http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/why-many-blacks-dont-believe-darren-wilson
More than 20 years separate the police beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles and the shooting death of Michael Brown
in Ferguson, Missouri. There are stark differences between the two
cases but also obvious similarities: both victims were African-American
males and their assailants were white police officers. But there is a
much darker thread that runs through these two tragic cases and others,
including the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
In each case, the black victim was portrayed as a monster, capable of
superhuman strength and often fearlessness in the face of a loaded gun.
In Officer Darren Wilson’s
account of the 90-second altercation on Aug. 9, the day he shot and
killed Brown, the unarmed teen rained punches on an armed police officer
seated in a parked police car. There doesn’t seem to be any clear
motivation for this. It’s as if Brown attacked Wilson for no other
reason than because he felt like it.
In his testimony before the grand jury, Wilson described Brown – 10 years younger, overweight and nearly the same height as Wilson – as looking like a “demon”. Rodney King, who was shown on video being savagely beaten by LAPD officers at a police stop, was described as “a monster-like figure akin to a Tasmanian Devil” by one of his assailants, according to the Associated Press.
On August 9, a struggle between Wilson and Brown ensued, which
eventually led to the officer shooting the teen, he claims, in
self-defense.
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