The last quarter of 2014 sparked a movement — the possibility of changing state and police violence in the United States as we know it.
Decades of frustration stemming from police brutality against minority communities came to a head in 2014 with the deaths of Michael Brown Jr., Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, and others — many of whose law enforcement killers avoided convictions or simple indictments for their role in the deaths.
The nation erupted in protests calling for a reform of police practices and the end to racial profiling. Demonstrators blocked highways and disrupted the daily activities to send the message that apathy wasn’t going to save the lives of the mostly black and brown bodies deemed disposable by police nationwide.
It was, in a sense, a tipping point for years of disenfranchisement. And it doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon.
Sadly, the Browns, Rices, and Garners of the world aren’t always identified — it’s difficult to pinpoint how many people are killed by police a year, but some figures estimate at least a thousand.
That may be changing — just last week Congress passed the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013, which will mandate states receiving federal criminal justice assistance grants report all deaths that occur in police custody. The act is currently awaiting President Obama’s signature.
In the meantime, we’ve attempted to gather every face and name we could of the men and women killed by law enforcement this year, unarmed and suspected to be armed. In this way, we honor the hundreds of others whose names are forgotten or buried, individuals for whom justice has not come, in hopes that we can all curb police brutality and end state violence together.
SOURCE: MotherJones | PHOTO CREDIT: Screenshot
