Thursday, March 24, 2011

Why Do Miami Police keep shooting Black Men?

Miami Police have shot and killed seven African-American men in the past eight months,and the city blacks community wants a better explanation than " we were doing our jobs and following department policy".The New York Times reports that frustrations have recently surfaced in the form of marches to the Police Department's Headquarters.calls for a Justice Department investigation,and an investigation into the Police Chief's record. Not helping the perception of the force,a video leaked showing Miami Police Officers breaking down doors hauling handcuffed African-american suspects off the streets,and proclaiming "We like to hunt".To make matters worse,community leaders say two of the men Police shot were unarmed,but the concern and outage about go deeper than the facts of the specific shootings.Residents{and Representative Frederica S.Wilson,a Democrat from Miami,who wrote a recent letter to Attorney General Eric H.Holder Jr.,asking the Justice Department,to investigate the issue]think there's something seriously wrong within the Police Department.they want answer about the pace of the inquiries into the shootings,why an Officer who shot and killed two men within nine days while under investigation for stealing seized cell phones returned to his job instead of being assigned to desk duty,and whether Police Chief Miguel A.Exposito,is confident to do his job. The Chief's response to the uproar?{"We're trying to get violent crime under control in the community,unfortunately when you do that,you will be confronted by people who are armed and dangerous". We're guessing that until black residents of Miami,get some answers,they probably agree with that statement but add that many of those"armed and dangerous"violent criminals in the city wear uniforms.And they get away with murder.

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