So he was vandalizing properties and breaking into cars it was dark and he was running from the cops
All this was his own fault. If he wasn't being a piece of shit who was breaking windows and trying to steal cars he'd be alive and well
Life lesson
Don't commit crimes and you won't get dead
Well then he was a criminal, and must bear some of the blame. So now the penalty for breaking into cars and running from the police , is death on the spot! No judge , no jury.
No pity.
Dear
Skull Pilot and
Mickiel
I think you hit the issues dead on target.
Yes, if he was breaking into cars and evading arrest he is partly responsible for the circumstances.
But
Mickiel is right, there is something called Due Process and getting convicted before being
deprived of life and liberty.
Trouble is, neither was Stephon Clark respecting "due process of law" before
depriving people of property if that's indeed what he was doing.
Both sides are to blame for violating lawful due process.
One side had guns and used them to stop the guy by killing him.
This could be prevented by teaching people and forming agreements
with each district to respect the laws and due process. Currently we
don't even teach people their rights until after a crime is committed and it's legally required to read them their rights.
Any teacher in school will tell you that the first step in getting students
assimilated in the classroom is to go over the rules AND the procedure in case of infractions.
All the students have to agree to follow these in order to participate in class.
We need to do the same with residents agreeing to live in a district,
and have signed agreements after training with police on what are the laws and procedures.
This would reduce infractions by teaching those who do have intent to comply with laws and authority,
while screening out the people with disorders addiction or other disability preventing them from
complying or rendering them legally or mentally incompetent, so they can receive assistance or supervision
in severe cases of threat to health or safety.
What if it had been other suspects who were guilty of the breakins?
Then if an innocent person got shot for their crimes, those people
should also be held responsible for felony murder, if someone dies during
the commission of a crime.
There is still an issue of black men getting profiled or getting shot instead of getting due process.
But we can't trust the media to tell us how often this happens or which cases are worse.
The case where a "white woman" got shot by police didn't get protested to the same degree.
I met the family of Travis Allen, a white teenager shot to death by police while lying in handcuffs
on the floor, because they thought he was reaching for something in his pocket.
That case didn't get national publicity either.
What we can do is treat all cases that occur with the same intent of addressing all causes
of what went wrong. If young men are committing crimes, whether breaking into cars
as Stephon Clark was suspected or being addicted to illegal drugs as Travis Allen was suspected,
these do not merit the death penalty, and certainly without due process to decide life or death.
Although the punishment was disproportional, the tragedy can be prevented by
addressing the causes of crime and addiction in advance, and not waiting for confrontation with police
to argue for "due process."
These tragedies do not know color, and can be prevented by addressing the
root causes that have affected people of all ages, races and colors.
Police may be caught profiling and discriminating, but that still doesn't address the root cause.
If we resolve those issues, then the same corrections will also change the attitudes
causing profiling and discrimination as well, but not vice versa. Only focusing on the
external problems after the fact will not solve the internal issues; but focusing on the
internal issues of the causes of crime and abuse and mutual respect for due process
will solve both internal and external problems on both sides.