. Another example is Timothy Stansbury Jr., who in 2004 “startled” an officer when walking up a stairwell.
As a nation, we tend to focus on how far we’ve come in terms of racial equality, but the reality is that racism still exists — it’s simply taken on different forms. Just because we’ve “come a long way” does not mean we should settle for the current state of race relations.
“The problem with racial issues in America is that they are very covert — people don’t realize that they are there. People make assumptions, and sometimes deadly ones, on the way that they perceive someone’s acts based on superficial things, like the way they dress,” Merenu said. “White privilege is another issue that people are now exploring because of what happened in Ferguson. For example, would Mike Brown be dead if he was white? Would the media portray him differently if he was white? Black lives matter, and the lives of minorities matter.”
Whether it’s Michael Brown or Trayvon Martin, young black men are not safe from racial profiling and stereotypes against blacks. These negative stereotypes are nothing new; they have existed for decades.
Race needs to be put at the forefront. Race needs to be an issue that we discuss openly and at length. When a shooting like this happens, we should not dismiss it. To progress as a nation that is a true proponent of racial equality, we need to talk about race.
The first step to equality is a change of perspective by seeing blacks and other people of color as people, not a stereotypical construction of a person.
Opinion columnist Rama Yousef is a creative writing senior and may be reached at [email protected].
Don’t worry Annie Pham… The black-community will let your Little Saigon have a taste of what happened to Koreatown in 1992 very soon… We’ll see how much THAT changes your mind about hip-bop/gangsta-pop/thug-hop music…
When that happens Koreans usually buy an assault rifle. And from what I’ve seen they generally shoot straighter than gangsters. Only in LA would the cops take their guns away,
The FBI would like to get ahold of your posting and then keep a watch over you. Watch it !!!!
Yup.. Either them or the Gaystapo…
Are you nuts? Everyone knows that if you fight a cop you run the risk of getting shot. Color doesn’t matter. The reason white people don’t get shot by cops as often as blacks is that they are smart enough to not fight a cop. If this violent criminal had just said “Ok” and walked to the sidewalk he’d be alive and robbing stores today. But instead he choose to attack a cop.
I taught my white kids to keep both hands in plain view of the cop if they ever get pulled over. If a cop approaches you make sure he can see your hands at all times. When speaking with a cop always be respectful and never argue anything. They also know to comply with any order from the cop. If the cop is doing something wrong we’ll deal with that at the station or court.
You say the violent perp in this case was shot running away? Are you so racist that you didn’t even bother to read the results of 3 autopsies? Or do you choose to believe that he was running backwards? 6 shots hit him in the front, zero hit his back.
Let’s look at the facts. A huge thug violently assaults a store clerk in the commission of a robbery. Shortly later, he is involved in a altercation with a cop who is seated in his squad car. So either you believe the vicious thug attacked the cop before he was able to get out of his car or that the cop thought it was a good idea to pull a 6’3″ 300 pound guy on top of him while seated in his car. This huge, violent criminal just assaulted a cop to the point that the cop had to fire a shot in his car and then flees. At some point he turns and faces the cop.
There are conflicting accounts of what happened next. Some blacks who first said the thug was shot in the back also say he was just standing with his arms raised. Other witnesses say the was moving towards the cop. Either way, he assaulted a cop he deserves to get shot.
He didn’t deserve to get shot. He put himself in a situation to get shot. Cops are not messing around and the last thing you want to do is scare one or beat up your neighborhood watch guy.
When I get pulled over I put my hands on my door sill and say “How can I help you Sir” If you don’t cop an attitude with them, you might not even get a ticket.
They like people who don’t screw with them.
Those who physically assault others (peaceful storekeeper; officer defenseless in car, etc.) are VIOLENT, AGGRESSIVE, CRIMINALS.
NOTHING about this has to do with skin protein levels (melanin). Even if the
CRIMINAL was of Chinese, Hmong, Samoan, Irish, Turkish, or other ethnicity, he would have been treated the same way.
When DRUGGED, VIOLENT CRIMINALS are attacking, their hands are also “up”.
If Brown’s intention was to surrender, he would have followed instructions to get on the ground, and he would NOT have moved toward officer Wilson.
I am a Missouri resident and a CCW holder. By Missouri law if I am attacked I am allowed to shoot. However, if I can escape, or if the assaulter retreats I can no longer engage that individual with lethal force.
In this case the assaulter was far enough away from the cop that non-lethal force could have been used. Also, we do not know truly if the officer was in true danger by Brown since there is no video evidence since the cop didn’t have a body camera or a cruiser camera. I called down to my local police station (Linn Missouri Police Department) and asked if they used body camera’s. The officer responded by saying “Yes, and we paid for them out of pocket so there is never a discrepancy.” In the event the officer has to use lethal force we won’t have people rioting or public unrest because we’ll know by video tape whether or not lethal force was necessary.
