The Gantt Report
This is one of those Gantt Report columns that some people love to hate. Many in our community never want to get hurt but the truth hurts!
And, this column will discuss why bad cops can shoot unarmed African American children and get away with it.
The people you love, the people you follow around town on marching parade routes designated by the police force and the people you invite into your homes to help you get justice won’t tell you some things but I will!
It is nearly impossible for courts, juries and governments to charge, arrest, jail and punish any law enforcement officer for police misconduct, police brutality or for wrongful death caused by police and other law enforcers!
If it was easy for every victim of law enforcement misconduct to get a preacher, hire a lawyer, go down to the courthouse or to City Hall and get equal rights, justice and compensation for your losses there would be a line around the courthouse every day!
If you’re Black, you and every other Black person you know has been or has someone in their family or in their community that has been mistreated, harassed, disrespected, over-charged, aggressively prosecuted, pulled over, pushed, shoved, hit, punched, beaten, jailed, choked or shot by a law enforcer!
If one grieving mother gets paid for the loss of a husband or child, every mother who has had an unarmed child shot down in the street in broad daylight by a trigger happy cop should get paid for their losses too!
But it won’t happen.
When a lawyer says he represents a victimized parent or family, the first thing the government does is tell the lawyer, “Get your client to drop the case and we’ll pay your legal fees.” If that doesn’t work, government will say, “Government can send you some risk management cases if you can get the Black parents to drop any law suit”. If the lawyer doesn’t cooperate the lawyer usually gets nothing.
Recently, parents of victims of police misconduct have been shuttled around the country to attend marches and rallies. Do you believe these mourning parents are spending their own money to march in a city thousands of miles from their home towns?
If you don’t know, it should be obvious they are getting expenses paid and some parents get paid stipends or honorariums to give teary-eyed speeches about murdered children. So, parents can make money off of police misconduct too.
The lawyers that love you and your dead child, in many cases, are fighting their FRIENDS to help you. They know prosecutors, donate to campaigns of prosecutors, attend meetings with law enforcers and at Christmas time, trial lawyers host or attend holiday parties and get drunk with prosecutors, government officials and law enforcers.
Brothers and sisters, death by policeman, in many cases, is all about the money.
The murderous cops get suspended with pay, the lawyers get 30% of any award or settlement plus 100% of excessive legal expenses, like a dollar a page photocopies that can be purchased anywhere for a dime.
The government saves money that should go to victims and uses it to fund no bid contracts for political cronies and campaign contributors.
So, what can you do when victimized by police?
First do as much fact finding, legal research and investigation as you can yourself. Anything you ask others to do will almost certainly have a price tag on it.
You should consider suing everyone involved including elected officials. Lawyers won’t usually recommend that because they contribute to all politicians but politicians are liable in police misconduct cases as both officials and as individuals because politicians voted to use tax payer dollars for police training for cops that obviously are not adequately trained how to relate to Black citizens.
But the main thing you can do is try to avoid trouble and don’t break the law. Act right, live clean and let your works be seen.
If you do come across a bad cop that insists on treating you badly and wrongfully, you should defend yourself at all times by any appropriate means!
