Police most likely to shoot Natives

Who's most likely to be killed by police?

By Simon Moya-SmithAs the country continues to debate police accountability and the all-too-routine killing of unarmed black men by white law enforcement, it's imperative to understand that this issue is not just about black people and white people.

In fact, despite the available statistical evidence, most people don't know that Native Americans are most likely to be killed by police, compared with other racial groups. Native Americans make up about 0.8% of the population, yet account for 1.9% of police killings.

When Native Americans are shot and killed by law enforcement, there's rarely much news coverage of those incidents. There are no outcries from any community other than our own.

There are no white or black faces rallying around us, marching with us, protesting with us over this injustice. Why? Because we are a forgotten people.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Racial Tensions in Rapid City and Police Shoot Natives Too.

Locke shooting spurs racial tensions

Sadly and ironically, this happened Dec. 20:

Man attends police brutality rally, gets killed by cop next day

Below:  "Allen Locke, 30, was killed by Rapid City police officer Saturday evening who fired up to five shots."



Here's more on Locke's shooting and the resulting rally:

Native community mourns police shooting victim; South Dakota to investigate

By John Lee McLaughlinThe somber song and pounding of a drum slowly grew louder Sunday as a group descended from a north Rapid City hilltop where they had been mourning the death of Allen Locke.

Comprised of about 30 people, the group finally stopped in front of the home at 541 Paha Sapa Road, where Locke, 30, was fatally shot Saturday night by Rapid City Police after he charged an officer while holding a knife, according to police reports.The police explanation didn't satisfy Natives:"That's exactly what they did in that press conference is justify everything," she said, while noting that the incident is only part of a longstanding relations issue between local law enforcement and the Native American community. "That's our son. Any mother (here) would say that."

"There is no trust in the police department," Stoneman said, who also called for a task force to address the issue. "In the long run, it's going to have to come from the city: the mayor, the chief of police."Family of Native Man Shot By Police Pleads For Peace

By Kevin WosterWhatever the details of the Locke incident, the overall issue of race remains a divisive force in Rapid City, Eagle says.

"This all adds to the sentiment that the police aren't here for the Native community, as far as the protection and service goes," she says. "The enforcement and policing of the Native community is what's very evident."

Locke was shot after Meirose had responded to a call from a home in Lakota Community Homes for his removal from that home. The callers requesting his removal were Native Americans, and some in the home were in his family. Family and friends have questioned some of the details in the account offered by the police.

Locke had a history of criminal encounters with law enforcement, including DUI, marijuana possession and simple assault. But whatever his court history, his death is being mourned by those who knew him personally and others in the Native community who did not.Race Relation tensions on the rise in Rapid City

After Saturday's shootings, tensions escalate downtown

By Adam KingMayor Kooiker initiated the meeting because he's concerned that some are taking Saturday's lone shooting incident and making it a bigger issue.

"I think to draw a broader conclusion that this negatively impacts race relations in rapid city is wrong," Kooiker said.

Although he does acknowledge that there are some issues that need to be addressed.

"Overall race relations are a continual dialogue and a continual conversation," Kooiker said.

From Eagle's prospective, the mayor and city council are blatantly ignoring the issue.

"At the city level no acknowledgement of the problem even exists. There can be no change unless somebody addresses it. The people in power need to address it," Eagle said.Tension simmers after Rapid City shooting

Native leaders want more voice in race relations after police shooting of man with a knifeSome Rapid City Native American leaders are upset they were left out of a meeting Monday with Mayor Sam Kooiker over the death of a tribal member who was shot and killed by a Rapid City police. The man charged at the officer with a knife, police said.

Allen Locke, 30, was shot several times by officer Anthony Meirose on Saturday after the officer responded to a call of an unwanted person in the Lakota Community Homes addition. The South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating the shooting.

Rapid City mayor Sam Kooiker met Monday with some Native American leaders Monday to discuss race relations and show his support for Meirose and the Rapid City Police Department. Some members of the Native American community are unhappy with Kooiker's message and say more people should have been included in the discussion.Rapid City Mayor on Police Killing of American Indian: “I Want Our Officers to Know We Have Their Backs”

Open Season on Native Men

By Ann-erika White BirdAs for the people who continue to see us as animals and respond with brutality, let the officials in suits and ties take a stand to stop this behavior. Statements mean nothing without action. Institute body cameras. Consider the statistics provided by the Rialto evaluation. When officers had to wear body cameras, citizen complaints against police officers declined by 88 percent, use of force dropped by 60 percent. Let them discuss death prevention, institute procedures. How can we continue to promote peace when our Native men are being gunned down?

