Black communities over-policed and under-protected

Mike Brown, an 18 year old US high school graduate has been shot dead in St Louis, Missouri after an encounter with a police officer. Police details of the incident - that an unarmed Brown had tried to capture the gun from the armed officer - were greeted with scepticism and bewilderment in Ferguson, the St Louis suburb of 20,000 people.

Hundreds of black and white residents gathered for what many report was a peacefully led candle lit vigil. Others report civil unrest after the vigil, leading to some rioting and looting. Mr Brown, according to his own mother, Lesley McSpadden, may have been shot up to eight times. Police are yet to verify this pending an investigation. Mr Brown was to start his college education this week.

His death comes weeks after the death of Grandfather Eric Garner, in Staten Island, New York.  Mr Garner, who was unharmed, was apprehended by at least five officers and put in a lethal chokehold after verbally protesting about being arrested and handcuffed for selling contraband cigarettes.

Law enforcement agencies are not the only ones under fire for their disproportionate and often deadly use of force on unarmed Black males.  In 2012, in Sanford, Florida, Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old boy armed with a packet of Skittles candy was shot dead by a neighbourhood watch officer in a gated community, who discharged his weapon point black into Trayvon’s chest rather than waiting for the police to arrive as he had been advised.

As many OBV supporters will be well aware the UK is no stranger to deaths of men reported to have been unharmed subsequently being killed by police officers.  In recent years we have witnessed the deaths of Smiley Culture in Surrey; Mark Duggan, in Tottenham, London; and Anthony Grainger, in Greater Manchester.

Some might say that Black communities are over-policed and under-protected.

Ashok Viswanathan OBV Head of Operations