Another Innocent, Unarmed Black Man Shot By Police

Another innocent black man got shot by police in Miami as he was lying on the ground with his hands clearly in the air. To make matters even worse, the man was a behavioral therapist who was only trying to protect an autistic 23 year old man who had left a group home and was playing with his truck in the street. Not only was he lying on the ground with his hands in the air, he was screaming at the cops that there was no need for guns as the autistic man was only playing with his truck. And yet he was still shot in the leg, thankfully not a life-threatening wound. To add insult to injury, the therapist was handcuffed and then left in the road until an ambulance could arrive.

Of course, this incident once again indicates the incredibly poor training of the unidentified officer involved in the shooting who has been place on administrative leave according to procedure. But it also makes me think more and more that the gun lobby in this country is in some way doing the same kind of work on the American psyche that Osama bin Laden or ISIS has done. By making us ever more fearful, we overreact and begin arming ourselves even more. As we do so, the police feel more and more threatened in situations that would never have made them nervous in the past. As they become more fearful, they make more and more mistakes and it is naturally minorities who bear the brunt of those mistakes, which starts the whole cycle of violence all over again. And that’s on top of the over-policing of minority communities or even overt racism in many police departments across the country. Until we manage to get the guns off the street, these kind of incidents will only increase. Thankfully, this time no one is dead.