Alton Sterling, Father of Five—One More Black Man Shot Down By American Police

[smilesammich 10,727]

African Americans make up a disproportionate and overwhelming majority of the dead. We are disproportionately stopped, subjected to search and arrest—disportionately the victims of police violence.

If we dare question that level of violence, we are immediately accused of “playing the race card.” If we dare point to the statistics or call for transparent investigations, we are accused of failing to police morality in our own communities. When we weep and shout the names of our dead, we caution that the victim was “no angel.”

“He should’ve complied,” they’ll say. As if Sterling did not. As if Eric Garner did not, as if John Crawford III or 12-year-old Tamir Rice ever had a chance to.

Police officers allege that their department-issued body cameras fell from their uniforms during the altercation and did not record the incident. It is thanks to a bystander’s video taken from inside of a car that there is little question about what unfolded Tuesday night in Baton Rouge.

Sterling was standing alone, his arms outstretched at his sides, when a Baton Rouge police officer rushed and tackled him to the ground. A second quickly joined and, moments later, Sterling lay bleeding to death from multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and back.

He did not fight. He made no threats. He is dead and his young children are fatherless.

http://thebea.st/29yhhvL

since we're on the topic of disproportionate application of justice in this country...

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

Do you have any facts to support your assertion that more blacks are shot than whites by the police. I would post the DOJ stats but that got me banned one time

[smilesammich 10,727]

Do you have any facts to support your assertion that more blacks are shot than whites by the police. I would post the DOJ stats but that got me banned one time

do i have any facts to support my assertion?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/09/us/us-has-limited-data-on-shootings-involving-police.html?_r=0

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

I saw this trending and watched the video(even though I didn't want to). They executed him on his stomach, after being pinned down. I shouldn't be surprised though, selling CD's is way more dangerous than shooting people or police officers...

[smilesammich 10,727]

I saw this trending and watched the video(even though I didn't want to). They executed him on his stomach, after being pinned down. I shouldn't be surprised though, selling CD's is way more dangerous than shooting people or police officers...

its disgusting that a man can stand before police and pose no threat, only to be tackled, tased and shot to death for NOT RESISTING. seems like the requisite for murder by cop has hit bottom of the barrel. only a matter of time before this is just as typical in the suburbs.

folks will be hootin and hollerin then, 'but but COPS CANT DOOOOO THAAATTTTT!!!!!' oh but they can. they do. matter of time.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

its disgusting that a man can stand before police and pose no threat, only to be tackled, tased and shot to death for NOT RESISTING. seems like the requisite for murder by cop has hit bottom of the barrel. only a matter of time before this is just as typical in the suburbs.

folks will be hootin and hollerin then, 'but but COPS CANT DOOOOO THAAATTTTT!!!!!' oh but they can. they do. matter of time.

I doubt it. Sadly, I know for a fact this is deeply rooted in racial bias. Could you even imagine seeing this in an upscale neighborhood? Some middle aged white dude getting tackled and shot to death? Or a white woman with kids being dragged out of the car and put in jail, dying days later? What about all the white men and women who pack guns and get shot for doing so?

I'll say it here first. This will NEVER happen in better neighborhoods. Because the police know; don't believe, don't dream, don't assume, they KNOW, that killing black people will ALWAYS have less consequences than killing anyone else. This happened in the same city where the mayor passed the hate crime law that protects police officers.

[smilesammich 10,727]

I doubt it. Sadly, I know for a fact this is deeply rooted in racial bias. Could you even imagine seeing this in an upscale neighborhood? Some middle aged white dude getting tackled and shot to death? Or a white woman with kids being dragged out of the car and put in jail, dying days later? What about all the white men and women who pack guns and get shot for doing so?

I'll say it here first. This will NEVER happen in better neighborhoods. Because the police know; don't believe, don't dream, don't assume, they KNOW, that killing black people will ALWAYS have less consequences than killing anyone else. This happened in the same city where the mayor passed the hate crime law that protects police officers.

it's rooted in racial bias but ultimately america's poor are the pic's cash crop. matter of time, it's inevitable.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

it's rooted in racial bias but ultimately america's poor are the pic's cash crop. matter of time, it's inevitable.

No argument there. But I think after decades of this happening within our community, the cops are very complacent where they are.

[smilesammich 10,727]

No argument there. But I think after decades of this happening within our community, the cops are very complacent where they are.

so i just read the two cops who killed alton sterling, had 7 years of job experience - combined. big surprise.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

so i just read the two cops who killed alton sterling, had 7 years of job experience - combined. big surprise.

Oh yeah. I'm shocked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxlhyX-4qKI

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

do i have any facts to support my assertion?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/09/us/us-has-limited-data-on-shootings-involving-police.html?_r=0

That was op ed . I will help you. More whites are shot by police every year than blacks.

[John Miller 761]

Race remains the most volatile flash point in any accounting of police shootings. Although black men make up only 6 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 40 percent of the unarmed men shot to death by police this year, The Post’s database shows. In the majority of cases in which police shot and killed a person who had attacked someone with a weapon or brandished a gun, the person who was shot was white. But a hugely disproportionate number — 3 in 5 — of those killed after exhibiting less threatening behavior were black or Hispanic.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/12/26/a-year-of-reckoning-police-fatally-shoot-nearly-1000/

[smilesammich 10,727]

That was op ed . I will help you. More whites are shot by police every year than blacks.

how does this help? what do you think this op ed is saying? seems you misunderstand the issue at hand.

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

Race remains the most volatile flash point in any accounting of police shootings. Although black men make up only 6 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 40 percent of the unarmed men shot to death by police this year, The Posts database shows. In the majority of cases in which police shot and killed a person who had attacked someone with a weapon or brandished a gun, the person who was shot was white. But a hugely disproportionate number 3 in 5 of those killed after exhibiting less threatening behavior were black or Hispanic.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/12/26/a-year-of-reckoning-police-fatally-shoot-nearly-1000/

Black men also commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime, equal to about or greater of the stat you pointed out. Oddly enough people claim you are racist when that is pointed out. So a basic understanding of statistics would make one understand the disproportionate number shot by police parallels then disproportionate amount of violent crime they commit.

Odd here how disproportionate is a racist word until it's used to make blacks victims.

[smilesammich 10,727]

Black men also commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime, equal to about or greater of the stat you pointed out. Oddly enough people claim you are racist when that is pointed out. So a basic understanding of statistics would make one understand the disproportionate number shot by police parallels then disproportionate amount of violent crime they commit.

Odd here how disproportionate is a racist word until it's used to make blacks victims.

ah, thanks for the clarification. you don't understand the issue at hand. got it. let's spare the broken record though. your response to a specific murder is to justify it with the 'black people commit crime so accept a bit of collateral damage' defense. want to talk about people in positions of authority being accountable to the law? i do.