Police officials investigate the home where a police officer shot a homeowner during a robbery attempt. (photo: Vic Ryckaert/IndyStar)
Black
Family Gets Robbed. Husband Calls Police. Police Shoot the Husband. Robber
Escapes.
24 August 16
Few cases typify everything that is wrong with gun rights, police brutality and racial profiling like this one.
Early Tuesday in
Indianapolis, an African-American woman was being carjacked in front of her
home in her working class neighborhood. She ran back in the house, told her
husband, who is also black, and they called the police to report the robbery.
That seemed to be the right and safe thing to do.
As the police pulled
up, the husband, who was later identified as 48-year-old Carl Williams,
opened the garage to their home and was immediately shot in the gut by police.
They claim they believed he was the robber and that because he had a firearm of
his own, he was shot in self-defense. Officials identified the officer who shot
Williams as nine-year veteran cop Christopher Mills.
He, of course, was
not the robber. In fact, police have yet to even say if they caught the robber.
Since they dusted the car for fingerprints, it appears that the actual man
committing a crime got away and the man who wanted to protect his wife and
family was instead shot and currently fighting for his own life in the
hospital.
"I think that's
really crazy. What do we have, trigger-happy police officers out here
now?"asked Angela Parrot, who
lives in the neighborhood told the Indy Star.
Speaking to the
Daily News, several reporters and neighbors all confirmed that the husband who
was shot was black, but said that they do not yet know the ethnicity of the
officer who shot him.
Whatever the case,
the violent encounter should help illuminate the very real fears so many black
families have when calling the police. This family needed help. They wanted to
report a crime in their neighborhood. The husband wanted to protect his wife.
These are all very basic rights we have, but day after day we see that gun
rights don't really apply equally to African-Americans.
Merely reaching for
his wallet got Philando Castile shot and killed in his own car. Having a gun in
his pocket caused police to shoot Alton Sterling repeatedly in his back and
chest.
Now this.
We do not yet know
the extent of this man's injuries, but a bullet to the mid-section can wreak
havoc. Yet again, without fully understanding the facts of what they were
seeing, American police fired upon a man unjustly. It's just not right.
C 2015 Reader Supported News
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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