{"id":8986,"date":"2021-01-15T22:19:29","date_gmt":"2021-01-15T22:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=150826"},"modified":"2021-01-15T22:19:29","modified_gmt":"2021-01-15T22:19:29","slug":"why-martin-luther-king-jr-wouldnt-be-satisfied-with-todays-lack-of-police-accountability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/15\/why-martin-luther-king-jr-wouldnt-be-satisfied-with-todays-lack-of-police-accountability\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Martin Luther King, Jr. Wouldn\u2019t Be Satisfied With Today\u2019s Lack of Police Accountability"},"content":{"rendered":"
In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his historic \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and his words have since been celebrated and taught in classrooms around the world.<\/span><\/p>\n The sentence \u201cI have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,\u201d is among the most widely shared from Dr. King\u2019s speech. And while it captures the heart of what Dr. King and the roughly 250,000 people at the march called for \u2014 equality \u2014 it doesn\u2019t reflect the specific changes for which he advocated: legislation ensuring equal treatment, voting rights, and an end to police brutality.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality,\u201d he said in that same speech. Today, he would likely be unsatisfied.<\/span><\/p>\n In the nearly six decades since Dr. King gave this speech, there has been great progress in advancing equal rights, like the passing of the Voting Rights Act, yet there remains much work to be done to end police brutality and dismantle racism.<\/span><\/p>\n Today, Black people who are unarmed or pose a minimal threat to law enforcement are still three times as likely<\/span><\/a> as white people to be shot and killed by the police. And in the past five years alone, there have been 1,254 documented cases<\/span><\/a> in which police officers shot and killed a Black person, many of whom were unarmed.<\/span><\/p>\n Racial bias \u2014 whether implicit or explicit \u2014 plagues the system. And it is seen not only in these fatal shootings, but in the over-policing of communities of color and in violent street encounters with law enforcement. Such biases not only endanger lives but also can contribute to wrongful convictions.<\/span><\/p>\n