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Family and friends of Justine Damond gathered for a vigil in Sydney, Australia, on July 19. Damond died after being shot by Minneapolis police.

In life, Justine Damond was a yoga instructor. In death, she is a Rorschach test.

Earlier this month, Minneapolis police responded to Damonds emergency call about a possible sexual assault and ended up killing her. To a lawyer representing her family, she is the most innocent victim of any police shooting he has ever seen. In Damonds native Australia, politicians and citizens see her fate as further proof of American lawlessness so unchecked that even the police are as much predators as protectors.

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Right-wing media highlight the accused officers ethnicity he is a Somali-American and proclaim him an emblem of the failings of political correctness. And for those who have watched the killings of people of color treated with indifference and victim-blaming excuses, Damonds death reinforces what they already knew that a white woman will be afforded compassion, a presumption of virtue, and official recourse that no black or brown man, woman, or child killed by a police officer would ever receive.

Yet lost in this maelstrom is any meaningful discussion of how yet another person who called 911 ended up getting shot to death by a police officer who was initially sent to help.

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On Wednesday, as the controversy over Damonds death spiraled, acting Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo ordered all officers to activate their body cameras in response to every traffic stop, call, or self-initiated response. When Damond was killed, both officers Mohamed Noor, who fired the fatal shot, and Matthew Harrity had their body cams turned off. Harrity said he and Noor were startled by a loud sound just before Noor shot Damond.

Choosing to obey a police officer is never a guarantee that a person of color wont still be shot dead by a cop.

While concrete changes after police shootings usually occur at a glacial pace, if at all, this is the second major departmental shift since Damonds death. Less than a week after the killing, Police Chief Jane Harteau resigned, and Mayor Betsy Hodges said in a statement, she had lost confidence in the Chiefs ability to lead us further.

Hodges suffered no such loss of confidence in Harteau after police shot Jamar Clark, an African-American man, to death in November 2015. Neither officer involved in Clarks killing was indicted.

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Its too early to know if Noor will be charged in Damonds death, but one thing is already clear: He isnt receiving the kind of lavish support conservatives usually bestow on police officers. Thats because this police shooting calls forth an ancient but omnipresent white American fear the killing of a white woman by a black man.

Fox News, which rarely questions the actions of police officers, referred to Noor as an Somali immigrant cop. For no obvious reason, the same story mentioned that the Noor spoke Somali at home, as if thats a clue into what happened the night Damond died. This is the same channel that tried to make Trayvon Martins hoodie as complicit in his own killing as shooter George Zimmerman.

Other right-wing outlets hoping to inflame already agitated emotions about immigration and Islam call Noor a Muslim cop. Former Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann branded the officer, the precincts first Somali-American, as an affirmative-action hire and cryptically wondered if Damond was killed for cultural reasons. Whatever that means. Even Noors police union has been relatively quiet, instead of defending a fellow officer.

As the investigation into Damonds death continues, its international multi-story narrative has almost overgrown the initial incident.

Of course, there was far less widespread attention a month earlier when Seattle police shot to death Charleena Lyles, a pregnant mother of four struggling with mental health issues, after she reported a burglary. Or the case of Ismael Lopez in Mississippi, shot dead last Sunday by police who mistakenly went to his home to serve a warrant meant for his neighbor.

Yet the best we can get are cursory conversations about improving police training. Last year police killed more than 950 people. Whether or not juries recognize it, not every shooting is justified. Systemic failings in police training nationwide create antagonistic community relationships in which citizens fear police and police arrive expecting the worst and respond with lethal force as the only option.

Damonds death is a tragedy, but no more so than that of anyone else inexplicably killed by police. The only difference is that Damond was a white woman. Beyond that, were left with the same vexing questions, but already know this much is true: Innocent citizens of every race and gender will continue to die because, when police officers are trained to be hammers, everything around them looks like a nail.

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A nation of nails, policed by hammers - The Boston Globe

Trayvon Martin was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Walking back from a 7-Eleven to the Sanford, Florida townhouse of his father's fiancee on a dark and rainy February evening in 2012, Martin aroused the suspicions of neighborhood watch leader George Zimmerman, setting in motion a chain of events that led to Martin's death and one of the most intensely followed trials of the twenty-first century--a trial that provoked arguments about America's gun culture and racial profiling. As the case progressed, in cities across the county rallies calling for "Justice for Trayvon" were held, and everyone from President Barrack Obama to Hollywood stars to cable news personalities jumped into the debate over whether Martin's death was murder or a justifiable use of force by a man fearing for his life.

Shortly after 7:00 P.M. on Sunday, February 26, 2012, seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin talked on his cellphone with his friend, Rachel Jeantel. He carried a bag of Skittles and an Arizona watermelon juice cooler as he headed along a sidewalk in the Retreat at Twin Lakes townhouse community in Sanford. When George Zimmerman, driving his SUV to Target for an errand, looked out his window he spotted Martin and concluded, as he told police in a phone call, he was "a real suspicious guy." What about Martin made him suspicious is not completely clear. What is known is that Martin was unknown to Zimmerman, young, wore a hooded sweatshirt, walked slowly in the rain--and, most central to the debates that would later ensue, was black. Asked later that night in a police interview the cause for his suspicion, Zimmerman said, "I've never seen him in the neighborhood. I know all the residents. It was raining out and he was leisurely walking, taking his time, looking at all the houses."

