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Biden calls for justice after footage released of police killing Black woman
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2024
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Just glad they're not messing around with this one, and went ahead with the three charges of first degree murder.
And wouldn't you know it, it's thanks to bodycam footage that we have irrefutable proof of this clear and unquestionably excessive use of force against an innocent victim.
The bodycam footage that thousands of police departments throughout the US are still pushing back against because they want people to think it impedes their ability to appropriately deliver justice, when it is actually, finally, allowing justice to take place. The necessity of which was caused primarily by police brutality against people of color, just like this situation, where there was no witness account other than the cop's side of the story.
If this happened ten years ago, back before bodycams became more widespread, the cop would have gotten off with a short paid suspension and no other punishment, because all there would be is the cop's one-sided account of how she clearly assaulted him with a deadly weapon and reached for his gun.
Are body cams really providing justice? Where is Sonya's justice? Hailing body cams as the ultimate police reform is the type of thing I'd expect a cop to say. For people who have been experiencing this racist police violence for generations, it's clear that body cams are at best a half measure, and at worst a means of documenting all of the brutal murders that pigs continue to carry out on innocent people while body cams are running. The answer isn't in body cams, but in comprehensive police reform. So long as the pigs are running around with sus norse tattoos, toxic masculinity ("nah im good" -cop who just developed a tremor in has hand after holding in the brains of a gasping woman for 5 min), guaranteed firearms, no psychological training, gang support via departments, body cams aren't really going to do shit to protect at-risk people.
I am very critical of this ultra pro body cam discourse. It seems like a distraction. Make no mistake, there is no justice today because of the body cams present for Sonya's execution.
I suppose the definition of justice is flexible, between preventative justice and restorative justice and so on, but in this case I am referring specifically to holding guilty people accountable for their actions. There will be no making right what happened here, not by any stretch of the imagination, and there is still a lot more work that needs to be done to make sure this sort of thing never happens again. But while I am sure it is of little consolation to Sonya's family, her murderer is going to prison.
I know there are long-standing charicatures in media of the "corrupt cop" type of character shooting some innocent person and then planting a knife or drugs on them to make it look like self-defense, but that wouldn't exist if there wasn't some grain of truth to it.
With the body cam footage that had been released, there is no question of his guilt. There's no way for the police to cover this up by painting another innocent victim as a criminal, dragging her name through the mud, just to keep this racist scumbag on payroll and free to keep terrorizing the people he's supposed to protect. The racists don't have to gather in droves to protect this monster and put a community through hell to further some disgusting agenda or another.
It doesn't fill the void, but it is some degree of justice which is better than none.