Where is the insufferable Wayne LaPierre? Photo: Gage Skidmore--Flickr.
On Thanksgiving night, Black veteran Emantic Bradford Jr., was killed by police in Hoover, Alabama as he apparently tried to protect people from getting hurt after a gunman opened fire inside the Riverchase Galleria mall.
Bradford was shot after police made the assumption they usually make in these kinds of cases: any Black man with a gun must be the criminal “perp.”
Since Mr. Bradford was also a legal gun owner, why haven’t the Second Amendment gun fanatics denounced his killing—especially, since he was a “good guy with a gun?”
That Thanksgiving night, shots rang out inside the Riverchase Galleria mall, sending holiday shoppers fleeing outside. However, Emantic Bradford—likely because of his military training—grabbed his gun and decided to protect people. Unfortunately the concept of a Black man being a protector is anathema in America, particularly by police who make a living seeing Blacks as criminal menaces.
The police killing of this legally-armed Black man isn’t surprising. And in typical fashion we saw the usual cop cover-up story being peddled by police after this Black veteran was killed.
Initially, police claimed Bradford was the shooter and praised the unknown trigger-happy officer who killed him. But when that fictitious narrative became unsustainable, police then admitted the shooting suspect was still at large. Last Friday, suspected shooter 20-year-old Erron Brown was arrested in Atlanta.
The fact that police always reflexively issue false statements to protect other police who kill innocent Blacks is deserving of serious scrutiny. Regular citizens who make false statements to police—18 U.S.C. 1001 explains this—can be prosecuted for doing so. Why isn’t this law adhered to when we’re talking about police who routinely lie, especially to cover-up cop crimes against Black Americans?
Police can no longer be allowed to investigate
