Mom: 'You took my son away from me'

Editor's note: Iris Baez is a member of the Justice Committee in New York, a longtime activist for accountability and justice in police brutality cases, and the mother of Anthony Baez, who was killed by a New York Police Department officer's use of a chokehold in 1994.

(CNN) -- Although details are still emerging in this most recent tragedy, we know an officer repeatedly shot and killed an unarmed 18-year-old black man, Michael Brown, in a St. Louis suburb last weekend -- less than two days before he was scheduled to attend college.

Last month, Eric Garner, another unarmed black man, died from an illegal police chokehold during an encounter on Staten Island, New York.

Nearly 20 years ago, my son Anthony Baez also died in an illegal police chokehold. Anthony was playing football in the street with his brother when their ball accidentally hit a police car. Instead of addressing real public safety issues, a New York police officer chose to harass my sons brutally.

Iris Baez

These cases and many more reveal our country's systemic criminalization and devaluing of black and brown lives.

The list is long. Twelve years after Anthony was killed, New York police officers fired at an unarmed Sean Bell 50 times and killed him the night before his wedding. The detectives who were responsible were acquitted of criminal charges.

Just three years later, a BART police officer in Oakland, California,shot and killed 22-year-old Oscar Grant while he was facedown on a subway platform, posing no threat. It inspired a movie, "Fruitville Station." The transit police officer who shot him was convicted of a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter and spent 11 months in prison.

Two years ago, unarmed National Guardsman Noel Polanco was fatally shot by a New York police detective during a highway traffic stop. The detective was not indicted.

Chokehold victim's family, friends protest

 

Outrage in Missouri after teen's death

Also two years ago, unarmed 18-year-old Ramarley Graham was shot and killed by a New York police officer who unlawfully entered his home and killed him in front of his grandmother and 6-year-old brother. A judge threw out the first indictment against Officer Richard Haste, who fatally shot Graham, and a second grand jury failed to re-indict him.

Just this January, an off-duty Houston police officer shot and killed 26-year-old Jordan Baker, a father and college student who worked part time, at a strip mall. The investigation is still pending.

These are just some of the dozens of police killings of unarmed Americans by law enforcement over the last decades. These tragedies and injustices happen year after year, and people of color -- primarily black and Latino -- are usually the victims.

Sadly, our communities in New York and elsewhere are almost conditioned to expect these incidents -- the loss of our children, siblings and spouses to excessive violence by those whose job it is to protect us.

New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton's recent commentdismissing that race was a factor in Garner's death is a slap in the face to those of us who've lost our children, and it is part of the problem that allows such unjust killings to continue.

In addition to the pain families experience from losing their loved ones, we are also forced to endure additional injustices, when again and again government and the criminal justice system fail to hold officers accountable, and instead the victims are criminalized.

Similar to the response in Garner's case, the New York Police Department attempted to blame my son for his death by saying that he and his brother resisted arrest.

But what were they under arrest for? Playing football in the street? Even if we hypothetically assumed the officers' allegations were true -- although they were not and a federal court found the officer guilty -- how does that justify killing someone?

With Bratton as police commissioner then and today, we see a similar response.

In many of these unjust killings, New York police detailed victims' past involvement with the criminal justice system to the media, as if that justified their lives being taken by the police. We've seen it with Garner, and we saw it with Anthony Rosario, Hilton Vega, Patrick Dorismond and many others.

Also, district attorneys fail to convene a grand jury or secure a conviction. We must question the closeness of district attorneys to police departments, given their interdependence. In only a handful of these cases, including my son's, the federal government stepped in to provide some limited accountability.

In Michael Brown's killing, the FBI will conduct a parallel investigation to one already under way by the St. Louis County, Missouri, police. Like it did with my son, the FBI review will focus on possible civil rights violations in his killing. That is the only way my son got justice -- when the federal government found the police officer who killed my son violated his civil rights.

