Olympia verdicts display racism

The day after white Oklahoma police officer Betty Shelby was found not guilty in the shooting death of Terence Crutcher, an Olympia jury found André Thompson and Bryson Chaplin guilty of third degree assault.

It is a clear statement on institutionalized racism in the U.S that a white woman can shoot an unarmed black man and be found innocent of any crime, while two unarmed young black men accused of shoplifting can be pursued and shot, and then be charged and found guilty of assault (and the officer who shot them cleared of any wrongdoing).

It’s not a question of whether Thompson and Chaplin “did something wrong.” It’s a question of whether the police officer’s response was appropriate, and whether that response would have been different had the two young men been white. If you genuinely believe that two white men would have received the same treatment, you are part of the problem.

This story was originally published May 30, 2017 at 5:11 PM with the headline "Olympia verdicts display racism."