In several statements coming from the white community and the Native community, officials like to use the word “dialogue.” What’s difficult to imagine is how that dialogue is going to stop the open season on Native men, especially if officials are in denial that our people are targeted.Comment:  For more on the subject, see #NativeLivesMatter in Rapid City and Police Shoot Natives Too.

#NativeLivesMatter in Rapid City

The #BlackLivesMatter and #ICantBreathe protests have triggered similar protests in Indian country. For instance:

Police Protest Rally Aimed At Racial Awareness

By Kevin WosterA nationwide protest over police treatment of minorities came to Rapid City today, focusing on alleged racism toward Native Americans and a string of Native American deaths along Rapid Creek.

Demonstrators came from across South Dakota and beyond to protest what they believe is unjust treatment of Native Americans by Rapid City police.

They gathered in Memorial Park adjacent to the Lakota Nation Invitational sports and cultural event at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. Demonstrators called out the names of Native Americans found dead along Rapid Creek over more than 15 years, arguing that many of the deaths weren't solved because non-Indian investigators didn't care.

"We're tired of our people being found dead in this creek. No investigations. They're unsolved," Julee Richards of Pine Ridge said.

Police say the string of deaths, including one last week, along the creek were thoroughly investigated. Some appeared to be drownings or other natural causes. In some instances alcohol was involved. But some of the deaths remain a mystery.Anti-police brutality rally peaceful

By Andrea J. CookShouts of "Native lives matter" and "Hands up don't shoot" echoed along two of Rapid City's busiest streets Friday as nearly 100 men, women and children gathered to call attention to police brutality and the loss of Native American lives along Rapid Creek.

Rapid City Police officers stood discretely in the background while American Indian Movement Grassroots leaders welcomed the gathering that included both Native Americans and non-Natives who braved overcast skies and a sudden cold snap to stand with people around the nation to oppose police brutality

"Discrimination is alive here," Bill Means of Porcupine told the crowd before the group set out for a walk down Fifth Street and along Omaha Street. As participants walked, the names of 25 individuals who died along Rapid Creek were read.

Walkers stopped at the corner of Fifth and Omaha streets to raise their posters and show solidarity before they lined up along Omaha Street raising their hands and shouting "Hands up don't shoot" and "Native lives matter."Writer Gyasi Ross offers his perspective:

We Are All to Blame for Michael Brown and Eric Garner Not Getting Justice

By Gyasi RossThis shit is not new. Ask Emmett Till. Ask James Byrd Jr. Ask Dred Scott. Ask the Natives massacred at Sand Creek.

But we're still in the same place we've been in for the past 50 years: merely diagnosing the problem. As we used to say in the '80s, "No shit, Sherlock." We're pointing at the racism, pointing at all these agencies and municipalities that we cannot do anything about. The one place where we're not pointing? We're not pointing at ourselves. We let this happen. Black folks. White liberals. Pigeon-toed Natives. Conservatives. All of us. We're all complicit.Ross's conclusion:Racism is real, and black men get killed in tragically disparate numbers. Absolutely. It's been that way since the first interloper landed on this continent, and now many of us brown- and black-skinned people have even been infected with that racism disease against each other. That's deep. So it's going to take some time to remove that racism sickness out of America's DNA. That's long-term. In the short term we've got a responsibility to use the tools that exist right now. I admit that I have no clue whether the system will actually work; it might be as much of a joke as I was raised to believe it is. But I also cannot honestly say that these tools don't work until we actually try to try them. Failing to register to vote is not playing the game. Thirty-percent voter turnout is not playing the game. Finding creative ways to get out of serving on juries is not playing the game. You don't want to participate in the American justice system? I get it. Yet non-participation has consequences. I mean, there's absolutely a place for marching, sounding off on social media and being outraged and indignant. We should be; that's all positive stuff. Yet we have to use the tools that we have currently; otherwise we'll keep "outsmarting" justice.Comment:  For more on police brutality, see Police Shoot Natives Too and Historical Antecedents of Police Brutality.

