Another shooting last month. In Chicago. A 13-year-old boy. Adam Toledo. Killed by police. Two weeks pass between his murder and the release of what the AP calls (https://apnews.com/article/940231e45653ca1381b538db05a8aa82) “Disturbing body camera video.” Only released “after public outcry.” // The video shows “the youth appearing to drop a handgun and begin raising his hands less than a second before an officer fires his gun and kills him.” // Unarmed when police shoot him. After a foot chase. After he tossed his gun away. Raised his hands. That’s what the video shows. Hands up when police shoot him. // I write this in the active voice. To make clear an officer pulled the trigger. Chose to shoot. The officer had agency. Had options. // I’m not a cop. Can’t fathom what goes through one’s mind when the adrenaline is pumping. When responding to a report of gun shots. In a city awash in guns. // But this keeps happening. Cops keep shooting. Killing adults. Teens. Adam Toledo is dead. Daunte Wright is dead. Thousands are dead at the hands of police. Men and women trained to protect. To serve. To keep Americans safe. // The Washington Post estimates police shoot 1,000 Americans in a given year. Most shootings are deemed “acceptable use of force.” Cops taken at their word. The dead written off as the “bad guys.” // There are questions here. So much wrong about this. A 13-year-old with a gun. Out at 3 a.m. The proliferation of guns. Their easy availability. But what is most wrong is that Adam Toledo is dead. That he was shot by a cop. That the kid had his hands up. That there were alternatives. // I interviewed activist Lawrence Hamm in 2016 (https://www.njspotlight.com/2016/08/16-08-15-nj-activists-want-more-transparency-for-police-related-shootings/). He described the problem as “cultural.” Reforms, he said, must look at who is being stopped and why. // We must look at the assumptions made by police. Their biases. Daunte Wright was stopped in Minnesota because of an air freshener hanging from his mirror. Killed April 11 by a cop who says she mistook her gun for her taser. She resigned. Was charged. Manslaughter. The family says it’s not enough. Wright is dead. So many are dead. // We do nothing. About the guns. About the cops. About our fascination with violence. Our glorification of it. Even when it is done in our name. By police. By the state. // Adam Toledo is dead. Daunte Wright is dead. Too many to name. Too many more to count. We all have blood on our hands. //
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