Thursday, October 21, 2010

What Do The Danroy Henry and Sean Bell Murder Tragedies Have In Common?


Over the weekend a Pace University student-athlete was killed by the police. News of the murder of Danroy Henry is spreading across the internet and various news outlets. As I was reading various articles to gather details about the tragedy, I couldn’t help but notice the following similarities between the Sean Bell murder and the Danroy Henry murder:

-Both were young Black men in their 20s, who were killed by on-duty New York police officers.

-Neither of the men were involved in any criminal activities.

-Both men were drivers of a motor vehicle at the time of their murders. This gives officers the option of trying to cover their tracks by saying that the men attempted to run them over with their cars, so they discharged their weapons. However, any reasonable person may also deduct that shooting the driver of a vehicle will cause the driver to lose control of the automobile, and consequently run into persons or property in the vicinity of their vehicle.

-Both men had passengers in their cars who were childhood friends, who were injured- but not killed- by the gunfire.

- Both men were killed outside of social venues at night. However, neither victim was under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

- Both men were killed near important milestones in their lives. Sean Bell, on the night before his wedding; Danroy Henry, less than two weeks before his 21st birthday.

No comments: