In several of the cases heard by commissioners, police tried to cover up their crimes by concocting false narratives. They demonized the victims, aided and abetted by police union lawyers and corrupt medical examiners who falsely reported the cause of death to protect the officers. Case after case confirms the system of structural and institutional racism that leads to police killings of unarmed Black people.
Testimony elicited at the hearings exposes two systems of justice -- one for whites and one for Blacks. "Oftentimes, when police pull our white brothers and sisters over, they see them as a measure of assistance. When they encounter African Americans, we see it as a measure of oppression," Crump testified.
Contrast the police treatment of Black individuals like Floyd, Blake and Rice, who were doing nothing illegal, with the police response to Kyle Rittenhouse. Forty-eight hours after police shot Blake in Kenosha, Rittenhouse, a young white man, shot three people who were protesting Blake's shooting. He killed two of them and wounded another. He then strolled down the street armed with his assault weapon as police and national guardsmen looked on. "No one shot him in the back. No one killed him and no one arrested him," Crump said. "None of those police officers saw him as a threat."
Contrast the starkly different police responses to the largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protesterswho were met with overwhelming police violence and mass arrestswith the mainly white January 6 insurrectionistswho were allowed to storm the Capitol and nearly kill our elected representatives.
The commission was established by the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and the National Lawyers Guild after the Trump administration prevented the UN Human Rights Council from convening a UN commission to investigate systemic racism and police brutality in the United States.
But the Council did order the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to write a report about police violence against people of African descent, not limited to the U.S., by June 2021. After the hearings, the Commission will prepare a report and submit it to the high commissioner to help inform her task. The commission will also publicize its report widely in the U.S. and globally for use in litigation and advocacy. Twelve eminent international lawyers are serving as commissioners. I am one of four rapporteurs assisting them with the hearings and preparation of the report.
The hearings continue six days a week through February 6. The hearing in the Breonna Taylor case will take place on Saturday January 30. Click here to see a full schedule of cases and register for the hearings. Videos and transcripts of the hearings can be accessed here.
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