Deadliest US crime: driving while black

Crowd of mourners outside the school where Philander Castile worked. PHOTO: GETTY

The shocking shooting of Philander Castile in Minnesota - whose death was live-streamed on Facebook - has shown that he'd potentially been dicing with death for years at the hands of police.

Castile, 32, had been pulled over by at least 31 times in 14 years since he got his driver's licence and charged with a string of misdemeanours, ranging from speeding, failure to wear a seat belt, no proof of insurance, improper display of original plate and parking violations.

In total, police racked up 63 charges for mostly minor traffic offences - 43 of which he was found guilty or convicted of and paid out hundreds of dollars in fines.

Castile had no criminal record whatsoever beyond the traffic offences. The question that springs to mind is was he being victimised by police for being black? Certainly it feels like that in so many black peoples' minds in the US today/

His mother said she had preached to Castile to be compliant when stopped by police - to go into "survival mode".

Every year Castile (above) seemed to have a handful of run-ins with police over minor traffic infractions.

Relatives say Castile was the victim of racial profiling. Cousin Damion Pickett, 37, said: "He was stopped because they think every African-American does crime but it doesn't happen like that.

"He was 'DWB' – driving while black. They think that of everybody, especially guys with dreads.

"You cannot label one person just off a few people because every black person is not that.'

The feeling in St Paul is police in Minnesota are targeting the black community to raise revenue - the same concern raised after the Ferguson riots sparked by the police shooting death of Michael Brown.

Some in the black community accused police of unfairly targeting them to raise revenue which helped to pay for police services.

Ferguson collected US$2.6 million a year in fines and court fees, typically from small-scale infractions like traffic violations, before the riots.

In 2013, a year before the riots, the municipal court in Ferguson — a city of just over 21,000 people — issued 32,975 arrest warrants for non-violent offences, mostly driving violations.

The scale on which Castile was pulled over was disclosed after the governor of Minnesota launched a blistering attack on racism in the police, saying he did not believe the man would have been shot dead if he had been white.

In Dallas, where Micah Xavier Johnson, a black man angered by police racism shot 12 officers, killing five, his sister made an anti-cop rant on Facebook just a day before the shootings.

Nicole Johnson, from Garland, Texas, had accused whites of "killing us off" and "hiding behind that blue suit".

"These cops need to get a taste of the life we now fear."

Then, in the aftermath of her brother's rampage in which he was killed by a robotic bomb, she added: 'The news will say what they think but those that knew him know he wasn't like this.'

"White people have and will continue to kill us off. The only difference is they serve the system hiding behind that blue suit and get off easy murdering civilians.

"Everything coming into the light and I for one think these cops need to get a taste of the life we now fear."

It seems there is a climate now where police are being forced to pull drivers over to raise money to pay for their own job. They do so armed with the fear the driver could be armed, as so many are - especially in states where weapons can be carried openly.

Throw adrenalin and a smattering of institutional racism into that mix - as clearly there is - and it is little wonder such incidents happen.

Officer Geronimo Yanez, who fatally shot Castile at a traffic stop.

Instinctively distrustful of seeing a young black man at the wheel of a car, the officer knew Castile had a gun. The girlfriend, whose 4-year-old child was in the back of the car, told the officer Castile was armed and licensed to carry), and clearly panicked when he saw him reach for his I.D. But it is little wonder, too, that such incidents happen in a country wash with guns, many carried openly. The gun lobby group NRA's oft-touted mantra about a good guy with a gun being able to halt mass slayings was clearly laid bare in Dallas, where five "good guys" lay dead.

While the level of racism is the US is shockingly high and bubbles beneath the surface much of the time, taking guns out of the equation would calm matters appreciably.

If the issue of restricting gun use is not tackled, the US will be left with more presidential regret, entreaties for prayers - and calls for more arms. And more young children, if not killed as at Sandy Hook Elementary School, utterly traumatised by witnessing what that small child this week did from just a few inches away.

#Dallas #racism #policeshooting