In Baltimore there were over 40 people killed in May and June, a city first according to the Baltimore Sun. The police chief was fired, and the interim chief requested federal help to investigate the city’s unprecedented murder cases. During that same period a shootout at a block party in Detroit left a 19-year-old gunman dead and 11 people wounded. (Four women and seven men, the oldest 47) Out of frustration Detroit’s police chief called perpetrators of gun violence “urban terrorist.” (Detroit’s police chief is Black, can you imagine if a White police chief used this term?) Because residents refused to cooperate with the police efforts to apprehend the killer, Detroit’s police chief stood in the basketball court where the shooting occurred and said, “This is a passionate plea for the neighborhood to say something and step up…Speak up. Say something. Your silence is not acceptable.”
The police chief summit concluded: There are no clear answers. Policing alone can’t solve the growing violent crime problem. Policy makers must find effective ways to address larger social problems such as metal illness, unemployment, and lack of access to education.
Another old saying: I rather be judged by 12 than carried by six. On the same day the nation’s capital hosted the police chiefs The Washington Post ran this headline on their website: Police shot and killed more people in July than any other month so far this year. (Since 1976 the federal data has never recorded more than 460 fatal police shooting in a year. The Post identified 463 in the first six months of 2015.)
According to a Washington Post database tracking all fatal on-duty police shooting this year 103 were killed last month. The previous high was 90 killed in March. July joined April as a month with at least one fatal police shooting each day. There were 14 days in July with four or more shootings—July 7 had eight. Eighty-seven of the 103 that were killed were armed and mental illness factored into the others. There was one woman. Police received a call about a suicidal person. When they arrived the woman pulled out a handgun and ignored police orders to drop her firearm. The police weren’t taking any chances.
As of August third The Washington Post’s database tracked 570 fatal police shootings. Ironically three days later in Boise, Idaho close to 100 residents gathered at a navy veteran’s house to protest claims that federal officials were planning to confiscate the navy veteran’s weapons. Among the protesters was the county sheriff who promised to stand guard against any federal attempts to confiscate guns. A state representative said the event was “defiance against tyranny.” There’s an old saying that starts: It takes a village… But what if the village is uncivilized?
(J. Pharoah Doss is a contributor to the New Pittsburgh Courier. He blogs at jpharoahdoss@blogspot.com)
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