Gone are the days where we’d associate your friendly neighborhood policemen with doughnuts and coffee. In current times when many people, namely people of color, hear the term “law enforcement,” it provides a totally different visual. Police brutality has plagued this country for years, but since the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, it’s like things were kicked into overdrive and young black men are suffering because of it.
Courtesy: CNN
Most recently, Stephon Clark, an unarmed 22-year-old black man, was gunned down by police in his grandmother’s backyard in Sacramento. This shooting has managed to incite yet another wave of political unrest as people demand justice for this slain young man and father of two.
Responding to a call about someone breaking into cars in the Sacramento area, police began searching the premises the night of Wednesday, March 18. When Clark was spotted with what police allegedly believed to be a toolbar, both officers fired off ten shots, resulting in a brutal and bloodied death for Stephon Clark. Later on, law enforcement officials found that the weapon they assumed he had was actually a cell phone.
Now the Clark family is taking every precaution they can to get justice, even hiring a prominent civil rights defense lawyer, Benjamin Crump, who has worked on the cases of Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown and Tamir Rice.
Courtesy: ABCNews
Since the slaying, the Sacramento area has been alive with protest and support for Clark’s family members. Reverend Al Sharpton, another renowned civil rights figure, delivered a heart-wrenching eulogy at Clark’s funeral on Thursday, March 26, and derided the White House for its lack of action toward the situation and for simply dismissing the issue as a “local matter.”
“This is not a local matter,” Sharpton says. “They have been killing young black men all over the country, and we are here to say that we are going to stand with Stephon Clark and his family.”
At the church where the funeral was held, over 400 mourners shared in the family’s grief and offered a complete outpouring of community support as they comforted one another and shed tears in front of Clark’s closed casket.
Needless to say, the consistent and careless murdering of unarmed individuals of color by police is something that has grown far too prevalent in this country. And the White House’s ignorance, or blatant decision to ignore the issue, comes as a slap in the face to so many that have fought and are still fighting for justice.