Murdered by Cops

While looking for more information about the death of Freddie Gray, I stumbled upon a list of people of color killed by police from 1999-2014. Freddie’s names isn’t on the list - he died just five days ago - but no doubt it will appear alongside many other new names whenever the next “update” of the list appears. I’m sure it’s not the only list of its kind available on the web, and I can’t say if it’s the most truthful or comprehensive. But I don’t have any reason to doubt its validity. There are several recognizable names on the list (Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Akai Gurley, Jordan Crawford III), and several names that I don’t recognize (Rumain Brisbon, Victor White III, Jonahthan Ferrell). There is a 7-year-old girl named Aiyana Jones (killed by Detroit police officer Joseph Weekly), and a 68-year-old man named Kenneth Chamberlain (killed by New York officer Anthony Carelli). There are many commonalities besides skin color that tie these names together: mistaking a harmless object for a weapon, assuming guilt, fearing for life and limb. Lives that did not need to be taken. Justice not served.

12-year-old Tamir Rice is also on this list, and after seeing his name, I watched the footage of his killing for the first time. The actual incident - officer Timothy Loehmann shooting Tamir twice in the torso within two second of confronting the boy - is shown at the end of a powerful video from The New York Times. After hearing testimony from friends and family about Tamir’s character, and seeing images of Tamir’s neighborhood, the video of his death is even more jarring. It’s easy to get caught up in the details of the case. It’s easy to feel anger, especially when faced with such gross injustice. As a casual observer, it can be hard to feel sadness, to mourn the loss of a young boy’s life. Twelve years of life gone in the two seconds it took Loehmann to fire two shots.