An American Tragedy
We need to do better.
Via the NYT: Man, Wrongfully Imprisoned for 16 Years, Is Fatally Shot During Traffic Stop.
A man who was wrongfully convicted and spent more than 16 years in prison before being released in 2020 was fatally shot on Monday by a sheriff’s deputy in Georgia during a traffic stop, the authorities said.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is conducting an independent investigation of the shooting in Camden County, identified the man, who was Black, as Leonard Allan Cure, 53.
[…]
The bureau said in a news release that a Camden County deputy, whose name was not released, initiated a traffic stop early Monday on Interstate 95, not far from the Florida state line. A spokesman for the Camden County sheriff’s office said on Tuesday that Mr. Cure was pulled over for speeding. He was driving at least 90 miles per hour in an area where the speed limit was 70, the sheriff’s office said.
[…]
Mr. Cure got out of the car at the deputy’s request and was compliant until he was under arrest.
“After not complying with the deputy’s request, the deputy tased Cure,” the bureau said. “Cure assaulted the deputy.”
The deputy used a Taser a second time and a baton to subdue Mr. Cure, who still did not comply, according to the statement. “The deputy pulled out his gun and shot Cure,” the bureau said. “EMT’s treated Cure, but he later died.”
Sadly, the entire story feels like a uniquely American tale. A Black man, wrongfully convicted and later freed is killed by law enforcement at a traffic stop.
I am not going to pretend that I know what happened at that traffic stop based on the above account, but I do know that a traffic violation should not end with a death sentence. We have got to figure out a better way to deal with these situations.
Unless you have a dead body or a serious amount of drugs in your trunk, it’s on the cops as murder if they shoot you for being 20 over the speed limit. Note this is just south of Brunswick, where Ahmaud Arbery was murdered by a former cop. If you are black, the cops in south Georgia are the worst humans alive.
Do we need a federal agency to investigate excessive force cases? Probably. This kind of shit has been going on forever in Vallejo, CA, not too far up the road from me. The state government just got involved, something that should have happened a long time ago. Hopefully, things will improve, but I’m not holding my breath.
Press “X” to doubt.
The death penalty was not for speeding. It was for failure to respect authoritay while black.
When I got pulled over for speeding, which has happened, I didn’t get arrested. I got a ticket, and then went about my business.
@Jay L Gischer: True. But then again, you weren’t charged with driving while black, either. Or at least, I don’t suppose you were.
@Modulo Myself:
May I point out Sheriff Bowman of Liberty County Georgia
And his deputies were responsible for this: .
@Stormy Dragon: “After not complying with the deputy’s request, the deputy tased Cure,” the bureau said.
And I bet the Deputy didn’t have a body cam on.
X.
I’m a 64 year old white guy. If I got stopped for speeding, my first thought would be, “oh shit, how much is this going to raise my insurance?”. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be a person of color and have my first thought be, “am I going to be alive in an hour?”.
Tased, then tased again, then beaten with a baton and STILL resisting? The bullshit-o-meter is already beeping. Turning off, or failing to wear, a bodycam should be a mandatory firing offense.
@just nutha: No, I’m white. I just think the oddness starts with “arrest” not “tasing”.