“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”
-Thomas Jefferson
Not really. There is zero evidence for (and ample evidence to the contrary) that police use of force/shootings are disproportionate when you correlate their disproportionality TO the disproportionality of crime offenders as reported by victims of crime (NCVS – and remember crime tends to be inTRAracial), or any other reliable metric. You might as well conclude that police violence is OVERWHELMINGLY sexist because out of 1146 police shootings, they only shot 50 women. Iow 5% of people shot by cops are women , yet they make up the majority of the population. OMG, police are PROFILING MEN!!!!!! THOSE SEXIST BASTARDS
I can’t believe the comments I’m reading. ..Douglas Shack stated in I quote white people are smarter and comply will the rules ……God where is our sensitivity? ??
Black culture in America is based on violence.
You step on my Nikes … 9mm BOOM!
You look at me the wrong way … 9mm BOOM!
You looking at my man … b*t ch slap!
You bring home a bad grade on the report card … belt BOOM!
Don’t you roll your eyes at me … BOOM!
Here is a little secret most blacks don’t want me to pass on the world:
Black people at a conscious and sub-conscious level don’t like themselves in the Untied States.
Now
why is this? Answer: This isn’t the black man’s ancestral land, and
he/she has no ties to it, therefore no real reason to assimilate into
American culture.
If you look at blacks around the planet who
lost, then won back control over their ancestral lands, they have
problems yes, but not the individual self-destructive problems as you
find in American blacks.
Blacks in the more developed nations of
Africa speak several languages, you can’t get an American black to speak
proper English most of the time! Sure blacks in other parts of the
world live in 2nd/3rd world conditions, but they struggle, they adapt,
they survive. There are actually African cities that look very
‘Western’ that carry all the services you would expect from a Western
city.
There are two countries on Earth that have severe racial and
cultural disparities: The United States and Australia. The U.S. isn’t
nor never will be the ‘natural’ home for blacks. Australia has a severe
problem with the British immigrants there and the black indigenous
Aborigines. Its a class/culture struggle that will never end.
In other parts of the world, blacks actually do [BETTER] than U.S. blacks!
Last
time I was in Belize, I was lost and needed directions. I came up to a
street corner and there were 4 large and black young [MEN] standing
there. I figured I’m black I should be able to handle this.
As I
approached, I heard them speaking [GERMAN]!!! Hey this isn’t the way
things should be … so in my broken Spanish I ask them for the
directions to the restaurant I was headed too. One of these black
[GENTLEMEN] answered me in Spanish but he could see that I didn’t get
all of it, and then spoke to me in [PERFECT] English!!!
Now true
these 4 black [GENTLEMEN] weren’t in America the land of excess and
waste, but they were on their [OWN] soil, in full control over their own
lives! And doing very nice from the looks of their clothing and
jewelry!
Trust me white American, the American negro is of the
world’s worst examples of negros you will find on average. You have to
understand that black men/women in the United States are like fish out
of water. The culture established for blacks here in the U.S. is one of
self-loathing, bitterness, anger, no cultural center (that was left
back in Africa) , no class or value system other than that of their
former slave owners; that is why we beat or own.
Here is another
secret blacks don’t want me to tell you: When a black man calls another
black ‘n igga’, or ‘n igger’ … they actually [DO] mean exactly what
the connotation of the word means. Its a way of saying, hey before we
start off, you are no better than me .. n igga! Its not a compliment at
all!
Blacks will tell you the lie that we took the word from the
slave master, embraced it, and turned it around on the world … that is
a N IGGERY lie! Its a slight against themselves and the black they are
talking too … [PERIOD].
I never once walked up to one of my
black professors in the Physics and Astrophysics buildings on the U.C.
Berkeley campus and said, “Good day my n igga professor ______”.
There
are all sorts of lies and games blacks play on themselves and on
America. If you have a question I will be more than HAPPY to tell you
the secret truths of the American negro … ask away!
From afrosheen to grape soda to popeyes chicken … ask away!
domestic violence is not a black issue, women are assaulted every 15M
My cousin was a police officer, who was shot in the face by a minority. My cousin died, leaving three young children behind. There were no protest, no calls from the White House, no national coverage. Three weeks after that a female police officer was shot and killed by a minority. Again, no calls from the White House, no Al Sharpton, no national coverage. I’ve come to acknowledge that race will always be an issue in this Country. It will never go away. Do you realize that 114 million Native Americans died in this Country? My great grandmother was full Native American. She was adopted by a WHITE family b/c her family died on Trail of Tears. The WHITE family was good to HER. I was not raised to hate another race or raised to hold a grudge b/c of what happened to my ancestors.Furthermore, my father, who had to live in a car at age seven, is a self-made millionaire. Did he get any government hand-outs???? NO. This article is disturbing. Shame on you. Oh and by the way: I was sexually molested at age seven. Stop blaming others. Your article is offensive in every aspect. Look at all those burned buildings and officers getting urine thrown on them. THAT is appalling. I sincerely hope you have an apology letter ready. Your views are called: race-baiting.