Rayshard Brooks Learned Police Chases Aren’t All Created Equal
I was on the phone with my friend before heading to bed and asked her what I should watch on TV to put me to sleep. She suggested the news, which had us both chuckling, because she knows I don’t watch news.
What did I do? I turned on CNN.
The TV listing said some show about race in 1968 was supposed to be on, but the screen had a big “Breaking News LIVE” banner across the top. A building was on fire, and a bunch of people were in the streets. I just figured it was Any City, USA.
I was halfway watching and listening until they said Atlanta — until they said Rayshard Brooks had been killed by police. Then I was all in.
CNN was doing their usual thing of bringing on “experts” to talk about the situation, and it took a while for them to get around to recapping what happened to Rayshard. Then I saw how he was killed.
Why do you call the police if someone falls asleep in their car at a fast food drive-thru? Couldn’t an employee or someone in one of the other cars tap on the window to see if he was okay? Have we already forgotten how cops kicked in the door and shot up Breonna in Louisville while she was under the sheets trying to sleep? Have we forgotten how cops were called to wake Yale University grad student Lolade Siyonbola who was taking a nap in her dorm’s common room back in 2018? At least she didn’t get killed. But calling cops on sleeping black people is not a good idea. I guess there’s a new meaning for black folks to “Stay Woke!” It may save your life.
I watched the video of Rayshard resisting arrest after he failed a sobriety test. In these times, police can’t be surprised that black men may resist arrest and take their chances. The police didn’t have the skills to hold him down. Rayshard snatched a police officer’s taser and ran. He turned and pointed the taser at the cop chasing him…The End.
God forbid a cop give up on chasing a drunk black man on foot. That cop gave up the chase before they even left the parking lot.
Lesson learned here is to not bring a taser to a gunfight. Once the cop saw Rayshard attempt to tase him, he put his own taser away and shot a few bullets. “That’ll teach Rayshard.”
It wasn’t like he had robbed the Wendy’s or put anyone in harm’s way. Why not let him call someone to pick him up and leave the car in the lot, as he asked to do? Why not just let him run into the night? His car is right there. He ain’t going far. You know where he lives. Worst case scenario, he’d be captured in a matter of days. But no! The knee-jerk response was to shoot a black man in possession of a taser gun with a real gun.
Someone asked me if I thought this was a result of poor police training. I hesitated to answer. I don’t know anything about police training and couldn’t say for sure if the cop did exactly what he was trained to do or not. My common sense says Rayshard would have been caught in minutes if the chase had been allowed to continue.
My heart broke when I saw a photo of him with his three little girls. He reminded me of me when I was about his age with my own three girls at home. It was a bit too much for me to bear, and I turned off the TV, remembering why I don’t watch the news.
If I were the Atlanta police chief, I’d probably resign, too. I wouldn’t want to have to answer to cops probably too embarrassed to come back to the station and explain how they killed him.
Now the cop who killed Rayshard is fired. Rayshard is dead. His babies don’t have a father. A new widow has been created. A police chief quits. Folks are mad. The case will linger in court. The police are on edge.
All this could have been avoided if they’d let the drunk black man just run into the night.
Read more from Stefan Roots at swat.ink/chester-matters and at stefanroots.com/covid_while_black.
