Another black man running from the cops.
Another white cop shooting and killing him.
Another murder caught on tape.
Deputies wanted evidence on camera.
But when they recorded a sting against an alleged illegal weapons dealer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, earlier this month, cameras also rolled as Eric Courtney Harris ran, and when he was fatally shot.
The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office released the video on Friday. The shooting was an apparent accident, it has said.
The reserve deputy thought he had his Taser in hand, not his firearm, and shot Harris "inadvertently," according to the sheriff's office.
In the last minutes of the video, Harris, a convicted felon, lies on the pavement with police on top of him. An officer calls for a Taser. But in place of an electric clicking sound, a gunshot rings out.
Then a voice can be heard saying, "Oh! I shot him! I'm sorry!" Another officer screams out, "He shot him! He shot him!"
Harris, who is bleeding, calls out, too. He's losing his breath, he says. An officer yells back at him. "You f---ing ran! Shut the f--- up!" he yells. "F--- your breath."
The group of officers begin tugging Harris' hands behind his back as the video ends.
Another name on the list of the dead, Eric Harris.
Another time where a black suspect ends up dead, without due process, without a court of law, but executed by police.
Another raft of excuses as why next time it won't happen.
Another time where the black community won't believe it.
And it will happen again, and again, and again.
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3 comments:
The day I take political advice from Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster, is the day I let Rand Paul run an ophthamological exam on my prostate. That said, we have a systemic problem within the American political system in the antagonism between the ability to get people fired up vice the ability to execute sound policy. Forced to choose one or the other, I would go with sound policy while the Elwiors are squealing for on stage enthusiasm. What the nation as a whole wants, this remains to be seen. Certainly in Massachusetts Martha Coakley would have been a decent governor (or senator) but she got thrashed by Republican empty suits in a soundly Democratic state - so we know that stage presence matters.
My concern, as we all know, is that the self styled Progressive Left will get all hissy about alleged Neoliberal Third Way New Democrat heresies - regardless of what Candidate Clinton says or does or does not say or does not do - and sit out the election is sufficient numbers to sabotage the presidency yet again. With 2-3 Supreme Court seats up for appointment in the next presidential term, this could doom leftish aspirations for yet another generation. Quite a price to pay, sez I, for a candidate's perceived stoodginess on the campaign trail. On top of which, where the hell is the rest of the Democratic field team? If she really is that bad, send HRC off to hunt Balrogs while the smiley happy handsome faces fan out to sell the Party program.
Another in a long string of "isolated incidents."
At what point in time does the black community decide that they might as well open fire when confronted with police? They don't seem to be getting any consideration from the police now - what's the worse alternative? They go thru a trial and end up on death row and get executed 8 years from the time of the incident? That's an extra eight years of life. Even in prison on death row, I think a lot of people would take the chance.
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