Earlier today, Pittsburgh’s city council approved new bills designed to help curtail police brutality. One bill will place video and audio devices in the cars of marked vehicles, as well as finding a separate means of storage for the video and audio footage. Another aspect instructs the police chief to inform the Office of Municipal Investigation of any use of excessive force that may be in violation of regulations.
These reforms, introduced by Pittsburgh councilman Ricky Burgess, are in the wake of the Jordan Miles controversy.
Earlier this year, three officers approached Miles in an unmarked car. They claim that Miles demonstrated suspicious behavior – walking briskly in the middle of the night – and appeared to be concealing something heavy within his jacket, presumably a weapon, which actually was revealed to be a soda bottle. The officers claim they flashed their siren and Miles proceeded to run.
Miles states that there was never any siren or any other type of warning. He was walking when the officers exited their vehicles after him.
“Where’s the money?” one shouted, according to Miles. “Where’s the gun? Where’s the drugs?” the other two said. “It was intimidating; I thought I was going to be robbed,” Miles stated to Ramit Plushnick-Masti at Huffingtonpost.com.
Miles then took off running towards his mother’s house but fell on the slippery sidewalk. By the time he regained his footing, the officers were on his back and advanced to beating him.
Miles, a student at Pittsburgh’s prestigious Creative and Performing Arts High School, is described as a quiet studious teenager. His mother goes on to tell Huffingtonpost.com, “I feel that my son was racially profiled… My son, he knows nothing about the streets at all. He’s had a very sheltered life, he’s very quiet, he doesn’t know police officers sit in cars and stalk people like that.”
These bills can help prevent future police brutality.
“The new bills are a step in the right direction, but still not enough,” stated Paradise Gray, organizer of One Hood, stated during an interview with 99problems.org. “The new changes would not have prevented what happened to Jordan Miles because the police were in unmarked cars,” Gray states. “They have to systematically change the way the police profile African-American males.”
While officers work undercover, there is no video or audio to monitor their behavior. The officer can only rely on their best judgment and often times they instinctively have every black male, in a bad neighborhood, pegged as up to no good. If Paradise Gray’s words were taken to heart, then tragedies like Jordan Miles story could be prevented.
With the recent police brutality stories coming out of the city of Pittsburgh, the youth have decided to take a strong stance. The Y.E.S. Council is preparing for their annual youth summit. If you are in the Pittsburgh area tomorrow this is certainly the place to be:
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