Police Brutality in the US of A

I have not forgotten about George Floyd. 

In Minneapolis in Minnesota, USA, the murder trial of Derek Chauvin over Floyd’s tragic death is happening right now. [Just to recap, Chauvin had killed Floyd when the former police officer had put his knee on the latter’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds back in May 25, 2020. The video footage of that infamous kneeling sparked global protests against racism]. 

And just about ten miles away, twenty-year-old Daunte Wright (right), who was pulled over for a traffic violation in Brooklyn Center – also in Minnesota – on Sunday, died after he was shot by a police officer who had meant to use a Taser, but “mistakenly” drew her gun instead. 

This week too, Army Second Lieutenant Caron Nazario (photo below on the left) filed a lawsuit against two police officers who had stopped him in the town of Windsor in Virginia on December 05, 2020 for driving with a temporary paper license plate on his back window. 

He was subsequently pepper sprayed and knocked to the ground by the officers. Police body camera footage even showed the officers pointing their guns at the serving member of the US Army Medical Corps. 

In January, Shanta Grant had filed a lawsuit against Montgomery County, two police officers, and the county's board of education – after police detained her 5-year-old son who supposedly ran away from his school grounds at East Silver Spring Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland on January 14 last year. 

Bodycam footage (left) from last year released on March 26, 2021 showed the officers repeatedly discussing how the child should be disciplined saying he needs "whoopings" and "spanking". At one point, the female officer said he should be put in a crate. Near the end of the clip, the child is handcuffed in front of his mother. 

On September 04, 2020, Linden Cameron (right), a thirteen-year-old autistic teenager in Glendale, Utah was shot by police after his mother called for help with his mental health crisis. 

Golda Barton said she told the 911 operator that her son needed to be taken to hospital for treatment. He was experiencing a crisis because it was her first day back at work in almost a year and "he has bad separation anxiety", she said. 

"I said, he's unarmed, he doesn't have anything, he just gets mad and he starts yelling and screaming", Barton explained. "He's a kid, he's trying to get attention, he doesn't know how to regulate". 

The above is just a random sample of four separate incidents of police brutality in the US of A. 

And I doubt these episodes with the police will ever end.