Exploring the Epidemic Of Police Killings Of Unarmed Black Males

As each year goes by, race relations in America become more strained and more complicated.  Over the past several years we have seen a significant increase in the shooting and killing of unarmed black males by police officers.  According to a tracker by the Washington Post, 232 black people were shot and killed by police in 2016 alone, and 34% of the unarmed people killed in 2016 were black.

In almost all of these killings, no charges were brought against the officers involved, or the charges were dismissed.  Even with video evidence, the criminal justice system has failed to effectively investigate and prosecute officers involved in these killings.

A new page, Standing Up For Our Law Enforcement Community, premiered on the White House website shortly after President Trump took office, and stated, “The dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America is wrong. The Trump Administration will end it.”  This is about as close as an administration can come to giving carte blanche to the police to continue killing black males.

We want to make it clear that this program is not a police bashing effort, and we want to state for the record that we unequivocally support those police officers who put their lives on the line every day to fulfill their oath to serve and protect their communities.  However, it is obvious that there are serious problems in some police departments and with some police officers.  That is what this program will discuss, featuring Mr. John Sutton, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency senior executive and California law enforcement officer and attorney Jermaine Wyrick, a leading civil rights attorney from Detroit and a member of the Michigan Bar Association.  The goal of this program is to find a way to restore trust between the police and the communities they serve.