An incident involving Knox County Sheriffs and a college student has left an officer without a job for using excessive force. Frank Phillips was fired after photos were released of an arrest gone wrong. The pictures show Phillips with his hands around 21-year-old Jarod Dotson’s neck, and choking him to the point where the college student fell to his knees.

Typically, investigations take weeks or months before a cop is fired for excessive force, but the local sheriff felt the incident was so well-documented and egregious that he acted immediately to fire the officer. The images were published in the Daily Mail, a British news outlet.

This incident happened in April of 2014. Apparently Mr. Dotson had one too many to drink at a University of Tennessee house party and police were called in because of the “disturbance”.  This is when officer Phillips demonstrated his brand of police brutality.

It is actions like this that make Americans proud of their police force and judicial system. However, the problem is the scales of justice are not balanced in the least bit when it comes to African Americans.

The choking may seem like a excessive use of force to many, but this flies in the face of the African American community who suffers abuse by the police on a regular basis. In fact, the black community is outraged right this very moment over the killing, not excessive use of force, of several unarmed, black men.

The difference in these cases, besides the obvious one person is a white student and the other is a black teen, is the officer in the killing of the unarmed, black teen wasn’t fired. In fact, the officer was placed on a paid suspension where he and his family has been relocated for their safety.

This is just one more straw on the back of the black community reminding us the life of our children have no value in the eyes of the American Justice. When a cop can be fired for choking a white college student or killing a dog, but receive paid leave for killing an unarmed, black teen, there is no justice for the black community.