Excessive Force

On May 20, 2009 a videotape revealed that five Birmingham, Alabama police officers at the culmination of a highway chase brutally beat and kicked suspect Anthony Warren, continuing their assault even after the man was rendered unconscious. The incident occurred in January of 2008, but the patrol car tapes were not released until March of 2009. The officers involved have since been fired. Warren received a severe concussion and a skull fracture as a result of the incident, but at least he survived. Others have not been so lucky, and their killers have gone unpunished because they had one thing and one thing only – power.

On April 18. 1973 officer Thomas Shea of the NYPD responded to a call indicating that two “negros” had stolen a taxi. The “suspect” he ultimately found was not the criminal in question but ten year old Clifford Glover who ran from the white man who chased him only to be shot in the back. He was unarmed, and guilty of no crime other than being black. As Glover stood over the boy either Glover or his partner, officer Scott, was heard over the police radio making the comment “Die, you little fuck” – exactly which officer made the remark remains in question to this day.  The court listened to Shea’s case, he was indicted by a grand jury on the charge of murder, and he was ultimately acquitted  “by 11 white men who said they were satisfied/justice had been done/and one black woman who said “They convinced me”

Poet Audrey Lourde wrote those words because she was so devastated by the verdict that she had to pull her car over and write: “I am trapped on a desert of raw gunshot wounds/ and a dead child dragging his shattered black/ face off the edge of my sleep” Those words are only a small part of her poem Power, an admirable attempt as through words she is “trying to make power out of hatred and destruction” but the fact of the matter is words are not sufficient to stem the tide of hate that still exists even 26 years later.

On November 26, 2006, 23 year old Sean Bell was slaughtered when police officers fired multiple rounds into a car occupied by Bell and his friends, all of whom were unarmed. Their crime? Spending an evening at a strip club, the Kalua Cabaret, as part of Bell’s bachelor party festivities (he was due to be married the next day). The problem was, an undercover sting was in progress at the club, and adrenaline was running high enough that a chain of events occurred in which three officers ultimately fired fifty rounds into a vehicle containing unarmed, innocent victims. Not once did they stop to reassess the situation, as was required by NYPD codes. Officers Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora were charged with manslaughter. Officer Marc Cooper was charged with reckless endangerment. All three officers were cleared.

Excessive force. Time and again when I pick up the paper, turn on the news, read a headline; I see things happening in the world around me that never need to happen. I see the strong beating down the weak for no apparent reason other than to emphasize their own superiority.  This is not a new phenomenon. It has been an ongoing facet of our culture since the beginning of time, and it has certainly been prevalent in the United States since the first settlers arrived and decided to ignore the fact that an entire population of Native Americans was already living here and simply take over through the use of deadly force. It’s all about power, and until we begin to take decisive actions against those who perpetrate these atrocities they will continue to occur. Firing is merely a slap on the wrist. These officers will continue to take their hatred to the streets with or without a badge. O’Shea claims that he will never own a gun again. He must carry his crime with him to his grave, but at least he had a chance to live which is more than can be said for his victim. It isn’t about guns or badges. It’s about changing the perceptions of those who carry them.