Author Information
Flord Dent & Officer William Melendez
January 2015, officer from Inkster, Michigan and partner pull Floyd Dent from his car, put him in chokehold, and taser him 3 times. Video shows Dent being hit in the head repeatedly. What's interesting about this beating is that the Inkster Police did not report it to the Wayne County Prosecutor's office and only a tv airing of the police video on local station WDIV alerted Prosecutor, Kym Worthy, of the incident. If Floyd Dent's lawyer had not sent the video to TV, the Inkster Police may not have ever reported the incident. The tv viewing sparked two investigations. In April, Melendez resigned facing 15 years in prison. Melendez and 18 Detroit officers had prior incident of assault and planting evidence. Officers stated Dent had cocaine on him. From personal experience, the Inkster Police are profilers and mean to black people. Dearborn got it's act together after al widely publicized beating (black woman) and killing by a security guard of a black male shoplifter at Fairlane Mall in Dearborn. Blacks stopped shopping there and stores closed or nearly closed. The mall, already struggling, lost a lot of customers over the lack of respect for black lives. While it wasn't the mall's fault, the store fleeced, closed first. Black dollars went to other suburbs like Northland until several security officers beat a mentally ill black man to death. That mall is now closed. As for Inkster, black people who go to other restaurants and shop elsewhere for a while. It is not fair, but it is a clear message. Retail shops wield a lot of political power and the use of economic pressure has always been very effective.
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I also just read the story (just tonight and late) of the policeman who shot and killed a 35 year old man who rushed him with a flag pole. The man broke the flagpole on the officer and in a split second decision, the officer put two bullets in the man. If someone broke a flagpole on me and I had a gun, I'd shoot him in the arms or legs, not the chest. The deceased was drunk at the time. The moral of this story is don't attack a police officer with a flagpole while drunk and resembling someone who is wanted by the police.
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I try not to be to harsh in judging because it is depressing for me, so I have been avoiding reading these stories. That may not have been the best response. I look back at decades of such stories, many that never hit the media, and I'm just too tired to be angry. Young black professionals are not tired though and law suits against municipalities are a shake-up wake-up call. It is not business or politics as unusual any longer. In a capitalist country, money still makes a pretty loud scream against injustice.
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Lady A
06-15-15
425a
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