24 THE QUEENS COURIER • APRIL 15, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
THE QUEENS
editorial
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A person lights a candle during a vigil following the fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright.
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
BOB BRENNAN
ZACHARY GEWELB
NIRMAL SINGH
JACOB KAYE
ANGELICA ACEVEDO, JENNA BAGCAL, KATRINA MEDOFF,
CARLOTTA MOHAMED, BILL PARRY
CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI
DEBORAH CUSICK
CELESTE ALAMIN
MARIA VALENCIA
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
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Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/REUTERS
Story: Eight-alarm blaze in Jackson Heights
apartment building injures 25 people
Summary: A massive, eight-alarm fi re broke out
inside a six-story apartment building in Jackson
Heights on the afternoon of Tuesday, April 6,
burning through the night and sending over 20
people, including 19 fi refi ghters, to the hospital.
Reach: 1,777 (as of 04/12/21)
More than
a mistake
How many more times must a Black person be shot
and killed by a police offi cer in America before this country
fully realizes that something has gone terribly wrong?
Daunte Wright, 20, joined the list of casualties Sunday
night when a police offi cer shot and killed him in a “routine”
traffi c stop in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Th e offi cer who pulled the trigger on him claimed it was
a tragic mistake; she allegedly thought she had pulled out
her Taser, not her gun.
A Glock handgun, similar to that which the offi cer
had, weighs 34 ounces of heavy metal; by comparison, a
Taser, made largely of plastic, weighs just 8 ounces. Th e
weight diff erence alone makes the offi cer’s claim almost
implausible.
Even if this incident was merely a tragic mistake, as
the offi cer claims, it proves her incompetence as a police
offi cer — and she should no longer be on the force. But
the fi rst instinct to draw her gun, rather than her Taser,
seemed to subconsciously say it all.
Police unions and their supporters in government have
bristled at any new governance of police. In New York,
they’ve seethed at attempts to restrict the use of chokeholds
and ending qualifi ed immunity, which eff ectively
protects cops from being sued for civil rights violations.
But this case — along with other high-profi le police
deaths such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor — further
underscores the urgent need for police reform in
America, and in New York.
Th ere must be a culture change within law enforcement
that ensures “equal justice under law” for every
American. In this moment of time, we shouldn’t have to
live in a society where families of color have to give “the
talk” to their children as to how to behave in interacting
with police, lest they risk being shot.
No person in this country should get behind the
wheel thinking that if they get pulled over for an infraction,
they may not live to drive away. It is this scenario
that causes further anxiety among Black and Brown
Americans, and further distrust in offi cers sworn to protect
and serve them.
Th e answer is not to tell them not to be anxious or mistrustful.
Th e answer is to eliminate the anxiety and mistrust
by reforming police departments to protect citizens and
offi cers alike — and to get rid of any offi cer incapable or
unwilling to equally protect and serve.
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