Police Shoot & Kill Unarmed, Unclothed, Black Man Outside Atlanta With Possible Mental Illness

by | Mar 11, 2015 | News | 0 comments

From the redundancy office of American policing, another unarmed black man was shot and killed in Atlanta. Will this ever end?

An all too familiar feeling of outrage and disbelief pours through the community as we wrestle to rationalize what is happening to us in this country. It must be time to deal with the image of black men in this country being seen as a major threat not to be neutralized, but eliminated.

UnarmedUnclothedBlackman-killedA DeKalb County police officer responded to a call they got which said a man was “acting deranged, knocking on doors, and crawling around on the ground (without clothes).” The call came in about 1pm on Monday, according to county police Chief Cedric Alexander when speaking to reporters.

Keeping with the script, the police officer on the scene was white and the victim was black and unarmed. But what makes this case a bit bizarre is the fact that the black man didn’t have any clothes on at the time of his killing.

The officer encountered the man, who was not wearing any clothes, in the parking lot, Alexander said at a conference published online by local broadcaster Fox5.

Alexander said the man ran at the officer, who backed up and ordered the person to stop before shooting him twice. Police did not find a weapon at the scene, he said.

Alexander said he could “reasonably assume” the person was possibly suffering from mental illness, given his behavior. He declined to identify the victim, but the New York Times reported that he was 27-year-old Anthony Hill.

Alexander said the officer, who had been with the department for seven years, was equipped with a taser at the time of the shooting.

The question quickly comes to mind, why didn’t the officer either wait for backup before engaging the suspect or use his taser first to try and subdue the man? Why is killing always the first option when it comes to unarmed, black men in this country.

The fact that he didn’t have on any clothes shows he didn’t have any concealed weapons to fear, thus the deadly force should not be justified, but we know how the American judicial system seems to find a way to validate our non-value to this country.

SOUND OFF: What do you think about the officer choosing to shoot and kill this unarmed, unclothed black man instead of using his taser or waiting for backup?

Source: NY Post

Keep up to date with everything going on in the Urban Intellectuals Universe.

Black History is World History — and we need you with us! Sign up for empowering stories, exclusive updates, and first access to everything Urban Intellectuals.

Fill in your details below to get started!

Blog post opt-in form 2 (#8) - Bottom of Posts (Active)

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Categories