Video cameras have transformed how we view police killings. First, there was the horrifying homicide in July 2014 of Eric Garner, placed in a choke-hold for selling loose cigarettes and denied medical assistance for several long minutes despite pleading "I can't breathe" eleven times. Then there was the shocking slaying in April 2015 of Walter Scott, stopped for a non-functioning third brake light and shot in the back in broad daylight while running away from the police. Most recently, there was the fatal shooting this July of Samuel Dubose, stopped for a missing front license plate and shot in the head while attempting to drive away. In all three cases -- two of them caught by citizen videos and the third by police camera -- the victims were African-American.
In the wake of these events and protests that have done so much to focus public attention on them, our knowledge of police killings has rapidly expanded. So, too, has the issue's political salience. The videos -- and the outrage that followed -- helped ignite the most powerful civil rights movement since the 1960s. Thanks to this movement, the issues of police killings and mass incarceration are now squarely on the public agenda.
Much More: Police Killings Surpass the Worst Years of Lynching, Capital Punishment, and a Movement Responds
Black Lives Matter! We all should respect and support them as they fight against police brutality and injustice.