Police Kill Security Guard Who Stopped Shooter
Midlothian, Illinois. Police were called to a shooting at a bar. When they arrived they found a black man pinning down another man and holding a gun to his back. That seems to be the most people can agree on. According to police the man did not have on anything that identified him as a security guard. The police say several warnings were called out and ignored.
Eye witnesses have a different story. Several say that Jemel Roberson was wearing a hat that had the word “Security” on it. At least one person said he had on an orange vest. Another witness says the officer who called out a warning did say to get on the ground but had already fired before he got out the word ground.
Roberson was a 26 year old who was planning on joining the police force. It seems unlikely that he would have ignored officers. This incident just happened on November 11 but it sounds all too familiar. An innocent black man is shot by police. The story the police gives differs significantly from what the witnesses say happened. I don’t know how it will end but if the pattern holds true it will all have been just a “tragic mistake”. The officer who shot Roberson will get to go on with his life and Roberson’s 9 month old son will be without a father.
These incidents happen much too often. Why is it officers can manage to capture white men without shooting them? The number of innocent blacks killed indicates that police automatically consider a black person as more of a threat than a white person. That’s a deadly problem for the black community. Things need to change.