Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
I don’t trust the police.
I am a Black woman in America who has seen the police do dangerous and corrupt things over the years, and it has left me believing that the threat they pose to the safety of the general public far outweighs the supposed benefits that come with having an active police force.
I recently heard another story that affirmed this for me. I will preface this by saying that the story I’m going to tell is wild, son, and there are parts of it that are going to make you laugh, but even as you laugh at what could be called the stupidity and illogical fear of a Florida law enforcement officer, please keep in mind that his actions unnecessarily endangered the life of an unarmed Black man and that sobering fact that is the most important detail in this story.
On Nov. 12, now-former Deputy Jesse Hernandez — who had been with the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office since January 2022 — was one of four law enforcement officers who responded to a call at a Fort Walton Beach home where a woman said her boyfriend, Marquis Jackson, had stolen her car and threatened her. She told officers that Jackson had more than one gun and showed them threatening texts and a photo that Jackson had allegedly sent her from inside her car.
Jackson was searched, handcuffed and placed in the back of Hernandez’s patrol car. As Hernandez made his way back to the patrol car to conduct a second search on Jackson, he heard what he claimed he thought was a gunshot, and he immediately began yelling “Shots fired!” while rolling away from the vehicle and opening fire.
Because Hernandez thought the “gunshots” came from inside his patrol vehicle, he began unloading his gun into the vehicle where Jackson was seated — again, unarmed and handcuffed.
Hernandez’s partner responded to his call by opening fire…
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