Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
The dehumanization of Black victims of extrajudicial killings by the police is nothing new.
We are used to this by now. It’s par for the course. For every harmful thing the police do to one of us, there is a chorus of whiteness there to defend it and justify it.
It’s the way whiteness works in America.
When Ta’Kiya Young was shot and killed by a police officer in Blendon Township, Ohio, he didn’t know if she had actually stolen anything. All he knew was that someone accused her of stealing something. There was no investigation. There was no arrest. There were no charges filed against her. There was no trial.
At that moment, the police officer was the judge, jury and executioner based on a simple accusation.
It is important that we not lose sight of that.
A police officer violated his department’s use of force policy. He shot and killed a woman who had been accused of what would have likely amounted to a misdemeanor. She wasn’t accused of a violent crime. She wasn’t armed. She wasn’t dangerous. She was a young Black woman who was seven months pregnant and was accused of shoplifting.
She didn’t deserve to die.
On Friday, Blendon Township released additional body camera footage as well as in-store security camera footage that shows what led up to a police officer shooting and killing Ta’Kiya Young on Aug. 24.
The store…
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