Rayshard Brooks

Rayshard Brooks, a black man, was killed by Atlanta Police in June 2020. 

Police were investigating the possibility that Brooks was drunk behind the wheel.  The encounter was marked by politeness on the part of Brooks and the police.  A breath test showed that Brooks had too much alcohol in his system, so the law demanded that he be arrested.  So they got out the handcuffs.  Then Brooks got violent, beat off two cops, grabbed one’s “taser”, and ran.  [Strong man, Mr. Brooks!]  In the pursuit, Brooks was shot and died. 

Why did Brooks suddenly go from polite to violent? 

In May 2020, George Lloyd, a black man, was apparently murdered while handcuffed by police in Minneapolis.  Bystanders caught the killing on videotape, which was then shown, repeatedly, on national television.  Never before had an actual murder been shown to so many people. 

Did Rayshard remember that event when they brought out the handcuffs? 

The immediate effect of the media’s decision to shove Mr. Lloyd’s murder into our faces for days was a series of protests that may well lead to some long-needed reforms.  That the protests were infiltrated by looters, vandals, thugs, and rioters distracted from the message does not completely negate this hopeful fact.