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Stephen Lendman
Miriam Carey is the latest victim. She deserved to live, not die. More on her below. Incidents occur daily across America. Blacks and Latinos are most vulnerable. Police shoot innocent suspects for any reason or none all.
Rarely are officers or their superiors held accountable. On average, US police kill one or two people daily. Most often, incidents go unnoticed. Violence in America is systemic. Previous articles discussed it. America glorifies wars. It does so in the name of peace.
It has by far the highest homicide rate among all developed nations. It’s obsessed with owning guns.
Violent films are some of the most popular. So are similar video games. Peace, stability and security are convenient illusions. Imperial wars and domestic violence crowd them out.
Communities, neighbourhoods, schools, work places, commercial areas and city streets are affected. Driving while black is dangerous. A 1999 ACLU report discussed it. Titled “Driving While Black: Racial Profiling On Our Nation’s Highways,” it said:
It’s long-standing practice in America. In 1967, dozens of witnesses told Kerner Commission members that “stopping of Negroes on foot or in cars without obvious basis” was a key reason for riots the previous summer in cities across America.
The Fourth Amendment assures “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.”
The Eighth Amendment prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments.” What’s crueller than state-sponsored cold-blooded murder. The Fifth Amendment prohibits “depriving (anyone) of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
The 14th Amendment forbids states from “depriv(ing) any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” It affirms “equal protection of the laws.”
Police across America spurn constitutional and US statute laws. They do so with impunity. According to ACLU:
- No person of colour is safe from (mis)treatment anywhere, regardless of their obedience to the law, their age, the type of car they drive, or their station in life.
- In short, skin colour has become evidence of the propensity to commit crime, and police use this ‘evidence’ against minority drivers on the road all the time.
It’s worse than that. Blacks and other people of colour risk death at the hands of out-of-control cops. They’re licensed to kill. They murder with impunity.
Overwhelming evidence proves it. In 2010, Injustice Everywhere published a National Police Misconduct Statistical Report. It found thousands of instances of police misconduct. Hundreds of civilian deaths followed. When officers are held accountable, most often discipline imposed is mild. Criminal justice in America is systemically unfair. Victims are cheated. A previous article discussed Trayvon Martin’s murder.
It asked when is killing a non-threatening, unarmed teenager not murder? It’s when Jim Crow justice trumps fundamental civil rights. It’s when victims are black. It’s when killing them is OK when whites do it.
It’s when institutionalised racism threatens all people of colour. It’s when long-standing practice turns a blind eye to killing them. It’s when cops are licensed to kill. On October 3, Washington, DC police gunned down Miriam Carey. They did so in cold blood. They did it wilfully. Doing so reflects epidemic levels of state-sponsored violence across America. Cops call killing non-threatening civilians “justifiable homicides.” Unarmed blacks and Latinos are victimised. Post-9/11, police have increasingly been militarised.
It’s justified on the pretext of waging war on terror. Mariam Carey was a 34-year old Stamford, CT dental hygienist. Previously she lived in Brooklyn.
She was unarmed. Capitol police killed her after a car chase. Reportedly she tried breaching a White House security barrier. Police banged on her car window. They ordered her to stop. She appeared to back up into a police vehicle. She fled. She did so after cops opened fire. Capitol police and Secret Service officers gave chase.
They fired multiple times at her vehicle. Why on busy DC streets? Why when backup units could have blocked her safely? Why wasn’t she taken alive, detained and questioned? Why do cops routinely shoot first? Why are they allowed to get away with it?
Things ended violently near the US Capitol. Miriam’s car crashed. She got out. She was clearly unarmed. She was non-threatening. Cops shot her to death. They riddled her body with bullets. Doing so was cold-blooded murder. Bystanders nearby could have been harmed.
Miriam had her one-year daughter with her when she was killed. Family members said she suffered from post-partum depression. The Mayo Clinic says many new mothers experience the “baby blues” after childbirth.
Militarised America leaves no one safe. Trayvon Martin, Mariam Carey, and countless others like them learned the hard way. Their deaths reflect a national sickness. It’s a national addiction. Violent cultures operate this way. Among all developed countries, America’s by far the worst. — Trinicentre.
Online Reporter