Executed ‘Walking While Black' in Miami
by Mel Reeves
"The State Attorney's office has failed to indict a
single officer in brutality and wrongful death cases in over 20 years."
On a warm night in late October in this tropical oasis an
unarmed 19 year-old Haitian immigrant Gracia Beaugris was shot dead by a Miami
Dade police officer. His crime? Walking While Black! What will be done about
it, without continuing public pressure including national pressure, probably
nothing?
Beaugris was only 20 yards from his front door in a North
Miami neighborhood, when he was killed by Officer Christopher Villano.
Community leaders called it an execution. But of course that is too
inflammatory and leads folks to suspect that we aren't willing to give the
police the benefit of the doubt. Beaugris, a clean and conscientious kid, was
killed while walking home from the Laundromat. Ironically, his burial was
scheduled for November 17, exactly six years to the day that he arrived in this
country.
It appears that the young man died because he had gotten,
"sick and tired of being sick and tired." He had been hassled by the cops
before, he heard stories about his boys being harassed by police, surely he was
probably aware of other folks being harassed who looked like him. So when this
cop stopped and frisked him and his friends, he decided to object by asking,
"Why?"
That question may have gotten him killed. According to
witnesses, when the youth asked why he had been stopped and frisked, the
officer cursed at him and pushed him. Beaugris offered resistance and was
choked and then shot in the arm by the officer, which caused him to fall to the
ground.
What has the community so outraged is that the cop then shot
the teen two more times - once in the head - while he lay on the ground
defenseless, killing him. Calling it a murder would not be inappropriate.
The cop, according to police, can't give a statement just
yet; the top brass claim something about not wanting to grant immunity. But I
and the community suspect, it's probably because he and his cronies are trying
to find out what people witnessed, so they can spin the tale better. Villano
-which in Spanish literally means villain - said through his attorney that the
kids jumped him and beat on him. Now, knowing the cops like we do, we know that
if they had any evidence that someone hit or scratched the cop they would have
photographed it, and the "running dogs" known as the big business media would
have rushed to show it all over our TV screens and in print. But there were no pictures,
or film of his injuries forthcoming. Hmmm.
"The cop shot the teen two more times - once in the head
- while he lay on the ground defenseless."
And further inflaming intentions, an attorney for the
so-called police union - police union is an oxymoron - implied the shooting was
justified. He said in the Miami Herald, "he [Villano] would have been
justified in shooting earlier." The
community took that to mean he should have shot the teen right away.
The first response of Miami Dade city government was to send
its Community Relations specialists into the neighborhood. The first words that
came out of the mouth of one of them on the scene a few days later, was, "we
want to prevent any violence." There used to be a name for folks who did this
kind of work. So they weren't really interested in what the community was
interested in, which was justice. They just wanted to put water on the fire
that the power structure started.
But we activists beat them to the punch and began organizing
so that the people could have a disciplined and organized effort to fight for
justice. Max Rameau of CopWatch
and a longtime Miami community activist organized a vigil, which quickly turned
into a protest. Speaker after speaker denounced the shooting - including myself
as a representative of the NAACP. Some speakers called it a murder or an
execution. The president of the Miami Dade NAACP said he was tired of police
shooting our folks. The speakers represented both the African American and
Haitian communities.
This story is somewhat known generally in our community, but
we're still struggling to get out the truth because the "official" big business
press, The Miami Herald, has printed the officers side, which is in
essence, "hearsay." Yet the press have been careful not to present the other
side, or the side of the story as witnessed by youth on the scene - to do so,
they would tell you, would be the same as printing "hearsay."
Of course, this is the double standard every community in
the US faces when an officer of the law kills or brutalizes someone. Usually an
attempt is made to smear the victims' reputation, to make the victim look as
bad and crazy and criminal as possible. The idea is to insinuate that the
victim deserved what he got.
Adding
Insult to Injury
"We want someone from our community who is not a part
of the power structure, who we trust to help conduct this investigation."
The Community Relations Board organized its own meeting.
Miami Dade Police Chief Robert Parker, the State Attorney's office and members
of the Community Relations Board all gathered to tell the community that an
investigation is being conducted. However, the assembled citizens were united
in telling these representatives of the power structure that they don't trust
them to investigate themselves.
While the primary demand is for the prosecution of the cop
that killed Beaugris, the other important demand is for an independent
investigator.
"We do not believe the police can police itself," declared
Marleine Bastien, a longtime Miami Haitian rights activist. "That's why we've
heard calls for an independent investigation."
When the highly degreed and very intelligent panelists acted
as if they couldn't understand the concept of "independent," someone from the
audience made it clear. "What we want is someone from our community who is not
a part of the power structure, who we trust to help conduct this investigation,
because we don't trust you."
The State Attorney's office has failed to indict a single
officer in brutality and wrongful death cases in over 20 years. During that
time there have been dozens of cases of apparent police misconduct and more
than a dozen Black men have died at the hands of police, under questionable
circumstances.
The African American police chief seemed to take personal
the idea that he, a black man, was not trusted by other blacks. Unfortunately
for Chief Parker, he is not very gifted in the art of verbal sparring, so he
fell back on the retort that, police in the US are better than any in other
parts of the world. Of course everyone probably thought at the same time, "you
old Tom, we're not in any other part of the world, we're in Miami where black
folk still don't get respect."
Before I could get this article written another Black man
died in police custody after being tasered by the Miami Dade police. He had
been driving erratically when stopped and police are sure that they will find
that cocaine had something to do with his death.
Mel Reeves is a
political activist and journalist living in Miami. He can be contacted at mellaneous19@yahoo.com.
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