Cops Kill Great-Grandfather in Louisiana. Say Racial Profiling is Okay

[RedLocks]

source story: Cops Kill Great-Grandfather in Louisiana. Say Racial Profiling is Okay.

Homer, Louisiana is a small town just outside Shreveport that, by all accounts, would hardly be the focus of national attention, but it is. Like many other small towns in the South it is struggling with a declining population and entrenched poverty rates exacerbated by historical racial discrimination. But it's not the poverty or declining population that has put a spotlight on Homer. It was the death of Bernard Monroe. Monroe, a 73 year-old grandfather and great-grandfather was on his front porch, with friends and family, when he was gunned down in front of them by Homer police over a year ago. As of today Monroe's family is still waiting for an explanation of exactly what happened.

Initially the Homer Police Department claimed that they witnessed a suspected drug transaction nearby and, when they went to confront the alleged perpetrators, two men fled, leading them to Monroe's home. This story later changed to police pursuing only Monroe's son to the house, though no single reason for the pursuit has surfaced. According to witnesses two officers followed Monroe's son into the home and shot him twice with a Taser. During the commotion Bernard Monroe left the front yard, approached the porch, when one of the officers opened fire from inside Monroe's home.

The officers involved in the shooting were relatively new to the job--one had been on the force for 2 1/2 weeks and the other just eight months. Following the shooting they were placed on paid administrative leave. They both resigned five months later.

Monroe's death is an obvious tragedy, but what makes this story all the worse is that it is a tragedy many in the area saw coming. Homer, like many small, southern towns, has a history of significant racial tensions. Cross-burnings still happen and young black men are often treated as criminals just for being black. Just three weeks after Monroe's death Homer Police Chief Russell Mills, who is white, appeared to admit that his department routinely conducted racial profiling. In an interview with The Chicago Tribune Mills said "If I see three or four young black men walking down the street, I have to stop them and check their names. I want them to be afraid every time they see the police that they might get arrested". According to Mills, this is called "preventive policing".

Despite these facts, a year after the shooting, a grand jury of eight whites and four blacks declined to issue any criminal indictments in the case.

But not everyone has given up on seeking justice for Monroe and his family. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the town of Homer and the officers involved in the shooting alleging that the officers' negligence and failure to exercise reasonable care led to Monroe's death. Mills insist his men did nothing wrong in the shooting and insists his policing strategy is worthwhile. For the African-Americans of Homer, over 60 percent of the population, they hope that the SPLC's lawsuit will bring an end to racial profiling before another innocent person is killed.

RedLocks Reviewed by RedLocks on 02-18-2010. Cops Kill Great-Grandfather in Louisiana. Say Racial Profiling is Okay source story: Cops Kill Great-Grandfather in Louisiana. Say Racial Profiling is Okay. Homer, Louisiana is a small town just outside Shreveport that, by all accounts, would hardly be the focus of national attention, but it is. Like many other small towns in the South it is struggling with a declining population and entrenched poverty rates exacerbated by historical racial discrimination. But it's not the poverty or declining population that has put a spotlight on Homer. It was the death of Rating: 5

[killerweed420]

This happens in every state in the union multiple times a year. I don't know when people are going to get the message that cops are not your friends. They are not to be trusted. If we don't get some decent officers with some decent training the frustration levels are just going to keep rising among the civilian population till it all expldes.

[mugenbao]

If we don't get some decent officers with some decent training the frustration levels are just going to keep rising among the civilian population till it all expldes.

There are plenty of decent officers with decent training. The problem is that they work in a corrupt system which incentivizes thuggish behavior and does little to detect, prevent and punish corruption from those within the system who aren't decent. Those decent officers don't have much visibility to the public when the system they work for is broken at every level.

It's really our justice system and law enforcement agencies themselves which need to be overhauled. Perhaps one day we can have a system which doesn't encourage and hire these assholes that we see in stories like this.

[jtsik330]

The entire justice system as a whole needs to be corrected. Privatized jails? Shi"s getting bad