Police shoot Natives too

Ferguson offers hope to family of unarmed Native man killed by police

Family of Corey Kanosh said they hope spotlight on police brutality will help restart wrongful death case

By Renee LewisNationwide protests over police brutality and racism in the U.S. justice system after the killings of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York have breathed new life into a case involving the police shooting of an unarmed Native American man in Utah.

Corey Kanosh, a 35-year-old member of the Kanosh band of the Paiute tribe, was killed during an incident in which it is unclear whether a crime was even committed. A policeman fatally shot Kanosh after a high-speed car chase on Oct. 15, 2012, in Millard County, about 150 miles south of Salt Lake City. His family says the officer shot Kanosh just seconds after arriving on the scene; law enforcement officials dispute that account, saying the shooting took place after a struggle.

An investigation by the sheriff's office in nearby Utah County found that Millard County Sheriff’s Deputy Dale Josse was justified in the shooting, reaching that conclusion a day after Kanosh’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Dec. 13, 2012.Native Lives matter! America’s National Media Ignoring Police Murders of Native People. Our Protests Fall on Deaf Ears!

By Thomas Pearce and Dave OrtizWhen you look at the cases of Latinos with indigenous heritage and indigenous North Americans, you will see that the United States is still at war with indigenous people. In the jails of Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana and most of Indian Country indigenous people are incarcerated at almost 3 times the amount of the white population. There has been civil unrest. There have been lawsuits filed. Many protests have been carried out in Oklahoma. Yet the nation’s media is focused elsewhere. Is it because they are afraid of what will happen if American Indians, African Americans, Latinos and working class whites rise up against this unjust system? Yes!

I know what you are thinking. “Why didn’t I hear about this before? Ask yourself that question again and think about everything going on. How could there be 37 shootings in an American city and the rest of the world not know about it? How could teargas be used on protesters and the national media not pick it up. It seems America is happy to try to keep the issues White and Black. As long as the issues are White and Black we will all continue to marginalize each other and stand alone. Imagine if we all got together and stood as one? We would be unbeatable. That is why you haven’t heard of these cases. America is counting on you not hearing about these cases. American Indians have been protesting consistently alongside Ferguson and NYC, indigenous protesters from Louisville to San Francisco to NYC have been marching in protests against police brutality. We need the rest of the people in this country fighting for liberation to take up the cry of Mah Hi Vist Goodblanket, of Christina Tahhahwah, of Myles Rough Surface, of Corey Kanosh, of John Williams, Clint John, of all of the victims of police brutality in this occupied nation!!

So far Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, and Mark Thompson-Matsimela Mapfumo of Make it Plain Radio on Sirius XM Radio have been among the few that have taken notice of police crimes against American Indians. The NATIONAL MEDIA OUTLETS have ignored these cases. Many killings that occurred in Albuquerque were of Native people and Latinos who had indigenous heritage. Hundreds of people in Albuquerque have been protesting since long before the failure of Missouri prosecutors to indict Darren Wilson, the murderer of Michael Brown. Many might say, “well there were riots in Ferguson.” There was also unrest in Albuquerque. There is unrest in Ferguson. There is unrest from Oakland to New York. The problem is that police have no civilian oversight except in a few places. The problem is the drug war. The problem is that America is at war with people of color. They always have been and they always will be.

The national media has ignored this problem long enough. Proving their racism and media bias once again. The questions that are being asked by most of the land are being asked by Indian Country. Why do police departments have to be militarized to keep us safe. Why can’t we have Civilian Police Review Boards? Why can’t we have impartial grand juries to indict police officers when they murder people of color? Why can’t the gap between rich and poor be closed so people can have opportunities to have a decent quality of life. Why can’t there be more American Indian police, more African American police, more Latino police? Why do our prisons have to be filled with people of color? Why don’t we have drug treatment on demand? These are the solutions to the problems with brutal police. They need to be implemented now.A Facebook posting by Native writer Johnnie Jae:Dear White Mainstream America (this does not include everyone, just the ignorant asshats and they know who they are as they will totally be offended, OFFENDED by this post): Can we please discuss the subconscious and overt racism that is poisoning our society and literally killing Black and Native people at alarming rates without you closing your eyes, sticking your fingers in your ears, and screaming at the top of your lungs that we are undeserving of equality but deserving of death?Comment:  For more on police brutality, see Historical Antecedents of Police Brutality and "Hands Up, Don't Shoot!"

Below:  "Albuquerque protester blocking militarized APD preparing to attack protesters."

