Responding to an outcry about racially biased policing, the Ann Arbor Police Department on Tuesday released dashcam video that shows what happened when cops confronted a group of Black men suspected of assault on June 24, MLive.com reported.
City officials pointed out that the police video shows that officers also handcuffed a white male suspect, along with the Black men, suggesting that the cops were not racially biased. Ultimately, no one was arrested.
At a July 2 City Council meeting, Ann Arbor City Administrator Howard Lazarus added that the incident is under an internal investigation that would be conducted with integrity.
However, the activists, called Collective Against White Supremacy, argued that there’s plenty of racial bias in the video.
“White people in Ann Arbor pointing at Black men, saying they have weapons when they have none, and then a police officer pulling his weapon on them and handcuffing them as they try to walk a way. An intoxicated white man ‘helping’ cops by attacking and then holding a Black man to the ground, but the police are focused on the Black men who are causing no harm,” the group pointed out in their Facebook post.
Controversy erupted after a bystander posted a four-minute video of the chaotic scene on social media on June 24. It showed the cops handcuffing the Black men while a reportedly intoxicated white man involved in the altercation sat watching on the curb.
The white man, claiming to be a cop, wrestled one of the Black men to the ground in the presence of the officer. However, he turned out to not be a police officer anywhere. White people at the scene had also falsely claimed that one of the Black men had a gun.
In their response to officials, the activists also stated in their post, “An officer says ‘we have a citizen fighting with one of the Black males’ – notice how the white man (the only person other than the police officer causing harm) is a raceless citizen.”
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Continue reading 54 Black Men And Boys Killed By Police
54 Black Men And Boys Killed By Police
The troubling trend of police killing unarmed Black people has shown no signs of letting up, from Tamir Rice to Botham Shem Jean to Emantic "EJ" Fitzgerald Bradford Jr.,, there appears to be nearly a new shooting every week.
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Take a look below at the growing gallery of unarmed Black men and boys who have been shot and killed by police.