Hold police accountable when they kill
Community ties fray when district attorneys never seek to prosecute officers
On March 29, we buried another young black man gunned down by police. Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old father of two, was shot 20 times by Sacramento police and killed in his grandparents’ backyard. Clark was not armed with a gun, a “toolbar” as officers would later claim, or any other weapon. His only weapon was his blackness.
The police officers who brutally shot Clark are not sitting in jail, or even facing charges. Instead, they’re on paid administrative leave. That’s been the disturbing pattern in Northern California: Officers who shoot black men get a paid vacation instead of prison, and the district attorneys do nothing.
Wednesday brought a glimmer of hope that this pattern will end. Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced that the California Department of Justice will provide independent oversight of Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert’s investigation into the fatal conduct. It will also conduct a review of the Sacramento Police Department’s policies and use-of-force training.
But that encouraging news does not absolve District Attorney Schubert of
her obligation to hold the officers accountable. In fact, it underscores it. The attorney general’s review is required, in my view, because of Northern California’s dismal track record of police violence against the black community, which our elected district attorneys have ignored and condoned time and time again.
In 2016, Schubert cleared officers who killed black people in several incidents. In one instance, Sacramento police officers responded to a dispatch about a man with a knife; when they arrived, the obviously mentally ill 50-year-old Joseph Mann threw a Thermos at officers instead of immediately responding to requests to drop his knife. One officer said to the other: “F— this guy. I’m going to hit him.” With that, they tried to run Mann over with the police cruiser. Twice. They then shot Mann 14 times, killing him. Neither was prosecuted. Neither remains on the police force.
Three months later, Sacramento police shot and killed Dazion Flenaugh. Like Mann, Flenaugh, 40, appeared to be experiencing a mental breakdown, and was disoriented and confused. As officers pursued Flenaugh, one told the other: “If you see him, just hit him with a baseball bat a couple times. That’ll mellow him out.” But officers did not use a baseball bat. Instead, police shot Flenaugh seven times, killing him. The officers who killed Flenaugh were given a Bronze Medal of Valor by the Sacramento Police Department.
This year, a white BART police officer shot Sahleem Tindle three times in the back, killing him near West Oakland BART Station. Tindle’s killing was recorded on video, yet Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley has neither arrested nor charged the officer involved. My organization, Color of Change, has joined a grassroots effort seeking justice for Tindle. We now join demands for the prosecution of Stephon Clark’s killers.
Although Attorney General Becerra’s oversight is a step in the right direction, his leadership only serves to highlight the gaping hole where prosecutions ought to be. The same is true of legislation introduced Tuesday that would raise the standard for when officers can open fire, from “reasonable” to “necessary” force. Neither should be necessary to secure prosecutions in these egregious cases of police violence, and neither absolve district attorneys of their duty to vigorously prosecute law enforcement officers who assault those they are charged with protecting.
Our elected district attorneys can no longer condone police violence against our communities. They can no longer clear murderous officers of any wrongdoing. They deny dignity to black lives by criminalizing them. They deny humanity to black victims by refusing to seek justice on their behalf, and we will not stand for it.
Joseph Mann. Dazion Flenaugh. Sahleem Tindle. And 29 other fatal shootings in California just this year, as tabulated by the Washington Post. And now, Stephon Clark. Tell their stories, yes. But do more. We must amplify our chants, our protests and our speeches with our political voice. We must vote. District attorneys are elected officials, accountable not to law enforcement, but to us. If district attorneys will not hold law enforcement officers accountable for the people they have killed, we will hold elected district attorneys accountable for the black communities they dishonor.