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Harvard Scientist Propose Action to end Police Killings.

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(ThyBlackMan.com) Since 2015 began, many police killings have taken place in various parts of the United States. The killings have stirred raw emotions from both Whites and African Americans, given that Blacks were killed at an astronomically disproportionate rate. Notable among the cases in question was the killing of Mike Brown, a teenager who was shot by a Ferguson policeman by the name of Darren Wilson in August 2014. This shooting and the subsequent lack of indictment spurred protests across that city and across the United States. Most recently, a case in Chicago, where 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier was shot; as well as a friend of the father, Bettie Jones 55, that lived on a lower floor of the building. Police have said they were responding to a domestic dispute and that Jones was accidentally hit by gunfire. The deaths of LeGrier and Jones have ignited new calls for the overhaul of how police interact with civilians, in the wake of outrage over the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times by a police officer in November 2014, also in Chicago.

A grand jury in Cleveland, Ohio has come under fire recently for its rendering in the controversial case of the shooting of an unarmed youth by the name of Tamir Rice. The 12-year-old black boy allegedly drew what turned out to be a toy pellet gun from his waistband when he was shot within 2 seconds by responding police arriving on the scene. A grand jury announced last week that no criminal charges would be brought against the white patrolman who shot Tamir in November 2014. Here is an obvious corruption of justice, as countless young children of other races play with toy guns and are not even hurt or warned. In addition, Tamir was playing with the gun in an open-carry state, so it shouldn’t have been illegal in the first place.

These police killings and incontrovertible murders of Black males are a public health concern. It is this writers view that we need the Center for Disease control to come to Chicago, my hometown, in the wake of the dismissal of police chief Garry Mc Carthy; after numerous complaints of police misconduct before and after the death of Laquan Mc Donald. All of this killing is a function of mental instability on the part of ham-fisted and decadent police. The Harvard researchers have called on US Public Health Agencies across the country to consider police killings and police deaths as public health issues.

With that request, the researchers were in agreement with numerous activists who are urging these agencies to begin tracking the number of people killed by police. Harvard Scientists say police killings should be recorded as a Public Epidemic, because such killings willfully violate the civil rights of the citizens. Adding insult to injury- a recent study by a group called Democracy Now addresses a staggering statistic: In 14 cities around the United States, the only people killed in 2015 were black people! This trend must end now, the scientist insist, else we risk betraying the trust of our African-American citizens and their lives.

In most instances, the deaths of police officers are well documented, but in cases where people have been killed by the police, there is no reliable official data that exists. The police departments don’t want to make the statistics public since it is a public health concern and affects the well- being of families and communities of the deceased police. Black Americans held a movement to protest this disparity between police and the people they are supposed to serve.

For example, in the cases of Mike Brown, Ferguson and Eric Garner, New York, when blacks get killed by police, the police are not persecuted at the same rates as if the person was white. Even when the deceased surrenders when confronted by police, the statistics point to the fact that they are still shot. It seems the “decadent” white police in most urban centers across America are inspired by a deep-seated racism in that those local authorities target Black Americans; arrest them and also excessively fine them disproportionately to their white counterparts.

In relationship to the findings of the Harvard Medical Team, they found that if police killings were made a notifiable condition, that ensures Police Departments to report each case to the respective Public Health Department which helps professionals report deaths related to law-enforcement in real time. By doing so the public can rely upon the released data to get alerts about police killings in real time, and the data can consequently prevent the problem from becoming a worse epidemic than it appears to be already.

To date, 776 cases of police killings have been recorded in 2015, 161 unarmed, and yet only 25 police officers have died because criminals they confronted had firearms. In the case of an African American, Walter Scott, South Carolina, he was shot eight times from behind by a police officer because he ran away from the police officer for having what amounted to be a broken tail light on his vehicle.

In other noted cases such as those of Laquan Mc Donald, Chicago and Freddie Gray, Baltimore MD, the police were also seen as discriminatory in the killings. They used forceful confrontations in the incidents which they say the victims “resisted” therefore provoking the officers to shoot them. Many activists have admonished the government to start tracking the number of persons killed by police. It is also important for Public Health Agencies to consider police killings as Public Health problems that should be notified in real time.

Decadent police are killing innocent black people more and more, and often escape indictment due to people who blindly support police indiscretion without thinking through the evidence. The agencies that enforce the law have over the years failed to report the police killings properly, and the public does not highly expect them to fully do it now. However, it is important to use a public health approach because it will help the public understand the police killings better and in real time. This writer is firmly behind the Harvard initiative in its effort to stem the tide of Black lives lost at the hands of violent and irresponsible police across urban America. The Harvard Medical professionals have echoed a resounding call to action by those believing in the American dream; free of unabashed decadent white police officers: Enough is enough!

Staff Writer; Stanley G. Buford

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