As charges are dismissed in an Atlanta police shooting, a reminder of the devaluation of Black lives
Research has shown that no matter the circumstances, you are more likely to die in police interactions because you’re Black.
For African Americans, the wheels of justice turn slowly, and sometimes they don’t turn at all.
Rather than catalog the many cases that illustrate the point, I’ll focus on one — the police killing of Rayshard Brooks.
It happened on June 12, 2020, on the heels of the racial justice protests that swept the country after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. America was a tinderbox, and Atlanta, like most cities, needed only a match to light the flame. What happened that June night was enough, because what happened that June night was wrong.
Police were called when workers at a Wendy’s restaurant discovered that Brooks was asleep in his car and blocking the drive-thru lane. Officers Garrett Rolfe and Devin Brosnan responded. According to video footage from police bodycams, bystander video, and the restaurant’s surveillance cameras, the officers awakened Brooks and administered a field sobriety test. Brooks failed, and the officers attempted to arrest him. Brooks fought them and grabbed a Taser from Brosnan. Brooks attempted to fire the Taser, and as he was running away, he was shot twice in the back by Rolfe.
To be clear, Brooks was wrong to drive drunk. He was wrong to fight the officers. He was wrong to take the Taser and attempt to fire it. But many people saw the same thing I did — a fleeing suspect shot in the back.
» READ MORE: Black people stood up to racist policing and got results. Where is that story? | Solomon Jones
A video of the incident went viral and Atlanta exploded. Protesters set fire to the Wendy’s. The police chief resigned. Brosnan was reassigned. Rolfe was fired, charged with murder, and later reinstated. Then, on Tuesday, a special prosecutor said the murder charge against Rolfe and related charges against Brosnan would be withdrawn because the evidence showed that the officers had acted reasonably.
But when is it reasonable to shoot a fleeing person in the back? Is it reasonable to do so when he’s about 20 feet away from you and running in the opposite direction, as Brooks was? Is it reasonable to do so after a physical altercation had ended? And perhaps the biggest question of all: Is it reasonable for a police officer to be judge, jury, and executioner?
We live in a system that devalues Black lives. So whether you’re Rayshard Brooks running away in Atlanta, Eric Garner selling loose cigarettes on Staten Island, or Breonna Taylor in her apartment in Louisville, Ky., you are more likely to die in police interactions because you’re Black.
This is not an opinion based on conjecture. Multiple studies illustrate the racial disparities. In 2020, Harvard researchers found that Black people are more than three times as likely as our white counterparts to be killed in police encounters. Last year, the Washington Post found that Black Americans were twice as likely as white people to be killed by police.
» READ MORE: George Floyd was somebody, and his death can’t be in vain | Solomon Jones
It’s not just what happens to Black people, however. It’s what doesn’t happen to white people. Dylann Roof murdered nine people in a Black church, and when police caught up to him, they gave him a bulletproof vest and treated him to a meal from Burger King.
When Kyle Rittenhouse killed two people and wounded a third while claiming he’d brought an AR-15-style weapon to a protest to protect property, he was able to walk right past police after the killings, while still carrying the weapon. No one stopped or questioned him, and he was eventually acquitted of manslaughter charges in court.
Then, of course, there is Jan. 6, 2021, when thousands of mostly white Trump supporters, some of whom were armed, converged on the U.S. Capitol and violently attacked police. One hundred forty officers were wounded that day. One Capitol Police officer, Brian Sicknick, died the day after the assault. Though the insurrectionists who attacked that day unquestionably made officers fear for their lives, only one of those protesters was shot.
Today, even with overwhelming evidence against the Jan. 6 attackers, the wheels of justice have moved slowly to hold them accountable. However, for Rayshard Brooks, the wheels of justice will never move again.