These are exciting times. For political junkies, social scientists, and sports enthusiasts these are the days that they live for. The days are so action-packed that CNN sees no need to take down its Breaking News banners and MSNBC does not miss an opportunity to throw up one.
Donald Trump and the rupturing of the Republican Party, Rubio talking about the Donald’s small hands, millionaires turning on billionaires, the prospects of brokered conventions, the Oscars, March Madness around the corner, and the Splash Brothers.
And O, police interrupting the quest for Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness by denying another 11 Americans the right to Live. That’s how many people police killed this last week; year-to-date, 177.
This week we spotlight the killing of 24-year-old Akiel Denkins.
"He may be a very nice man. But I haven't got the time to figure that out. All I know is, he's got a uniform and a gun and I have to relate to him that way. That's the only way to relate to him because one of us may have to die."
Author, poet, and social critic James Baldwin on the police London, November 4, 1971 (h/t JekyllnHyde)
Stop me if you have heard this deadly story before: young man sees police, young man runs, police gives chase, then shoots young man in back, young man is dead minutes after seeing police.
Denkins’ mother, Rolanda Byrd, told the Raleigh News & Observer that her son’s body was left on the ground for several hours. She said she was told by four or five people that her son was running from police when “he was shot seven times by a white officer with a bald head.”
Byrd told the newspaper, “It’s been over two hours, and my son still behind the building, laying on the ground.”
Witnesses report that the cop attempted to jump over a fence when he fell and then in a fit of anger — or to cover his embarrassment — opened fire on the fleeing Denkins. This case is eerily similar to the murder of Michael Brown, as Akiel’s body was left lying in the street for hours. Unlike Michael, however, there is at least one videotape of the killing.
Trolls have been working overtime to let the public know that Akiel was no angel. I’ll only say that I had no idea that only angels should be afforded due process.
So yes, these are exciting times for some. For others, it’s a time of stress, of suffering and mourning and loss and tears. And through no fault of their own.
As we have often said, it is not enough to chronicle tragedies. We are not here to only channel the anger and anguish of loved ones and supportive citizens, as important as that undoubtedly is. Our goal is to do something meaningful to change the culture of policing in this country. In recent times, we have seen quite a few law enforcement officers being fired, arrested and charged, and even convicted of their crimes. Those attempts to hold cops accountable for their murderous actions are tiny steps in the right direction. We have so much further to go and we need to move at a much faster pace. Lives are at stake.
To that end, we are currently involved in an effort to get the state version of our crowd-sourced Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act on the California ballot.
Our law gives ordinary citizens the power to become a tiny, one-man or one-woman justice department.
The law would allow any aggrieved citizen to file suit against an entire police department in federal court in front of a federal judge if that police department is racist, discriminatory, violent, or abusive. If a judge finds that the police department is racist, discriminatory, violent, or abusive, then the entire department gets placed on a year-long, very strict, double-secret probation. We borrowed from the Voting Rights Act of 1964 some of the provisions, to make it more onerous on the police departments, to give them civilian monitors, to require that the police officers wear body cameras, and many other restrictions that make police departments consider not being so violent, and not being so discriminatory.
Update on Our California Ballot Initiative
This is a screengrab of the Summary and Title of the Ballot Initiative sent to us by the California Department of Justice:
Our Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act as seen through the eyes of the California Justice Dept
We await word from the Secretary of State who will be sending us a schedule with the maximum filing deadline and the certification deadline.
According to the LAPD, there was a 300% uptick in police shootings of suspects with documented mental illnesses... The report also found that some minority suspects were disproportionately struck by police fire. The Los Angeles Times points out that while just 9% of the city’s population is black, 21% of those struck by officer fire (8 of 38) were black. And while 48% of Los Angelenos are Latino, 58% (22 out of 38) of those struck by police were Latino.
Dashcam video from Encinia's patrol car shows the traffic stop quickly became confrontational. The video shows the trooper drawing his stun gun telling Bland, "I will light you up!" after Bland refuses to get out of her car. Bland eventually steps out of the vehicle, and Encinia orders her to the side of the road. The confrontation continues off-camera but is still audible.
Abdi Mohamed, 17, of Salt Lake City, Utah, is currently in a coma and fighting for his life after being shot three times by police this past weekend. Mohamed was reportedly holding a broomstick when police arrived and was shot after being ordered to drop it, according to New York Daily News.
Residents showed their anger by attacking the police with bottles and rocks. Police have so far refused to release the body cams worn by the cops involved in the shooting. They claim that they are protecting the rights of the wounded “suspect.” Yeah, right.
(Wordcloud composed of Support the Dream Defenders, Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act, Expand Medicaid, Freedom of Information Act Project, Combat Racism, Demand Equality.)
Members of the Daily Kos group Support the Dream Defenders launched four ongoing projects:
1. We came together to support the Dream Defenders in Florida and their mission, our first project and the origin of our name. The Dream Defendersdefend the Dream of Martin Luther King Jr. by "develop[ing] the next generation of radical leaders to realize and exercise our independent collective power; building alternative systems and organizing to disrupt the structures that oppress our communities." Please donate here.
2. Our Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act, crowd-sourced at Daily Kos in the fall of 2014 after the death of Michael Brown. Our bill quickly earned endorsements from the NAACP and the ACLU. The NAACP forwarded our bill to members of Congress, and we distributed it to members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other progressive members of Congress. President Obama signed into a law a small piece of our bill in December 2014. The Department of Justice included parts of our law in their reports on Ferguson, Missouri, in 2015. Our state version of the MBOPRA is currently in committee in the Kansas legislature.
3. Our Freedom of Information Act project. Nineteen Republican governors chose to kill poor people by not expanding Medicaid. Ebola has killed about 9000 people in total; Republican governors kill 23,000 people PER YEAR by refusing federal support for Medicaid, a story ignored by traditional media. Our project forces those governors to out themselves, clapping them in a Catch 22. With the support of readers, we publicize our results through letters to the editor, press releases, and petitions.
You can receive all future diaries of Support the Dream Defenders in your Daily Kos Stream by clicking here. Then click "Follow," which will make all STDD diaries appear in "My Stream" of your Daily Kos page.
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