Saturday, November 29, 2014

Unarmed White Man Shot & Killed By Police



On August 11th, just 2 days after the shooting of Mike Brown, Officer Bron Cruz shot and killed  20 year old, Dillon Taylor in Salt Lake City, Utah. Taylor was not only unharmed but he is also white! Surprised?! I was when I first heard this story. I have never heard of a case where a white man was shot and killed by police for no apparant reason before this .

The officer has been cleared of all charges.

When I read this story on "DOWNTREND.COM" I quickly realized that the author, Brian Anderson did not pen the article with the intent to shed light on this incident or to expose an obvious injustice. His intentition was to use this young mans death as an excuse to launch an attack. The thread that seemed to run through the piece takes on a rather accusatory tone, instead of lamenting the tragedy. Andersen uses the death of Taylor to not on criticize, and demonize Rev. Al Sharpton, President Obama and the protesters in Ferguson, but the African-American community as a whole for allegedly not being as outraged about Taylor's murder, as they are about the murder of Michael Brown. He even went on to say, in so many words that Michael Brown was indirectly guilty of causing his own death by fighting with Officer Wilson, and Taylor was not so guilty because he did "nothing." This is an insulting, and stupid attempt to imply that no one cares about this shooting just because Taylor is white. But the fact of the matter is that injustice is injustice, and color doesn't matter.

Rhetoric like this is dangerous, polorizing, and serves absolutely no purpose other than to create paranoia.

These are the facts.

The officer actually recorded a bodycam video of the incident. http://youtu.be/o1UjKqzVDCw

While the bodycam video is short, it’s clear to see from the video provided that Taylor did not appear to be threat to the officer. He was shot simply for not following orders; murdered for questioning authority.

The implications of this are chilling, some police officers have an utter disregard for the lives of others, to put it mildly. We should come together and do whatever is necessary to stop fight injustice. Police shootings are not isolated incidences. Police violence is a universal problem faced by many in America, regardless of race.

Minorities are face a much higher rate of police violence, but nearly everyone that is victimized by police and the "war on drugs" are part of the working poor, regardless of race. This is a war on freedom, with racist and classist under tones, which need to be acknowledged, opposed and faught.

The police need to learn that Americans, no matter what their economic class or color, are not their enemies. Police are workers just like the rest of us, however they’ve let themselves become tools of Big Government and the prison industrial complex.

I repeat, INJUSTICE HAS NO COLOR!!

PR

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