V. Elaine Gross

The disturbing videos of police shooting African-Americans

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It seems universal that accidental and deliberate deaths are horrific and extremely difficult to accept, especially the death of loved ones. Whatever our differences, on a human level, we all should be able to empathize with anyone who is mourning a death.

I would speculate that a vast majority of the public, African-Americans included, mourn the killing of good police officers who run toward danger to protect the public. And blacks grieve with the families of fallen officers, just as they grieve with the families of African-Americans who have been killed by police officers. Why isn’t a significant majority of the public grieving with these African-American families, too? The facts provide some very uncomfortable answers.

Of the 11 high-profile cases of police-involved deaths caught on video since 2014, officers have been indicted in five cases, according to The New York Times, and, including the July 5 shooting death of a black man in Louisiana, the U.S. Department of Justice opened civil rights investigations in four cases. The DOJ also opened broader investigations into the practices of several police departments.

Six cases have resulted in multi-million-dollar settlements with the victims’ families. While there is no admission of guilt in these settlements, it is unlikely that police departments and cities would pay up to $6.5 million per case if they were certain that the actions of the officers were not responsible for the deaths.

Moreover, in four cases, grand juries declined to bring charges despite discrepancies between the stories that the officers told about the encounter and what the videos showed. Taken together, these facts fuel the perception that justice is being denied. In addition, there are cases in which there was no video, and families are left to wonder exactly what happened. There are also videos of egregious behavior on the part of some officers in encounters that, thankfully, did not result in death.

I watched 16 videos involving highly questionable actions by some police officers, and I was struck speechless by what I saw. If you’re interested, you can look for yourself, at www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/30/us/police-videos-race.html.

In some videos, police can be seen shooting multiple times at unarmed victims who offer no resistance. Why do so many police officers and members of the public grow angry when people raise their voices to say that Black Lives Matter? Where is the empathy and mourning when the victims are black people?

According to the DOJ Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2012 (the most recent year available) there were 750,340 full-time police officers carrying firearms. Databases maintained by The Washington Post and The Guardian, using public records and news reporting tools, indicate that 990 and 1,146 people, respectively, were shot and killed by police officers in 2015. In a Washington Post investigation, www.washingtonpost.com/pb/policeshootings/, it was reported that 50 officers had previously fired their guns in deadly on-duty shootings. For a handful of officers, it was their third fatal shooting. For one, it was his fourth. The Post also reported that an additional 45 officers had previously been involved in non-fatal shootings. While nationally, in the majority of the cases the victims had weapons, that was the case in only two of the above 11 cases. In both of these instances, the victims disclosed that fact to the police and were not holding the guns in their hands.

In my view, any unlawful death is one too many, and, based on the data, a relatively small percentage of police officers are “bad actors.” However, it is clear that police departments across the country have a lot of work to do. If the bad actors were aggressively held accountable, then public fear and anger would decrease exponentially.

The public sees swift action when a police officer is killed. The perpetrator is either killed by police officers or is brought to trial and prosecuted. But when black civilians are killed, even if they are unarmed victims, justice is not swift, and sometimes the perpetrator is able to kill again and again, according to Washington Post statistics.

The current situation is untenable for everyone. We need to start by dealing with facts. We need to embrace empathy for all who are impacted, civilians and police. We need to move forward together.

V. Elaine Gross is president of ERASE Racism, a civil rights group based in Syosset.