Crime

Unarmed Black Man Murdered In Own Backyard By Terrorists Wearing Blue Uniforms

The fact that the terrorists happened to be police really shouldn't matter.

By Elie Mystal on March 21, 2018 1:55 pm

If I tell you that Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old African-American male, was shot to death in his own backyard by the police, white people will immediately start making their peace with his execution. They’ll immediate start trying to justify the killing. Even “good” white people who know that I’m about to tell you another story of unvarnished police brutality will start imagining what combination of actions the VICTIM took that “caused” the cops to shoot him dead in his own yard.

Some white people will be convinced that the victim did nothing wrong or at least did nothing to warrant death. Others will “need more information.” Still others will never be convinced that the police did anything wrong.

But in the court of white public opinion, the burden is always on the victim, the unarmed young black person, to PROVE to white people that he didn’t deserve to die… an effort made all the more challenging BECAUSE HE’S DEAD. White reporters do not view their jobs as advocating for the victims of the police, so most of them will dutifully parrot the arguments and lies of the police. And so it’ll fall to some few non-white reporters and columnists to do the work of convincing white people that another unarmed black person didn’t deserve to be executed by the state without due process of laws.

I understand my function and will do my duty, but please know that I hate you for it. Every single time I have to write about murderous cops killing unarmed people, while the white majority does NOTHING other than tsk and make the occasional frowny face on Facebook, I hate a little bit more. I’ve got skin in the game. I’ve got two black sons. I shouldn’t have to CONVINCE you that they DESERVE TO LIVE. I shouldn’t have to BEG you to rein in your goddamn cops before they get me. If your children were at risk, you’d do something.

Anyway.

Sacramento police claim that they were searching for a suspect who was allegedly smashing in car windows and maybe a glass sliding door with a crowbar. Helicopter surveillance — because yeah, police were searching for a black guy with a crowbar like they were trying to take out sniper nest in Fallujah — pointed them towards Clark’s backyard. It’s unclear what, if anything, Clark was doing in his OWN DAMN BACKYARD. Clark started running for his house, which is exactly what I would do if a bear or a wolf or if some other violent, dangerous animal suddenly appeared in my yard.

He didn’t make it. Police perceived that he had a gun (he did not have a gun). Clark allegedly stopped and turned toward the police (I have no earthly reason to believe that this is what Clark actually did). Police perceived he had a “tool bar” in his hand (note how we’ve gone from “gun” to “tool bar” in mere seconds). Police claim they feared for their life. They shot him 20 TIMES. Clark died with his cell phone in his hand. Police handcuffed him before trying to aid him.

Police initially lied and said that Clark had been holding a “tool bar,” but “revised” their statement later to say that he only had his cell phone. Police say that the helicopter might have mistaken a cinder block for a tool bar.

So, just to be clear, the OFFICIAL police story is that cops shot an unarmed black man in his own backyard 20 times because they thought he was coming at them with a crowbar when in fact he was only holding his cell phone. THAT’S THEIR BEST ARGUMENT! Can you imagine anybody other than a cop offering up such a foolish justification and expecting to get away with it?

At the risk of stating the obvious, a cell phone bears no physical similarities to a crowbar. OR A GUN. Stephon Clark is dead because he’s black and has opposable thumbs. That much is clear.

What’s less obvious, to some, is that brandishing a crowbar is not a capital offense. Stephon Clark is not Neo! He cannot take out a backyard full of Agents with a blunt object. Smashing car windows and glass doors is also NOT a capital offense. Walter Sobchak does not get gunned down in the street for showing Larry what happens when you f**k a stranger in the ass. Even if I assume all the facts in the police report to be true (and I don’t because I’m not an idiot), Stephon Clark was murdered.

Had the killers been part of any other organization, we’d call this what it is. Terror. Gang Violence. Armed thugs came to Clark’s house and executed him. There was no process or trial, no adjudication or constitutional protection. There was no CIVILIZATION. Clark fell prey to the black man’s only natural predator, the police.

I know what I’d do about it. I’d charge the police under the RICO statute for running a criminal organization. I’d charge the individual cops under the Patriot Act for acts of domestic terrorism. Cops have made a mockery of the “reasonable fear” standard that is supposed to govern their actions, so I’d change the standard to “reasonable in fact” — if you think the suspect has a gun (or a “tool bar”), you’d better be right because if you are wrong you’re going to jail for murder.

I don’t think this problem is intractable. There are LOTS of things we could do to let cops know that the killing of unarmed civilians was no longer acceptable in this country.

But… I’m black, so my opinions really don’t matter in this country. The white majority has decided that a certain amount of state-sponsored terrorism against the black community is okay, and this is the way things are going to be until the white majority changes its mind. Hell, the white majority doesn’t even always rate this as an issue.

White parents worry about buying their kids cell phones because they’re worried about giving them unfettered access to the internet. Black parents worry about buying their kids cell phones because they give the police another excuse to murder our children. White people can’t possibly know how much I hate them for their privilege.

UPDATE: Sacramento police have released the body camera footage. It shows the officers shooting Clark dead within mere seconds of encountering him, it shows them continue to shoot him while he is lying on the ground. It does not show Clark “charging” the officers.

It shows, once again, the the police report is full of s**t and the the police executed a man for being black.

The full video is up on The Root.

California Police Shoot and Kill Unarmed Black Man in His Own Backyard [The Root]

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.