With the exception of Federal, State and County agencies, Law enforcement exists with the permission of the community they serve and they deserve to be assured that the agency and individual officers are held accountable for their actions.
Any death in an interaction with police is definitely real news as long as long as the reporting is fair and as accurate as possible. Reporting that is based on an ideology or a bias is literally fake news.
An example of fake news is the narrative that uses the case of Trayvon Martin in its discussion. The fact is that law enforcement had actually no involvement in the events leading up to the death of Mr. Martin. The police only conducted an after-incident investigation and presented all of the evidence to the Florida State’s Attorney who made the decision to prosecute. Further, the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., where an exhaustive investigation failed to substantiate any claim of “Hands-up, don’t shoot.” Next is the Baltimore death of Freddie Gray, where no evidence was ever presented of a “hard-ride” which either led to or caused Mr. Gray’s death.
In reality, the numbers just do not substantiate any claim that African-Americans are killed by police in any substantial numbers. Yes, each number represents a human being whose life should be valued and cherished. Every death in a police interaction is a triple tragedy. The loss to the family of their loved one is immeasurable; the fact that the officer(s) involved will live with their action for their lives; and the criminal justice system being denied the opportunity to perform its function.
In any police interaction, the person has three options to choose from. They can choose to fight; they can choose to flee (flight); or they can choose to submit. In the first and third option, injury or death is rare, in the second option the likelihood of an undesirable outcome increases exponentially. And the choice of the options rest solely on the person interacting with the police.
Unrealistic expectations that, based on entertainment television, abridge common sense cannot be considered in the evaluation of an incident. Police officers cannot be expected to instantly identify whether a firearm is real or a toy, or to shoot a weapon out of an offender’s hand in an instant, even though television cops do it nightly in their shows.
Two recent videos represent how words affect reporting. In both, the reporter told viewers the officer kicked the suspect. In the Columbus, Ohio video, the officer clearly has his right leg raised making it virtually impossible to “kick” while the second video from Georgia shows the officer run up and actually kick the suspect on the ground.