March on Washington and Police Brutality
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- This weekend, I am in our nation’s capital with other members of Ohio Families Unite Against Police Abuse, at a rally at the base of the Washington Monument and march to the U.S. Department of Justice. We are demanding that the police who have killed our loved ones are held accountable.
We are demanding that the Department of Justice
re-open cases so there can be independent investigations
indict and convict officers who killed our children.
There is precedent for this: In 2006, Congress passed the “Emmett Till Act,” which reopened unprosecuted criminal cases of murders during the Civil Rights-era. In most of those lynchings and murders, there was never any attempt to investigate and prosecute.
Now, when someone is shot and killed by the police, the customary procedure is that the locally-elected prosecutor presents, in secret, a version of the events that can be completely one-sided in favor of the police.
And since there are so many cases where there is no footage from body-worn cameras, it is too easy for the police version of the facts to prevail, especially when the victim has been killed and can’t tell the truth about what happened.
My son, Jamarco McShann, was shot multiple times and killed by the police outside Dayton, Ohio at 5:30 a.m. on October 20, 2017, as he slept in his car listening to music outside his own apartment.
Supposedly responding to a noise complaint from a neighbor, wave after wave of police arrived over the course of 45 minutes, while my son slept in his car, in order to ambush him.
My son was sleeping peacefully in his own car, with his handgun on the seat next to him, in an open-carry state. The police had no reason to believe he was violating any laws, but they
surrounded his vehicle, laid tire strips in front of his car in case he woke up and tried to drive away, shined headlights and flashlights into his face, and then roused him from his sleep. Claiming he reached for his gun and pointed it at them, several officers began unloading their handguns and shotguns into my son. He was struck 9 times and died almost immediately. The police officers were never prosecuted.
The local prosecutor presented the police version of the events to a Grand Jury who decided not to indict the officer. Further, the police departments avoided civil liability because of Qualified Immunity, which allows police officers to kill people and get away with it.
This weekend I am participating in a family-led national action against police brutality. The rally and march are organized by Impacted Families of Police Brutality and Mass Action Against Police Brutality.
According to the Police Shooting Database in the Washington Post, 938 people have been killed by the police in the United States in the past year. This is alarming to me and it should be alarming to you.
It is too late to bring my son back. He was needlessly killed by the police almost 4 years ago and he isn’t coming back. Our family was torn apart by this—we don’t celebrate the holidays anymore, we don’t even get together for the holidays. I am marching now to protect your children.
We’ve been meeting with politicians for years trying to get them to sponsor our bills. It hasn’t been happening but now I think is the time. This is not about black or white, this is about human rights. The rights of all of us not to be killed by the police with impunity.