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A Broken America Stands At A Crossroads
Where we go from here and who we become largely depends on the actions we take today.
In 2013, an unmarked patrol car carrying a team of plainclothes NYPD officers came upon 16 year old Kimani Gray, an African-American young man who at the time was walking home with a group of friends through the Flatbush area of Brooklyn. Two officers opened fire on Kimani, and he was pronounced dead upon arrival a short time later at Kings County Hospital.
This killing at the hands of the NYPD sent shockwaves through my community and set the neighborhood on edge for a long, turbulent summer that year filled with civil unrest, rioting and protests.
At each turn in the subsequent investigation, more questions were raised than answers. Police claimed Kimani was in possession of a .38-caliber weapon at the time, which he produced from the waistband of his pants and proceeded to wave in the direction of the officers. Upon closer examination however, that story begins to fall apart. By summer that year, reports began surfacing that the Brooklyn police had been systematically planting weapons in neighborhoods like Flatbush and manufactured charges against innocent civilians, aka — people of color.
