Cops Killed An Unarmed Black Man, But They Could Be Back On The Force

YouTube player

This is stan­dard prac­tice when cops mur­der against African Americans. On the rare occa­sion there is an inves­ti­ga­tion; it is car­ried out by, you guessed it, oth­er cops from anoth­er depart­ment if they want to seem like they are doing an actu­al inves­ti­ga­tion. At oth­er times the same depart­ment will do a sham inves­ti­ga­tion and find no wrongdoing.
But worse yet, the politi­cians gave away so much lever­age to police unions that even when cops are charged with mur­der and manslaugh­ter and are fired, arbi­tra­tors can decide that the fired mur­der­ers be reinstated.
These arbi­tra­tors are usu­al­ly a sin­gle lawyer bought and paid for by the police unions. This seri­ous­ly is what pass­es for a jus­tice sys­tem in America.
Additionally, as soon as they are fired, anoth­er depart­ment quick­ly hires them to con­tin­ue their mur­der­ous spree against the Black community.(MB)

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»

This image from police body cam video provided by the City of Lawton, OKla., shows police approaching Quadry Sanders after he was shot by police on Dec. 5, 2021
This image from police body cam video pro­vid­ed by the City of Lawton, OKla., shows police approach­ing Quadry Sanders after he was shot by police on Dec. 5, 2021

Two Oklahoma police offi­cers charged with manslaugh­ter may be back on the streets soon. Arbitrators ruled that the two for­mer offi­cers must be rein­stat­ed and receive back pay even though they fatal­ly shot an unarmed Black man. In 2021, offi­cers Nathan Ronan and Robert Hinkle shot unarmed 29-year-old Quadry Sanders. They were placed on leave before being fired in January of 2022. And last May, they were charged with manslaugh­ter in con­nec­tion with the shooting.

In 2021, Police respond­ed to a call about a man was wav­ing a gun inside of the home of some­one who had a pro­tec­tive order against him. The New York Times speak­ing with the District Attorney, wrote about what hap­pened next:

Mr. Sanders com­plied with an officer’s com­mands to show his hands, accord­ing to the dis­trict attorney’s office, before run­ning back inside. When Mr. Sanders exits the house again, an offi­cer wear­ing the body cam­era moves toward him, direct­ing him to put his hands up and get down on the ground.

The only object vis­i­ble in his hands is a base­ball cap, accord­ing to the dis­trict attorney’s state­ment. Mr. Sanders appears to try to move behind a refrig­er­a­tor sit­ting out­side, and just as he rais­es his hands above his head, one of the offi­cers shoots at Mr. Sanders four times.

Mr. Sanders then falls to the ground, at which time an offi­cer once again says, “Hands! Hands! Hands!”

The footage then shows Mr. Sanders sit­ting up with his hands above his head, and at that moment he is repeat­ed­ly shot, the video shows. Officers shout at Mr. Sanders to “stay down” and “roll over on your stom­ach.” Mr. Sanders, writhing, appears to say “I’m down” and “I can’t breathe.

Sanders was tak­en to the hos­pi­tal, where he suc­cumbed to his injuries. Despite the fact that there was suf­fi­cient evi­dence to bring a manslaugh­ter indict­ment, arbi­tra­tors con­clud­ed that the two offi­cers were unjus­ti­fi­ably ter­mi­nat­ed and had a rea­son­able belief that the use of force was necessary.

This is hard­ly the first time that a police offi­cer who shot an unarmed Black American has been rein­stat­ed. The for­mer Louisville police offi­cer who shot Breonna Taylor in her apart­ment was hired by anoth­er Kentucky police department.

The Lawton Police Department has not made a state­ment about when these offi­cers will return to the police force and how they plan on han­dling the ruling.

From The Root