Where is the justice for families like those of Ramarley Graham? It's been two years since his death and a year since the Justice Department said it was reviewing the case but still nothing. The family doesn't even know whether the officer responsible for killing him in cold blood has been disciplined or still walks around with a gun and shield.

Those with a badge who unjustly kill and brutalize should be stripped of their badge, their gun, their job and their pension because they have violated the public trust.

A systemic lack of accountability and inadequate discipline allows these incidents to continue to happen.

And now, in the wake of Garner's death, Bratton and the New York Police Department are responding in the same way they always have -- pledges of more training.

It's not training that will prevent this from happening again.

We need accountability for all officers involved that sends a message that this type of brutality is unacceptable and the lives of people of color are equally valued. Systemic cultural and substantive policy changes in police departments -- particularly in New York -- are needed to ensure black and brown communities are not targeted with overly aggressive, discriminatory "broken windows policing" and "stop and frisk" policies that promote brutality and violence. Officers should work to understand the communities they work in, not criminalize them.

Police-community relations can only start to improve when individual officers who abuse civilians' rights are held accountable with a zero-tolerance policy for police brutality.

Anything less is just rhetoric, and I fear that these unjust deaths will continue with more families and communities suffering the same pain.

是警察越來越遠謀殺？
通過虹膜貝茲
2014年8月12日 - 更新2054 GMT（0454 HKT）
觀看此視頻
媽媽：“你從我身邊帶走了我的兒子走”
新聞提要
就像手無寸鐵的埃里克·加納，光圈貝茲的兒子在非法控制遭到殺害警察
還有的是在密蘇里州拍攝的人員後，一片嘩然，並打死了一名手無寸鐵的邁克爾·布朗
光圈貝茲：警察誰殺的顏色是手無寸鐵的人往往逃脫巴掌手腕上
貝茲：正義和良好的社會關係，要求零容忍警察施暴
編者按：虹膜貝茲是其成員的司法委員會在紐約，一個長期活躍在警察暴行案件問責制和正義，和安東尼·貝茲的母親，誰被打死在紐約警察局官員的使用控制遭到了1994年。
（CNN） -儘管細節仍然出現在這個最新的悲劇，我們知道反复拍攝一個軍官打死了一名手無寸鐵的18歲黑人男子，邁克爾·布朗，在聖路易斯郊區的最後一個週末-不到兩前幾天，他被安排參加大學。
上個月，埃里克·加納，另一個手無寸鐵的黑人男子，從非法警方控制遭到期間在Staten島，紐約遭遇死亡。
近20年前，我的兒子安東尼·貝茲也死在非法的警察控制遭到。安東尼踢足球在大街上與他的兄弟時，他們的球不小心撞到一輛警車。相反，真正的解決公共安全問題，紐約警察選擇了粗暴騷擾我的兒子。
虹膜貝茲
虹膜貝茲
這些案件多以揭示我國系統性犯罪和黑褐色的生命貶值。
這份名單很長。安東尼被打死十二年後，紐約警察開槍一個手無寸鐵的肖恩·貝爾的50倍和他的婚禮前殺了他的夜晚。誰負責的偵探被判無罪的刑事指控。
僅僅三年後，一個捷運警察在加利福尼亞州奧克蘭市，開槍打死了22歲的奧斯卡·格蘭特，而他是正面朝下放置在地鐵站台上，沒有構成威脅。它激發了電影“Fruitville站。” 中天警察開槍誰是他的定罪較輕的過失殺人罪，並在監獄中度過11個月。
兩年前，手無寸鐵的國民警衛隊士兵諾埃爾·波朗科是致命的由紐約警探期間公路交通停止拍攝。偵探並沒有被起訴。
控制遭到受害人\的家人，朋友抗議 控制遭到受害人的家人，朋友抗議
憤慨於密蘇里州青少年死後
此外，兩年前，手無寸鐵的18歲Ramarley格雷厄姆開槍打死誰非法進入他家，殺死了他的祖母和6歲的弟弟前紐約警察。法官拋出了對官員理查德急速，誰槍殺格雷厄姆的第一份起訴書，以及第二大陪審團未能重新起訴他。
就在今年一月，一名休班休斯頓警察開槍打死了26歲的喬丹·貝克，父親和大學生誰兼職工作，在一個脫衣舞商場。調查仍在審理中。
這些只是一些手無寸鐵的幾十個美國人的警察殺害的執法在過去的幾十年。這些災難和不公正發生年復一年，和有色人種 - 主要是黑人和拉丁裔 - 通常是受害者。
可悲的是，我們在紐約的社區和其他地方幾乎條件反射地想到這些事情 - 我們的子女，兄弟姐妹和配偶的損失，過度暴力的那些，他們的工作就是保護我們。
紐約警察局長比爾布拉頓最近的評論解僱該比賽是在加納的死亡的一個因素是，在面對我們這些誰已經失去了我們的孩子一巴掌，這是允許這種不公正的殺戮繼續是問題的一部分。
除了失去親人的痛苦的家庭經驗，我們也不得不忍受更多的不公平現象，當一次又一次的政府和刑事司法系統無法容納人員負責，而不是受害者為犯罪。
類似於在加納的情況下的反應，紐約警察局試圖責怪我的兒子對他的死亡，他說，他和他的兄弟拒捕。
但是，什麼是他們被逮捕的？踢足球在大街上？即使我們假設假設官員的指控是真實的 - 儘管他們不是和聯邦法院認定有罪的官員 - 那怎麼證明殺人？
隨著布拉頓為警察局長，然後今天，我們看到了類似的回應。
在許多不公正的殺害，紐約警方 詳細的遇難者過去參與刑事司法系統的媒體，彷彿是有道理正在採取的警察生活。我們已經看到了它與加納，我們看到了與安東尼·羅薩里奧，希爾頓維加，帕特里克Dorismond等等。
此外，地方檢察官未能召開大陪審團或入罪。我們必須質疑地方檢察官，以公安部門的密切程度，因為它們相互依存。在只有極少數的個案，包括我兒子的，聯邦政府介入，提供一些有限的責任。
在邁克爾·布朗的殺害，聯邦調查局將進​​行平行調查，一個已經在由聖路易斯縣，密蘇里州，警察的方式。就像我的兒子一樣，美國聯邦調查局審查的重點可能侵犯公民權利在他的殺戮。這是我的兒子得了正義的唯一途徑 - 當聯邦政府發現警察是誰殺了我的兒子侵犯了他的公民權利。

