Precisely what America doesn't need right now - another police execution of a black man, this time shot from behind as he was trying to run away. Right here in Atlanta.
This is a difficult case. Rayshard Brooks was drunk and passed out in his car in the drive-through lane of a Wendy's. After a long and peaceful conversation, he resisted arrest and wrestled with the officers, stealing and running off with one of their tasers. As he was running away, shots were fired and he died.
Should he have been driving drunk? No. Should he have resisted arrest and try to steal a taser? No. Did his actions justify extrajudicial police execution? Not at all.
Would the police in the same situation have fired if Rayshard had been white? No one knows (it's a hypothetical), but your opinion probably says more about your attitude toward race and police brutality than about the likelihood of what might or might not have happened.
This is the kind of situation the Defund the Police movement is trying to eliminate. A drunk man is passed out in a car. This doesn't require two armed policemen to deal with. An EMT and a trained social worker could have responded, intervened, and even got him to the help that he needed. Handcuffs and tasers were unnecessary and as it turned out in this case, fatal.
For the record, the Wendy's where this occurred was burned down, and video that's been uploaded to YouTube show a white woman setting the fire. The City of Atlanta is offering a $10,000 reward to whoever can identify the arsonist(s).
Also, one month after the restrictions were lifted, the trend of new coronavirus infections appears to be rising.
A luta continua (the struggle continues).
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