Miami Police Dept. Has Killed Seven Black Men in Eight Months?
by Ayvaunn Penn, Your Black World
Some people in Miami are outraged over the treatment of black men by the Miami Police Department. According to reports, a victim by the name of Travis McNeil made for the 7th black male victim fatally shot by the Miami PD in just 8 months. The shooting of this 28-year-old was the last straw. The New York Times reports:
“A Miami police officer shot and killed a black man during a traffic stop at North Miami Avenue and 75th Street in the Little Haiti neighborhood. The man, Travis McNeil, 28, was unarmed and never left the driver’s seat of his rental car when he was shot once in the chest, members of his family said…The shootings in this racially polarized city have led to marches on the Police Department’s headquarters and calls for a Justice Department investigation, and the city manager has initiated an investigation into the chief’s record.”
Soon following, the families of all seven of the victims were able to land a meeting to speak at the City Commission where some demanded that the police chief – Miguel A. Exposito — be fired. Exposito, 37, said in defense “We don’t have a violent police department. You’ll find our officers are very compassionate with the people they deal with. They will try to de-escalate situations rather than resorting to deadly force.” This of course does not add up to the testimony of the McNeil family or any of the other families who had loved ones killed by the Miami PD.
Representative Frederica S. Wilson wrote Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. requesting that the Justice Department investigate. In her letter she said, “‘There is a wide range of growing concern in the community regarding the apparent lack of communication and response to these incidents by the City of Miami Police Department.” According to The New York Times, “Police officials would not describe details, but they have said that during…shootings, the officers had reason to believe their lives were in danger.” Reports do not say where investigations on the Miami PD lead. The last shooting incident involving McNeil took place in March of this year, but Police Chief Miguel A. Exposito is still currently listed on the official Miami Police Department website despite all of the outrage and unrest from the community.
Ayvaunn Penn is the founder of Your Black Poets and an award winning writer completing her degree in English and philosophy. To inquire about her freelance editing services, click here. To like Ayvaunn on Facebook, click here.
These Miami cops are nothing more than cowards who hide behind their guns and badges.
damn thats crazy cops get away wit everything in thats not right there takin ppl lifes away in nothin have been done smh wat is the world comin to A END!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is just not fair at all. I would like to know why did the officer fell the need to shot this guy at all. I ears are tired of these kinds of stories……
If we had an organization that was on the ball this would not be happening so frequently and without a national outcry and a special notice to ‘your’ president Obama!
I’ve stated before that Obama’s position in the ‘White’ house is token and what is worse it gives leeway to great abuses to African-Americans and blacks in general by whites with any semblance of power.
Someone should be taking a tally of the names and numbers of incidents like this all across the country year after year. If we were to see every single incident concerning the abuses and murders of blacks by cops etc. We would be shocked at those numbers and the frequency. As it is blacks just keep trudging along as if nothing is occurring.
Miami is only one city among many cities in states across the country. In every city the numbers of black youth, men and women getting killed are increasing. The numbers of those incarcerated are increasing and the numbers of those who cannot find jobs are increasing. Poverty is increasing and desperation is increasing. We are not respected in this sick society and we are treated with great disrespect while we have no organization doing enough to stop this assault on our people. The future of our children is dire, but very few can recognize how dire things are and they are prone to assimilate into a white oriented society that doesn’t care whether we live or die. You won’t hear them protesting the murders of those men in Miami.
A police man feels he is in danger the moment he walks out of his house into a strange community. Saying that they respond o their beliefs and feeling leaves the public to their warped perception of people other than themselves or caucasians if they dare to stop one. this unwarranted fear is an excuse to increase their precinct quotas of arrests and altercations provoked or not. The black man is an easy believable target so brothers better beware and becareful when going out.
Make no strange moves and don’t look their way. This act challenges them whether intentional or not. You have been asigned a label not easily discarded. So you must be the smarter of the situation and just let it go. All want a reason tobelieve you have done something illegal just because.
What else is new? The current situation that is going on in Miami is the same thing that has been happening for years around the country. Do I have to remind you all of Sean Bell, who was just one of many cases. Black men ARE targets and have ALWAYS been targets in a country that has become an organized police state. We will continue to be TARGETS until we WAKEUP and change the status quo. They shoot us down, jail and imprison us in mass numbers, and all too often they get off without so much as a serious smudge to their records. A black President or a black Attorney General will not change the status quo in this country, we are seeing the proof of that in places such as Miami. Until we empower ourselves and our communities and beging to TAKE power into our own hands, nothing will change and we will be posting posts like this one for years to come.