Zimmerman called Sanford police at 7:09 to report his suspicions....

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George Zimmerman Trial - famous-trials.com

The reverberations of the killing of black teenagerTrayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in February 2012 are still being felt five years later. Martins death and Zimmermans controversial acquittal of second-degree murder sparked a national conversation about racial injustice and, along with numerous other shootings, helped inspire the Black Lives Matter movement.

Zimmermans case was at the center of Monday nights installment of Oxygens four-nightThe Jury Speaksseries, which featured interviews with five jurors from the case: Christine Barry, Maddy Rivera, Lauren Germain, David Ramirez, and Amy Trunalone (Ramirez and Germain were ultimately dismissed before deliberation). They also talked to Zimmermans attorneys Don West and Mark OMara, as well as witness Rachel Jeantel, to get their perspectives.

Heres what we learned.

As with many high-profile cases, the Zimmerman jurors were screened to make sure they werent bringing in any preconceived knowledge or ideas about the case. Germain admitted that she hadnt even heard of Zimmerman until she showed up for jury duty. But that wasnt the only factor in choosing a jury.

There was a clear racial aspect to the jury selection, West said. Rightfully or wrongfully, we were more suspicious, if you will, of African-American jurors because of the way the case was presented in the media.

Floridas legal system eschews a 12-person jury in favor of 10 members, including four blind alternates who are dismissed before the 6-juror deliberation. From a pool of 750 jurors, Wests style of selection ultimately resulted in eight white jurors and two Hispanic jurors, and a parallel ratio of eight women to two men.

You have a young black man whos been shot, but you have eight white jurors and two Hispanics, Ramirez said. That struck me as kind of funny.

Obviously, the goal is to find people who will favor you, West said.

No one from the prosecution team was interviewed for the special, but other players indicate the prosecutions strategy hinged on the testimony of Rachel Jeantel, a friend of Martins who was the last person he talked to on the phone before he was killed. On the stand, Jeantel recounted Martin telling her he was being followed. Thinking Zimmerman was a rapist, she urged her friend to get away. As a confused young person who recently lost her friend, Jeantel did not exactly give stirring testimony, and the defense fought her hard in cross-examination.

I felt like I wasnt a witness, Jeantel said. Mr. West made me feel like I was a suspect.

As a result, the jurors reception of Jeantels testimony was muddled. Trunalone felt empathy for Jeantels plight, Barry felt the defense was too hard on her, and Germain said Jeantel didnt seem credible because she went back and forth in her answers. In other words, Jeantel was not sufficient, in and of herself, to point the jurors to an easy conclusion.

Since the fatal encounter between Zimmerman and Martin took place at night, there were few reliable eyewitnesses. Even the neighbors who spotted some of the fight from their windows could not provide definitive proof as to whether Martin really was attacking Zimmerman in a life-threatening way. The trial, therefore, focused more on ear witnesses neighbors who had overheard the confrontation from far away, and audio tape of their 911 calls. One of the tapes even included someone screaming for help. Depending on who screamed, it could have mammoth implications for the case.

If a victim, the one who ended up being shot, was screaming for help for a minute and then was still shot, that gives premeditation, OMara said. On the other hand, if it was George who was screaming, then obviously he was screaming out for help, didnt get it, and then had to shoot out of self-defense.

The source of the scream proved impossible to determine. The court summoned both Martins and Zimmermans mothers to see if they recognized the scream. Both of them said it was their son.

Zimmermans lawyers argued that their client only shot Martin in self-defense. Therefore, they had to show that Martin posed a threat to Zimmermans life. Some people nearby claimed to have seen the struggle, with one person on top of the other raining down blows, but accounts differed as to whether Martin or Zimmerman was on top.

One key piece of evidence came from the placement of bullet holes in Martins clothing. He was wearing a hoodie when he died, but the bullet hole in his hoodie was about three inches above the corresponding hole in his shirt. Specialists argued that this meant Zimmerman had shot Martin while the latter was leaning over him.

When you saw where the bullet hole was and you heard from different professionals, logistically that had to be the case, Trunalone said.

They basically said thats the reason why it was self-defense, Rivera added.

By all accounts, the final jury deliberation was passionate. At one point, Rivera threatened to quit, saying she was done and just wanted to get home to her husband and eight kids after three weeks away. But ultimately, the jurors said they dismissed their emotions and focused on the facts they had been presented. Even when Oxygen reunited Barry, Trunalone, and Germain to see if their judgment had changed (years afterZimmerman auctioned off the gun he used to kill Martin,agreed to participate in a celebrity boxing matchthat was ultimately canceled, and made headlines for multiple arrests), they all said not guilty, though they all admitted theirpersonal distaste for Zimmerman.

