On November 15, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 24-year-old Jamar Clark was fatally shot by police while they were arresting him. What has enraged the public is that witnesses report that he was not only handcuffed, but also bodily restrained by the police, and that he was not resisting when they shot and killed him. The police have denied these claims, and the video footage has been kept from the public.
The civil rights group ColorOfChange has made an online petition for the video to be released, and they have nearly received 70,000 signatures. Black Lives Matter and other supporting groups have been protesting in Minneapolis, and have made their rage known.
What is slightly different about this case, is that the U.S. Department of Justice is in fact investigating the incident. Hopefully this incident will be properly dealt with and rectified as best as it can be.
When things like this happen, it's always upsetting to realize how easy it is for the police officers to go off and attack citizens, and knowing that they are in the best position to hide evidence is scary. Luckily, there are civil rights group out there that are trying to bring change to the country, unfortunately as they are fighting against those in power it is an uphill battle.
For more information, click the links below:
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/11/23/civil-rights-groups-says-its-gathered-70000-signatures-for-the-release-of-video/
http://colorofchange.org/
http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/21/us/minneapolis-jamar-clark-police-shooting/
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/jamar-clark-is-the-next-great-police-brutality-controversy/416418/
Just saying that the video footage was kept away from the public is saying something happened and it wasn't good. Trying so hard to keep something away then a person will definitely know something is up. But maybe the police are afraid of an uprising if the video were to be shown?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. But, they've already got an uprising, simply from withholding evidence, so their plan backfired.
DeleteI honestly would have thought that the police would've learned by now: you can't withhold video evidence from the public without being viewed as a corrupt monster. WHEN WILL THIS END?!
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the US Department of Justice is actually working on this one is a good sign. there have been many cases where police brutality has remained unresolved or blatantly ignored, and it's nice to see that it's at least being investigated. But yeah, the withholding of the video is pretty suspicious. Hopefully we will see it released in the near future.
ReplyDelete