Photo © Lloyd G Francis/San Jose Mercury News 1992

There is an often repeated truth in the media each time there is a riot in America’s inner city and among people of color:

“VIOLENCE HAS NEVER SOLVED ANYTHING.

Like millions of Americans, I was transfixed by recent televised images of chaos on the streets of Baltimore. But none of it was new.

Watching events unfold in Baltimore during the past few days, I was taken back to 1992 in Southern California. In my early 30's then, I was outside of a courtroom in Simi Valley working for the San Jose Mercury News. At that time, I had been a working photojournalists for 7 years. Along with covering unexpected events that are sometimes dangerous, photojournalists also get accustomed to waiting around for things to happen. I begged my supervisor at the time Director of Photography Brian Moss to let me go there to cover the verdict and since I could stay with my future mother-in-law in Thousand Oaks, they sent me down there, convinced that the trip was fools errand, the police were sure to be found guilty. So there, at the Simi Valley courthouse in late April ‘92, as I waited with other journalists, I listened to the four policemen stood in the courtroom to hear the jury’s decision. Each faced charges of assault with a deadly weapon and use of excessive force. Everyone was found not guilty of assault, and one officer faced a hung jury unable to render a decision. I listened in horror, each word was like a knife had been plunged repeatedly into my back.

THE LA COPS WHO BEAT RODNEY KING Walked AWAY: NOT MUCH HAS CHANGED

We all realized at that moment that even with modern technology proving a policeman’s guilt, they would not be held responsible for their actions. It was unwritten and yet implied that the policeman was slightly above the same laws that they enforced.

Twenty three years later we are in a moment when everyone carries a phone in their pocket, a handy device capable of both making still pictures or high quality video. Because of that technological leap and in concert with a robust Internet, the thick veil of lies woven from colonial times has been snatched away. In episode after episode in recent months, law enforcement has been left naked for all to see. Still, despite all the video evidence that can now be captured and shared at the blink of an eye, we still cannot be confident that police officers caught in the act terrorizing citizens who have comitted no crime will receive proper legal justice. In just the last 12 months, we’ve seen grossly abusive police officers terrorizing black men and youth in New York, Cleveland, South Carolina, and Ohio. So far, none of those officers have been held legally accountable for killing citizens who had not committed a crime.

And there is one case in particular that I think crystallizes this frustrating paradox, the ubiquity of images and sounds of cops abusing suspects yet also escaping accountability.

CAUGHT ON TAPE: FLORIDA COP SHOOTS GUY FOR NO REASON

In September 2013, raw dashcam video from Palm Beach Florida shows Dontrell Stephens, a 20 year old black kid riding his bike being pulled over and then being shot in the back by Adams Lin, a policeman who was put on paid leave and later exonerated. Lin said he opened fire because he thought Stephens was reaching in his back for a gun.

One problem.

There was no gun.

The entire incident was found to be justifiable and the police was not penalized in any way nor was compensation waiting for Mr. Stephens who had nothing on him but a cell phone.

Today Mr. Stephens is in a wheelchair. He will never walk again.

However Mr. Stephen’s experience is not unique in Palm Beach County. A one year long study by the Palm Beach Post on police shootings found that many unarmed people were shot to death or maimed. To quote the report: