Another day passes in America, and another black person is shot and killed by police. It feels like this has become such a regular occurrence that one could set his watch by it.
Tick — Black American killed by law enforcement...
Tock — Officer placed on paid administrative leave...
Tick — Police justify shooting because of “perceived threat...”
Tock — Police and Right Wing commit character assassination of victim...
Tick — Police officer is not indicted...
Tock — Black American killed by law enforcement…
The extrajudicial execution of Keith Lamont Scott has reached the “Perceived Threat” Stage of this classic American drama, and soon we will be entering the stage in which his name is smeared for being a flawed human being, just like the rest of us. It was reported by the Charlotte Police Chief that Scott was armed when he was killed by police, and that has been the justification for his murder. The right wing media have already settled the debate in their mind, if armed while confronted by police you can expect to be shot. But this narrative ignores some very crucial additions and possibilities.
It is entirely possible that the police planted the gun, just as it is possible that law enforcement planted the PCP in Terence Crutcher’s vehicle. They may not have done so in either case, but without the body cam and dash cam footage in Scott’s murder I can only speculate. That speculation is founded largely on a long history of law enforcement planting evidence when they have done something wrong. Incidences such as this one, and this one, and these, as well as these. When the police can’t honestly justify their actions sometimes they fabricate justification.
Without the video footage we can only speculate at this point, but let’s say that Scott was indeed armed. Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s police chief, Kerr Putney, said in a statement that Charlotte police were at the apartment complex to serve a warrant when “[t]hey saw a man with a gun leave a vehicle. Police said they approached the man after he got back into the vehicle…Scott was not the person officers were searching for to arrest on the outstanding warrants, CMPD Chief Kerr Putney told reporters at the scene.” This begs the question, “Why did the police officers feel the need to confront Keith Scott?” North Carolina is an open carry state, this means Scott was well within his 2nd Amendment rights, and the bounds of North Carolina law. He didn’t do anything illegal. He was not the man police were looking for, and they knew that to be a fact. He did not threaten police, upon realizing the situation it appears he may have thought it better to just remain in his vehicle. No law was violated by returning to his vehicle, you can have your gun in your vehicle in the state of North Carolina. So why did the CMPD officers confront Keith Scott, a law-abiding citizen that presented no threat to the officers?
Once again I can only speculate, but I am pretty sure he was targeted because of his skin color. It appears that a person is free to carry their firearms openly in North Carolina so long as their skin is below a particular melanin threshold. Law enforcement will not approach you with suspicion, they will not approach you as a possible threat, so long as your skin color does not threaten them. But that has been a constant theme throughout American history, from the “Giant Negroes” that threatened fragile whit people on a daily basis, to the grunting black demon that threatened Darren Wilson’s fragile existence, and the “bad dude” Terence Crutcher. People of color have always been present in the collective nightmares of white America, they have always been viewed as a greater threat. The way our police officers handle situations appears to exemplify this fear. Austin Harrouff stabbed two people to death in Florida, and when police found him he was eating the face of one of his victims. The first police officers on scene gave Harrouff lawful orders, then tasered him, and finally wrestled him off his victim and placed him in handcuffs, he is currently awaiting trial. Rudy Eugene was also found by police in Florida eating the face of his alive victim. The first officer on scene gave him a lawful order, and subsequently shot him after Eugene “grunted” at the officer. In Brea, California, an unnamed white man made a call to 911, when officers arrived on scene the man shot at them through the door. A SWAT team arrived on scene, an they eventually subdued the suspect using non-lethal beanbag rounds, he is currently alive. The Baltimore Police Department sent three police officers to the apartment of Korryn Gaines to serve warrants for traffic court, they attempted to enter her apartment after receiving no response for 10 minutes. There they found Gaines armed with a rifle, and she told the police to leave or she would shoot. Law enforcement fired first, and Gaines returned fire, she was eventually killed ans her 5 year-old son was wounded in the volley.
I am not saying that every, or even most police officers are racists, instead, it appears that implicit bias manifests itself and become magnified within our police departments, affecting law enforcement no matter the race of the officer. Implicit bias is not based on the race of the person who holds it, it is based on the people they come into contact with. It doesn’t matter what color your skin is, once you don the uniform you are not white, brown, or black, you are blue. This implicit bias informed the actions of those police officers in Charlotte on September 20th. That implicit bias lead to a situation of officer created jeopardy. Mr. Scott was not a threat to law enforcement until law enforcement engaged him and caused him to become a “perceived threat.” Law enforcement created the dangerous situation. There was no cause to confront a man who was breaking no laws, and who was exercising his constitutional rights. The police officers made the decision to confront a man they knew to be armed, but was not presenting a threat, and therein created a situation in which he could be considered a threat. Keith Scott did not have to die that day, but officer created jeopardy created the events that led up to his murder, as it has with other Americans.
As we all know, at the time the Constitution was written “We the People” was pretty specific. “The People” were white, land owning males; not women, not people of color. We have made a lot of changes throughout our brief history, and we like to say that the Constitution now extends the same rights to every single American. That idea is either ignorant, or purely aspirational, because it is not true at this time. Keith Scott, Philando Castile, and Colin Kaepernick, are all just recent examples of how white America tends to enshrine our constitutional rights until a person of color tries to exercise those same rights. Whether or not you are in favor of the 2nd Amendment, or totally against it, it is currently the law and all Americans should be able to exercise their rights under it equally. Many right wing gun owners claim an inherent right and patriotic duty to bearing arms in the event that a tyrannical government threatens their life and liberty. That same sentiment usually disappears when it is a person of color doing the same thing, and people of color may actually have a legitimate reason to be armed against a government that presents an existential threat. When the Black Panthers legally carried firearms openly in California, Ronnie Raygun and the NRA helped pass the Mulford Act. People of color are not automatically dangerous or suspicious when armed, but those are the perceptions harbored by white America and many of our law enforcement officers. We tend to give great respect to our constitutional rights because we know just how much power they hold. Our rights have the power to fundamentally change the country, and maybe that is why we are so scared when we see people of color exercising those rights.
