Charles Kinsey’s Attorney: “I don’t understand if he’s aiming at the autistic kid, how he could miss,” If that was the case, said the attorney, “he had plenty of time to tell my client to move.”
Kinsey’s Employer: “that Kinsey did everything in his power to de-escalate a very volatile and dangerous situation while complying fully with the orders of the North Miami police department.”
I do believe that it is just unfair for an unarmed person to be shot. It seems unfair in my eyes, that someone is allowed to defend themselves with a gun against someone who does not have a gun, or even a knife, or a tree branch, or a toy car.
The issue of officers using deadly force has truly laid in a gray area for some time now. We think it’s unfair, #BlackLivesMatter thinks it’s unfair, but officers aren’t being convicted. In the wake of so many young, black, unarmed men being shot, I’m starting to see that the officers are not the only problem here. It’s the amount of choices the officers are allowed to make. It’s the leniency and the power they are given when they put the uniform on.
It’s scary. Constitutionally, police departments have two standards on deadly force:
- “Defense of Life:” To protect their life or the life of someone else.
- “Fleeing a Violent Crime:” To protect a dangerous suspect from leaving.
The scary part is that the judgment is up to the police officer. He or she only has to think that their life is in danger or that the suspect could escape, in order to end their life.
This is why I don’t get surprised when another officer isn’t indicted. This is why I know these shooters are racist. I don’t even bring up the many studies and statistics that prove that there are more black deaths in these situations. This is all I have to bring up, because it gives insight to exactly how these types of officers think. After centuries of painting the black man in a certain light, they feel that they have to protect themselves. They have to protect their families from the black man, regardless if that black man has a family of his own, or if there is even a shadow of a possibility that he wasn’t doing anything wrong. He’s a black man, so what if. This kind of thinking is so subconscious that a police officer can answer “I don’t know” when asked why he had to use deadly force.
It’s that kind of thinking that says any black suspect is a dangerous suspect, whether he is being accused of a dangerous crime or not. Officers are given too much judgement in this area. Every person is different, so what I think is necessary others may not agree with. It would be a mistake to think that every officer shoots unarmed black men solely because of their race. But it is also a mistake to think that all officers will act with good judgement in the same situation. This is the mistake that judges and juries make when these cases are taken to court. He must’ve had good judgement/he must’ve really thought he was in danger, because he is a police officer and we trust that he has been trained properly. We put too much trust in a system that has failed us over and over, so it would be a mistake to think that all judges and juries will act in good judgement as well. This is the cycle that blind trust has caused. It puts innocent people of all races in an early grave.
Because yes, there are officers who will do the same thing to an unarmed white man. In fact, there are probably many officers who will shoot an unarmed anybody who “could be dangerous” because they have the power to do so. So, you might ask, how did race even become the subject of these shootings? This is where I can start talking about the alarming statistics. Black people are more likely to be killed by police than white people. Whether or not Charles Kinsey’s case has to do with race, that’s what the statistics prove. So when an officer is given that much latitude in the field, and their racial biases come into play, they can shoot as many unarmed black men as they like. It’s time to set some standards that make sure that as long as it is okay for our law enforcement to be racist, they shouldn’t have a say in who is dangerous and who is not.
Keep recording the police. Keep protesting. Keep saying their names.
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