Historical antecedents of police brutality

With the protests against police shootings in Ferguson and New York City, Native writers are noting that violence against minorities is nothing new.

The I Can’t Breathe Movement

By Dana LonehillBeing shot and killed by police is nothing new to people with darker skin. Maybe some people think it is because of the recent civil rights movement dubbed I Can’t Breathe, in honor of the many killed by police and justified. Natives, Blacks, and other minority groups alike all know this story. They make up most of the prison system to this day and have never been under represented in anything to do with acts of genocide. Police brutality and militarization of police are something that date back slave days and days of putting Indians on a reservation.

In researching and preparing to write this, I asked many people their opinions or for quotes. I found many. I could and should post them here, but instead in the simplest terms, I will just throw it down like this. This country was founded on brutality and racism, resulting in genocide. This country was never about apple pie and baseball.

And all the muddy, messed up past is not recorded in the history books. Sure they talk about slavery and praise Lincoln for “freeing the slaves” but do the schoolbooks include Lincoln signing the death sentences of 264 Dakota prisoners? Or the mass hanging of 38 of those prisoners in what is now the largest mass execution in America? The history books will tell you what they want you to think, like you will remember or care, but they won’t tell you the truth.

Violence in the form of brutality and death is nothing new in this country. It has been happening for hundred of years, it is the foundation of this country.Where's the Senate Torture Report on All the Violence Done to Natives?

By Boyd CothranFollowing the attacks of September 11, 2001, the George W. Bush administration began constructing its legal response to the perceived terrorist threat. This response consisted of a series of legal opinions from the Department of Justice, many of them written by John C. Yoo, a University of California law professor who was then serving as a deputy assistant attorney general. The memorandums provided legal arguments to support the administration’s claim that detainees from the war in Afghanistan did not enjoy the protections of either the U.S. Constitution or the Geneva Convention and that the War Crimes Act of 1996 also did not apply. Despite considerable disagreement from Secretary of State Colin Powell and others, the administration went ahead, and by December 2002, the Defense Department had drafted detailed policies for interrogation techniques. Then, in early March 2003, Yoo authored one of his most sweeping legal briefs in what came to be known as the infamous Torture Memos. In it, he set out not only a legal justification but also a historical connection between unlawful combatants in the current conflict and Indigenous peoples in the nineteenth century.

Reading the eighty-one-page memorandum after it became available to the public in April 2008, I was surprised to discover that at a crucial point in his memorandum Yoo relied on U.S. attorney general George H. Williams’s 1873 opinion regarding the legality of denying Indian P.O.Ws fifth amendment due process rights. The opinion provided a legal justification for circumventing civilian jurisdiction to try the Modocs for murder by a military tribunal. “It cannot be pretended that a United States soldier is guilty of murder if he kills a public enemy in battle,” Williams wrote in 1873, “which would be the case if the municipal law was in force and applicable to an act committed under such circumstances.” The Modocs, Williams had argued, could be legally prosecuted and executed by the U.S. military as long as they were first declared criminals; the U.S. Army, in other words, could kill Indians who were deemed murderers without themselves becoming murderers.

One hundred thirty years later, Yoo resurrected this legal theory to support his expansive articulation of executive power and to maintain American innocence in the Global War on Terror. “The strictures that bind the Executive in its role as a magistrate enforcing the civil laws have no place in constraining the President in waging war,” Yoo argued. Enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, could be used on enemy combatants because federal criminal laws prohibiting assault and battery simply do not apply to such criminals. Within the eyes of American law, the enemy combatant was a criminal because the Modocs were criminals; the use of torture in the Global War on Terror was justified because hanging the Modoc was justified.

What does this all mean? Why is it important to recognize the historic roots of our current conversation about torture? Because history matters. Setting the record straight matters. In reckoning with the legacy of the September 11, 2001 and its aftermath Americans must confront the violence of the past and say "never again." But in doing so we must not think that these sort of judicially expedient accommodations are unprecedented. Too often we forget that the colonization and subjugation of the powerless are often carried out under the guise of the law. Williams constructed a legal opinion in 1873 to justify ends, which most Americans at the time would have viewed as necessary and justified. But in doing so, he created a means for others. A true accounting for the history of the use of torture in the war on terror will have to look far beyond the last decade to understand our longer use of the law to justify the unjust.Comment:  For more on the subject, see "Hands Up, Don't Shoot!" and Grand Juries Won't Indict Killer Cops.