All I go back to is the law, Trunalone said. That is what we have. Were a democracy, and what weve got is the law. Were to apply it blind to any other thing. At that moment, at that moment, did that person think their life was in jeopardy? Thats the way you have to answer the question.

Continue reading here:
The Jury Speaks: George Zimmerman jurors explain controversial ... - EW.com

Credit: Gary W. Green-Pool/Getty Images

It has been five years since neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot and killed black teenager Trayvon Martin, but the conversation surrounding the case continues.

Since the 33-year-olds extremely controversial acquittal for second-degree murder, the topic of racial injustice has been at the forefront of many peoples minds, even inspiring the Black Lives Matter movement.

In a four-night series on Oxygen called The Jury Speaks, five jurors from the case Christine Barry, Maddy Rivera, Lauren Germain, David Ramirez, and Amy Trunalone discuss the case and reveal whether theyd still choose a not-guilty verdict today.

There was a clear racial aspect to the jury selection, said Georges attorney Don West.

Rightfully or wrongfully, we were more suspicious, if you will, of African-American jurors because of the way the case was presented in the media.

Of the six jurors and four alternates, eight were white and two Hispanic, and the ratio of women to men was eight to two.

You have a young black man whos been shot, but you have eight white jurors and two Hispanics. That struck me as kind of funny, said David.

Obviously, the goal is to find people who will favor you, Don continued.

During the trial, the prosecution heavily relied on the testimony of Rachel Jeantel, a friend of Trayvon's who was the last person he talked to.

Rachel revealed Trayvon thought George was following him, but when she gave her testimony during the trial, she wasnt necessarily convincing.

I felt like I wasnt a witness. Mr. West made me feel like I was a suspect, Rachel said.

The jury also had a difficult time making sense of the ear witnesses, or people who heard George and Trayvon fighting before the killing.

If a victim, the one who ended up being shot, was screaming for help for a minute and then was still shot, that gives premeditation, said Georges other attorney Mark OMara said.

On the other hand, if it was George who was screaming, then obviously he was screaming out for help, didnt get it, and then had to shoot out of self-defense.

Though the jury members are vocal about their distaste for George, they all still agree they would have chosen the same not-guilty verdict.

All I go back to is the law. That is what we have. Were a democracy, and what weve got is the law, said Amy.

Were to apply it blind to any other thing. At that moment, at that moment, did that person think their life was in jeopardy? Thats the way you have to answer the question."

What are your thoughts on the case? Sound off below!

The Jury Speaks airs tonight, Tuesday, July 25 at 9 p.m. on Oxygen.

Excerpt from:
George Zimmerman Jurors Open Up About Controversial Verdict on ... - Wetpaint

Re: In My View by William Davis, Do black lives matter to blacks? (July 19, Page A6). Mr. Davis cites a number of statistics regarding black-on-black crime, and then goes on to disparage the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. While some of his statistics may be accurate, most of the realities he cites are the result of decades of failed systemic and societal conditions, and were not the motivation for the genesis of BLM.

The actual beginnings of BLM occurred following the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012, and following the acquittal of his shooter, George Zimmerman. Following that tragedy were many police-involved fatal shootings of young black men, including Tamir Rice, a 12-year old discovered with a toy gun in 2014; Michael Brown in Ferguson in 2014; Alton Sterling, shot at close range while pinned to the ground in 2016; Philando Castile, shot at close range in 2016 after a traffic stop; to name just a few. In these examples, all of the police officers were either acquitted, or charges were not brought at all.

Mr. Davis would have one believe that activists and others who consistently alter and distort the facts in high-profile matters are bent on convincing others that law enforcement is to blame... even when it was ...proved that witnesses were lying. It is more likely that Mr. Davis is distorting the facts, since a blanket statement like this cannot logically be applied to all police-involved shootings.

In perhaps his most inflammatory perception, Mr. Davis states that Ms. Georgia Hotton (and presumably all others who do not agree with his positions) has been duped by anti-American fanatics on the extreme left whose focus is to instill hatred and blind allegiance to the destruction of the United States of America, as we know it, through lies, deceit and evil conspiracies. This is simply an outrageous and blatantly inaccurate statement, and demonstrates precisely why this country is so polarized politically.

Mr. Davis concludes by stating his version of the root causes of the black communitys negative profile, which are apparently due to gang bangers, family values and lack of cooperation with police officers. I wonder if Mr. Davis has any black friends or family members, and if he does, I wonder if he has shared these views with them in an effort to hear another side. If he has spoken to a black father or mother who has a teenage son, he would know that these parents have given the talk to their son every time he walks out the front door. That talk emphasizes demonstrating respect and cooperation toward police officers precisely because they dont want to get a phone call that their son has been shot.

Talk is cheap. Especially talk which involves no perception of the other side, including the effects of decades of systemic and psychological racism on the black community. Conversation, communication and dialogue are the only things which will improve race relations and the political mood in this country.

Christine Mitchell lives in Green Valley.

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IN MY VIEW: We have to talk about it before situation improves - Green Valley News