November 20, 2014

The Death of Akai Gurley

In a housing project stairwell, a rookie cop shot and killed unarmed Brooklyn native Akai Gurley, who presented no threat to anyone. For four minutes, the NYC police officer argued with his partner over whether to tell their superiors about the murder because of his fear of "being fired."

HOW DOES THIS CONNECT TO STRUCTURAL RACISM?:

The police who killed Gurley was performing a routine search of public housing buildings known as a vertical patrol--a practice that assumes that low-income minority-dominated buildings are likely to host criminal acitvity. Given such expectations, officers assumed Gurley to be a criminal requiring excessive force, and before even ascertaining of what he might be guilty, they killed him.

For more on the case see, " The life and Death of Akai Gurley "