This just in … suspect on foot … African American male, early to mid twenties, relatively tall, wearing a sports jersey, suspected of shoplifting from the tech department at Millborough’s Department Store. All officers respond to said location and on foot officers spread out to a 25 mile radius in search of the party. Moments later, a male white rookie by the name of Officer Pat, claims he is in pursuit of that description. At the time Officer Pat stopped what he believed fit the description of the alleged suspect that was holding a cellphone box. Officer Pat proceeded to question the male and asked the following, “What is that box in your hand?”, “What location were you coming from prior to this?”, and “Where were you heading?” According to the officer, the male quickly became belligerent, began to curse and refused to answer any of the questions. Officer Pat claims that the male pulled out an object which he believed was a weapon from his pocket. Officer Pat argued that his life was in danger, and the very reason he immediately pulled out his revolver to shoot the male was to protect himself.
Riots rose among the streets. The name of the officer who shot the male was kept out of the press for a good amount of time, until the team figured out how to go about this issue. Upon further investigation, the Chief indeed found that the male had a knife in his pocket. The devastated family demanded to see the video footage of the incident from the police vehicle. When the Chief went to retrieve the footage, he found that the majority of the tapes were destroyed due to a water pipe breakage in the basement. Clearly, this would cause further riots, and so the Chief took it upon himself to retrieve surveillance footage from surrounding buildings of where the incident occurred. After reviewing the footage, the evidence showed that he male did in fact reach into his pocket and grab something, but it was unclear what exactly it was that he was grabbing due to the angle of the footage. The Chief believed that this was confirmation of Officer Pat’s version of the incidents that took place resulting in the death of the suspect. The family further accused the police department of a cover-up. They stood firm because they knew their son did not own a knife. Although not on the scene that day, Officer Olivia, who was Officer Pat’s partner did not believe his story and kept digging for the truth.. After reviewing the surveillance footage many times, she noticed a shadow in the back window of Officer Pat’s police car. While zooming in on the video, Officer Olivia sees her partner had picked someone up on the road yet left it out of the report, which she found odd. She investigates further, and upon searching his face through facial recognition and then his name in the database, it was clear to her that the man Officer Pat picked up was a repeat offender who had a history of pulling out a knife in public numerous times. In fact, the description Officer Pat gave of the knife the suspect he shot allegedly pulled out, was the same knife used by the repeat offender. She came to the conclusion that Officer Pat planted the knife that actually belonged to the criminal in his car, in the black male’s pocket in order to cover his tracks and come up with a story that would keep him in the clear. Officer Olivia presented this information to the Chief and the rest of the team and they then confronted Officer Pat. He then became tumultuous and said “These people don’t have respect! I risk my life everyday in these extremely dangerous streets, and they don’t respect it! These people just think that all cops are bad and out to get them. These people speak poorly to us and laugh and mock us but these people do not understand the risk we go through everyday for them!” Officer Olivia responded to him, “These people? What is that supposed to mean?”, to which he then responded, “Oh Liv you know exactly what I mean. You black people are just disrespectful and unappreciative! You needed to learn the sacrifice, you needed to understand the fear I go through everyday.” Officer Olivia was about to respond when a detective walked into the room, holding up a small piece of paper. This piece of paper was a receipt for the cellphone that the male had purchased. He was pulling out a receipt to prove his innocence, yet ended up dead. Officer Pat was charged and convicted with manslaughter and misconduct in the state of New York.
For shoplifting a cheap payphone, the male would have been charged with misdemeanor shoplifting, but he was falsely accused and ended up paying for it with his life. A majority of trials in which a police officer shoots a black male will result in either a mistrial or finding the defendant not guilty. The amount of injustice that is apparent in what is known as our justice system is quite an alarming amount and something must be done about it. The ideal of “innocent until proven guilty” is a concept that is in no way, shape, or form apparent in our justice system today when dealing with certain races. The male was simply trying to prove his innocence by holding up valid evidence but that didn’t matter. It did not matter because in the eyes of Officer Pat, the male was already guilty, and all he did was commit the crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and having the skin color that is not defended by our justice system. Throughout this essay I referred to the man that was shot as “the black male” instead of calling him by his name, Jay, and through Officer Pat I referred to blacks as “those people.” I did this to prove the point that to a lot of people that is just what they are; their skin color. Racism and mass incarceration are highly crucial problems in the modern world and we as a society can do something about this. We may not hold the power to create laws or decide and conclude verdicts but we do have the power of our voices. If we can get some talk started then we have a conversation, and the concept of a conversation then paves way for action, and that action will serve to save lives.
https://kellerlawoffices.com/guilty-of-crime/
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