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Taya Graham: Now, one thing that really struck me about Anton's case is how authorities waited for months before doing anything. What happened during that period of time and why wasn't anything done?
LaToya Holley: It seemed my family is though they were trying to sweep the situation under the rug. What I personally found to be odd " and perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought it was odd that the State's Attorney, Joe Riley was on the scene the night my brother was killed. So I don't know if that is common practice for the attorney to appear on a crime scene, especially that's involving police officers. I just thought that was very strange. It seems to me that a lot of individuals had their minds made up from that very night of what they were and weren't going to do.
Taya Graham: Now, you pressed for reform after Anton's death, including a new law called Anton's Law that would have given families access to an officer's record after he or she is involved in in custody death. What happened with that law?
LaToya Holley: We're actually " the police unions are fighting against us. They're battling with us as far as changing the MIPA. They are using the excuse that their police officers' personal information, such as their addresses and so forth would be available to the public. There would be some expectation that I would see if that information was redacted, of course, that is not anything that I think that is ultimately terribly important. What we're concerned with is other families being able to " and other citizens being able to obtain the information that they need to be able to access any reports against police officers as far as their abuse of power. I know there's a term for it, excessive force of abuse.
So we definitely want those records to be available to the public. We feel very strongly that if Webster's excessive force of abuse record had been made available, that that could have led possibly to him not being hired in the first place, which was validated when he lost his certification, when Maryland de-certified him, because that information was missing.
Taya Graham: Should they reopen an investigation into Anton's death? What do you want to see happen? And what can actually happen?
LaToya Holley: We certainly would like to see a re-investigation into what happened to Anton, but we believe that a lot of information has been mishandled. It has not been properly provided to individuals that would need to see this information to make the decision to hopefully bring the officers involved to at least a grand jury hearing, so that all the facts could be laid out on the line and that the public can make a decision as to whether or not they should be charged. Of course, we stand by, we do believe that they should be charged, and we're not going to give up hope that we could hopefully get something done and get these officers off the street.
Taya Graham: It's worth noting that we reached out to the Maryland Attorney General, Brian Frosh to ask if Anton death warranted a new investigation, but their reply says much about where we are with police reform in this country. Because a spokesperson for the attorney General's office told us they don't have the legal authority to intervene in the case. That is the final decision on if and when to charge officers involved in Anton's death remains with the prosecutor of the County where his death occurred. So we can see in Anton's case much of the genesis for the movement calling, for the dismantlement of the country's law enforcement industrial complex, a young man dies in circumstances that raises serious questions about the actions of the officers involved, but instead of investigating swiftly and providing answers to the family, the authorities drag their feet, refused to release body cam footage and withhold the findings of an autopsy.
And only when the media descends on Greensboro and the family mounts a concerted campaign seeking answers, does the government respond. And then their findings clear the officers of any wrongdoing and lead Anton and his supporters still seeking justice to this day. The point is, cases like Anton's which have been forgotten are in part the reason we are witnessing protests across the country. What happened to him is why activists seek not just to reform policing, but in some sense, dismantle it. The rallying cry we hear on the streets of American cities is not just about George Floyd, but about the countless others who died while in police custody who have not received justice. And most revealing, how the system itself protected the officers from criminal liability for the actions which led to his death.
It's worth noting there was in fact, a prosecution as a result of Anton's case. Shortly after he died, the State Police Training Commission revealed that the chief of Greensboro police had withheld information regarding at least two dozen use of force complaints against officer Webster from his prior job in Delaware. The complaints were supposed to be submitted as part of his application to become a police officer in Maryland, but were illegally omitted. Police Chief Petyo pled guilty to one count of misconduct, which led to a suspended sentence and no jail time.
He has since resigned from his job in Greensboro and became a cop in Delaware. So we have the senseless death of a young man during a false arrest. We have the anguish of a family over the loss of a child, full of untapped potential loss forever. We have a community that's still suffers from the consequences of a move to aggressive policing, and a town that will most likely have to pay a yet to be determined settlement as a result of the civil suit for which the community will all be required to pay.
What we have here is a true imbalance of justice that American policing has wrought. A life lost. A community is torn apart. A young man taken from this earth and no one fully held accountable. Activists say it's the type of open wound that will not heal unless our leaders in Washington act. The type of psychological terror that has been wrought in the name of the badge that has permeated the landscape of our nation and refuses to release its grip on both our governance and our wallets. It's the reason the calls to disband policing cannot be ignored.
But to truly give a sense of what is wrong with American policing, I will let one of Anton's family members have the last word, his father, Anton Black Sr. on what they did to his son and how the pain still resonates to this day. It is his words that say the most about what ails us and how those problems might linger long after the protests are over. What we cannot allow is for any of us to forget his pain or his son. Let's listen.
Anton Black Sr.: This is an injustice to my child, but we need to help because it could be an injustice to your child. This is happening too much. This boy was, like I said, they called him Pretty Ricky, but he was a good child. He's going to college. He's modeling. He's doing things, they're putting Greensboro on the map. He's a favorite son. And they run him down and treated him like a runaway slave. They corner him and put him in a choke. They killed him. And yes, they lynched my son. I said it three or four times, they lynched him, except they don't use the rope now, they use their arm.
Taya Graham: I want to thank my guest, LaToya Holley, for speaking with us about her brother's tragic death today and her continued fight for justice. Thank you, Latoya.
LaToya Holley: Thank you so much. And thank you and Steve for continuing to keep this alive. You know what I mean? You guys keep writing and always circle back to Anton.
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