Police brutality isn’t a new idea, and it happens to all folks, regardless of their background. My uncle was a vivacious man, the kind of guy that had everyone laughing minutes after arriving at an event. He was the kind of man who always had a story to share and a joke to make. When I was in seventh grade and he was 35, he was murdered outside of a bar in Wisconsin.
Someone nearby had used a gun, and the police claim they thought he was the one drunkenly shooting in the air. In reality, he was in the midst of a mental health crisis at the time and wasn’t acting aggressively. While on his knees with hands raised and behind his head, he was shot 32 times by three separate officers. He left behind a one-year old son and a yet unborn daughter, and he is missed every day.
They didn’t need to shoot him like that. There were so many other ways to handle that situation — taser, pepper spray. Even if guns were required in the situation, they could’ve shot him once, somewhere non-fatal, to immobilize him. Of course, they were never held legally accountable.