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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 10/17/14

SWAT Team Slays 107 Year Old Blind Black Man--Execution of Monroe Isadore Casts Shadows of Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin

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"Hands Up"--"Don't Shoot!" " "Hands Up"--"Don't Shoot!" a group of young college students at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff chant in solidarity with the student protests in Ferguson, Missouri and to show their support for the grieving family of police shooting victim Michael Brown. Following interviews with Roland Martin (TV One) and Tom Joyner (Tom Joyner Morning Show) Florida attorney Benjamin Crump leads the group in solidarity; Crump is perhaps best known for representing the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown--but is lesser known in his representation of the Monroe Isadore family in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

Isadore, 107, was killed after a standoff with Pine Bluff police on September 7, 2013. Two of his daughters, Marilyn Howard and Paula Isadore Aguilar, hired Crump and Little Rock attorneys John Walker and Lawrence Walker to represent them in a federal lawsuit. Pine Bluff, Police Chief Jeff Hubanks and Officer Brad Vilches, a member of the SWAT team that went into a bedroom where Isadore had barricaded himself, are named in the lawsuit. Vilches fired the shots that killed Isadore.

http://youtu.be/SMoYrYmbwsk

Crump also talked about the death of Brown, saying that in Missouri, the prosecutor made it a point to protect the rights of the police officer accused of shooting Brown and had the officer escorted from the scene. "The rules are different when it's our children laying on the ground," Crump said. "Mike Brown's body was left on the ground at the scene for several hours before it was moved."

Michael McCray, a public interest advocate and organizer of the Whistleblower Summit for Civil and Human Rights on Capitol Hill organized the university forum, a "Lecture and Discussion" on Police Brutality and Criminal Justice Reform. Attorneys for the family of the late Monroe Isadore urged students at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff to go vote, get involved in the community and support the efforts to "get justice for Isadore."

Anthony Walker, Paula Isadore Aguilar, Michael McCray, Benjaman Crump
Anthony Walker, Paula Isadore Aguilar, Michael McCray, Benjaman Crump
(Image by Donald Fraizer / Pine Bluff News)
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"If Monroe Isadore's name had been Monroe Beebe, he would still be alive," McCray said [Mike Beebe, a White male, is the current Governor of Arkansas.] McCray extolled the value of "community policing" and went on to compare police officers who work in Pine Bluff but are not residents of Pine Bluff as an "occupying force."

The problem with the Isadore case is that the local media has created a false narrative about what happened before the video was released to the public. What the media reported was a "shoot out" between a Black man and the SWAT team; and Isadore was killed by the police in self-defense or defense of others.

But that's not what the video shows. Mr. Isadore had locked himself in his bedroom, and was sitting on his bed with a revolver. He was not threatening anyone, attacking anyone or being belligerent. With no apparent reason or impending threat to anyone. The SWAT suddenly breaks the window with tear gas / "flash bang" grenade. Mr. Isadore is startled and frightened by the explosion and starts firing towards the window. An officer kicks in the door (behind Isadore and away from his line of fire)--and then shoots 107 year old Isadore eight times, nearly decapitating him.

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Michael McCray is a public interest advocate who combats racism and corruption in the government and other institutions which deprive individuals of their basic civil rights, human rights and constitutional liberties. McCray is co-chair (more...)
 

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