BLACK LIVES MATTER + POLICE REFORM

Police Lied and More Black People Died. America, Are You Listening?

A recent study exposed a litany of dishonest practices. But, no one seems interested in police reform these days

Lavell Ford, brother of Ezell Ford, at the site where his brother was killed at 65th Street and Broadway in South Los Angeles | Photo Credit | LA Times

During the racial reckoning of 2020, it seemed like everyone and their mama was raging against the machine, speaking out against the disproportionate amount of Black people killed by police. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Jacob Blake became household names. But, since then, the topic of police brutality has grown cold. It’s as if folks thought they could close their eyes, and racism would wander off into the wastelands.

And just like the virus that folks keep declaring “over” because of collective desperation to move on, police brutality hasn’t gone anywhere either. Data shows police are still killing people at the same rate as before. So, where are all the outrage, the dismay, and the black squares this time? Performative activism seems to have dried up, like a glue stick with no cap.

To make matters worse, a new study that explored fatal police encounters discovered “more than half of US police killings are mislabeled or not reported.” These findings blow the “few bad apples” argument out of the barrel. You…