Minnesota Police Still Doesn’t Know the Difference Between Taser and Handgun
On Sunday night, Minnesota protestors took to the streets to protest the wrongful murder of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop almost 10 miles away from where Derek Chauvin is currently on trial for the death of George Floyd.
Chief Tim Gannon of the Brooklyn Center Police Department stated that Mr. Wright was pulled over on Sunday afternoon for having expired registration tags. They shortly realized that there was a warrant out for Mr. Wright's arrest.
In a brief struggle between Mr. Wright and the officers, the shocking body camera footage shows officer Kim Potter pointing a handgun at Wright while shouting "Taser." Shortly after, Potter can be heard yelling, "Holy sh*t, I just shot him." Mr. Wright was pronounced dead at the scene, and medical examiners revealed it was due to “a gunshot wound of the chest, and manner of death is homicide.”
In a news conference, Chief Gannon said that it was his belief that the Potter had intended to deploy her taser but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet. He continued, "This appears to me, from what I viewed, and the officer's reaction and distress immediately after, that this was an accidental discharge that resulted in a tragic death of Mr. Wright". Potter has since resigned saying it’s in “best interest of the community.”
According to Ed Obayashi, an expert on the use of force by law enforcement and a deputy sheriff, officers shouldn't be easily confusing a gun with a taser but stated that this is not the first incident and it won’t be the last. And this is true. Behind every badge is a human being with bias and emotions that will inevitably make mistakes in pressing situations or in times of split-second decisions. Police officers are also allowed to use lethal force, which is precisely the reason why they should be subjected to intense scrutiny because the incidents in these reports were preventable—every single one of them.
Daunte Demetrius Wright, Patrick Lynn Warren Sr, Vincent "Vinny" M. Belmonte, Angelo Quinto, Andre Maurice Hill, Casey Christopher Goodson Jr. How many more human beings must be murdered at the hands of America's police force for us to recognize that the answer is not banning chokeholds or diversifying police departments. It's abolishment.
Police brutality is one of the most severe violations of human rights in the United States, and the problem is not one "bad apple"; it's institutionalized. Currently, in the United States, it is 2.5 times more likely for a Black individual to be killed by police than a white person. Black people also make up 34% of the prison population, even though they only make up 13% of the general population. Studies also clearly indicate that race continues to play a central role in police brutality in America. One particular study conducted by Human Rights Watch found that “minorities have alleged human rights violations by police more frequently than white residents and far out of proportion to their representation in those cities.” Further, "if barriers to accountability were removed in reports, the number and severity of abuses that officers commit would no doubt be greatly reduced.” Yet, we continue to prove every day that the administrative and legal procedures that are in place are fundamentally "flawed" and counterproductive.
After examining human rights violations committed by police officers and "barriers to investigation, redress, and prosecution," three fundamental failings were found: lack of accountability and transparency, failure to investigate and punish officers in violation of human rights, and obstacles to justice. And while the research indicates an inherently racist and classist institution, the expert recommendations only place emphasis on reform as the solution.
Video after video, statistic after statistic, we always seem to revert to critiquing the flaws of the justice system rather than the system itself. In 1993 the NYPD completely banned chokeholds, but that didn't stop the murder of Eric Garner in 2014. The Minneapolis Police Department had already undergone implicit bias, de-escalation, and crisis intervention. They diversified the department's leadership and adopted body cameras. Higher standards were enforced, reforms were implemented, and George Floyd still had a knee against his neck for 8 minutes, 46 seconds. He didn't have to die. Nobody did. The "flaws" that we continue to critique fatality after fatality cannot be fixed through reform and training because they aren't an accident but rather a fundamental pillar of an institution that was designed to preserve white supremacy and enforce a social hierarchy based on race and class. Reform is the wet bandaid for inequality and injustice. Abolition is the vaccine. And it goes deeper than rethinking our ways of policing; it's about questioning the reason we need it in the first place.
In his must read think piece on understanding the role of police towards abolitionism, Joshua Briond writes that today in America there is a lack of political imagination, beyond the electoral strategy and reformism, and the inability to envision a world or even country, devoid of police and prisons is rooted in (anti-Black), racialized colonial logics. We have gone farther than just perpetuating the notion that in order for law and order to be maintained, people must be patrolled and policed at all times. We have gotten so comfortable in hiding behind the legacies of white colonialism and white supremacy that we are now incapable of imagining a world without police or prisons.
We've been force-fed the falsities that crime is an inevitable part of our society, and we were silenced to believe that the people put in places of power are there to protect us, all while being victim to the violence of colonial patriarchy. We were taught not to bite the hand of capitalism that feeds us while blindly witnessing its inexorable side effects. We thought we didn't know any better. But now we do, so where is the change? When will we be released from the shackles of the inherently anti-black, subservient to capital institution of polic[e/ing]?
The answers to institutionalized violence are no longer synonymous with reform and imprisonment. In the wake of murder, injustice, and violence, we must rise against racial capitalism. Fear is no longer an option. Silence is no longer an option. Our collective understanding must grow beyond the notions that the system has more depth and substance than the human beings within it. After all, it is the people who give power to these notions, and it is the people who decide when enough is enough.
Strike Out,
Melania Zilo
Boca Raton