哪裡是正義的家庭像Ramarley格雷厄姆？它已經因為他的死亡兩年，一年以來，美國司法部表示，正在審查的情況下，但仍然一無所獲。家人甚至不知道是否負責殺了他冷酷的人員已被處分或還帶了一把槍和盾走動。
他們的徽章，他們的槍，他們的工作和他們的養老金的那些徽章誰殺了不公正和殘酷對待都應該清除掉，因為他們違反了公眾的信任。
有系統缺乏問責制和紀律不足，使得這些事件繼續發生。
而現在，在加納去世之後，布拉頓和紐約警察局 正在響應以同樣的方式，他們總是有-更多的培訓承諾。
這不是訓練，以防止這種情況再次發生。
我們需要為所有官員問責涉及的發送消息，這種類型的暴行是不可接受的，色彩的人的生命都同樣重視。需要確保黑色和棕色的社區不是針對與咄咄逼人， -在警察部門的系統性文化和實質性的政策變化-尤其是在紐約歧視性的“破窗警務 “和”停止和搜身“促進殘酷和暴力的政策。人員應努力了解他們的工作在社區，而不是刑事犯罪他們。
警民關係只能開始好轉時，誰虐待平民的權利個別官員舉行了零容忍政策，警察的暴行負責。
如果不這樣做只是誇誇其談，我擔心這些不公正的死亡人數將繼續與更多的家庭和社區遭受同樣的痛苦。