Terence Crutcher (1976-2016), father of four, was the 33rd unarmed Black American killed by police in 2016. He was killed by Officer Betty Shelby, who is White and has not been arrested.
Akilah Hughes (@AkilahObviously):
“Black people should sue police departments for PTSD. This can’t keep happening. #TerenceCrutcher”
On Friday September 16th 2016 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at about 7.30pm, Crutcher was driving back from his first day at Tulsa Community College when his car broke down. According to one witness he fled, saying he thought his car was going to blow up.
Officer Betty Shelby saw the car stopped in the middle of the road, engine running, car door open. She looked inside and saw nothing suspicious. Then Crutcher appeared. She says he “never made any response”, did not respond to her commands and “had his head tilted down but eyes on and fixated on” her. She called for backup.
A police helicopter and four police cars arrived within two minutes, sirens blaring.
One of the two men up in the helicopter says:
“looks like a bad dude too – might be on something.”
As soon as backup arrived, Shelby and two other officers move in, guns drawn, even though from the video Crutcher does not appear to be any kind of threat or even “a bad dude”. His hands are up. But then he leans against his now-closed car door. Police say he was reaching inside his car. Officer Tyler Turnbough shoots his taser to stun him, Shelby fires her gun to kill him.
Crutcher falls, bleeding heavily. He leaves what appears to be a streak of blood on his car door – and car window. Meaning the window was up, that he was not reaching inside.
For nearly two minutes, he lays there bleeding before any of the officers from the five police cars come to check on him for medical attention.
Police searched his car. They say they found no gun but did find some angel dust.
Compare that to a terrorist suspect: on the same day this made news, police in Linden, New Jersey took Ahmad Khan Rahami alive after a gun battle. He is an Afghan American, the suspected terrorist who planted the bombs that went off in New York and New Jersey the other day. Still alive.
Crutcher’s twin sister Tiffany:
“We are truly devastated, the entire family is devastated. You all want to know who that big bad dude was? That big bad dude was my twin brother. That big bad dude was a father. That big bad dude was a son. That big bad dude was enrolled at Tulsa Community College. … That big bad dude loved God. That big bad dude was at church singing with all his flaws every week. That big bad dude, that’s who he was.”
Benjamin Crump, lawyer for the family:
“He needed help, he needed a hand. And what he got was a bullet in the lungs.”
– Abagond, 2016.
See also:
- Also killed by police after having car trouble:
- Also killed for no apparent reason soon after backup arrived:
- The list of unarmed Black Americans killed by police in 2016
- Robert Bates – a Tulsa killer cop who is actually in prison!!!
- White lens
556
[…] via Terence Crutcher — Abagond […]
LikeLike
I’m so damned tired of being overwhelmed by their barbarity. I woke up to this news this morning and thought, like Martin from the Birmingham jail — “How long???” How F*CKIN’ long???
I’m tired Family — AREN’T YOU???
I spilled some Port on my laptop’s keyboard awhile back and haven’t been able to post or comment anywhere without painstakingly hunting and pecking (pain in the a** trust me). I was finally able to replace the laptop and I don’t know if I’m glad about that or not.
I’m tired of writing about shit that doesn’t seem to matter — to US!!! It’s already obvious white supremacist folk could give two shits about our lives. What bothers me, is how many of US, steeped in the respectability politics we’ve been taught, could give two shIts either.
They’re murdering us, Family. We’ve got to stop writing about it and trying to educate them about it. We’ve got to DO something without counting on THEM to do the right thing and get involved — they won’t. I read this not long ago and I agree with the author:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/09/07/its-time-to-stop-talking-about-racism-with-white-people/?utm_term=.0f6f6c914c7b&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1#comments
Hillary made a statement “to white people” about this shooting. I won’t bother linking to it cuz I could care less about he BS. But as I read it, Maya Angelou’s words immediately came to me, “When people show you who they are, believe them — the first time.”
Back in the early 90’s (when my colonized mind was young and uninformed), Killary called us “super predators who must be made to heel” (anyone got pets?). It came back to haunt her on the campaign trail here in Charleston: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/clinton-black-lives-matter-south-carolina_us_56ce53b1e4b03260bf7580ca
So Family, do you believe her NOW?
In his “Wretched of the Earth,” Frantz Fanon not only warned us, he laid out what needs to be done. Check him out when you can — it’s worth it.
(P.S. I DARE the media to ask Colin Kaepernick a damned thing this weekend!)
LikeLiked by 5 people
In the video they had 4 guns + 4 tazers + 4 cans of mace + 4 bulletproof vests vs 1 unarmed black man.
But no doubt the police will say they were scared for their lives.
But as usual we will get the
“Wait for the facts”
“Don’t jump to conclusions”
“She was a good cop”
“He wasn’t following commands”
If a cop had been broken down, was ambushed by 4 ppl,and then assassinated in the middle of the road,there would be outrage.
But white supremacists will have million dollar gofundme pages ready to go for them in a week. It pays to slaughter black people..
These executions are NOT just a police problem.
Prosecutors
Grand Juries
Judges
Biased Media& DA’s
are ALL complicit
As Malcolm X said
LikeLiked by 7 people
Appealing to white people’s sense of empathy hasn’t done much to help our cause. In fact, most of the advances we’ve managed to make came in regards to racial equality never came because of empathy — they came because there were other choices on the horizon that were quantifiably worse for white Americans.
Case in point: the non-violent movement of Dr. Martin Luther King. It was either that, or face a black rights movement that would have made The Troubles seem like a quaint off-Broadway musical.
Frankly, I think we’re being way too nice to these folks. In other places and other cultures, this sustained attack on our people would have warranted some like-kind retaliation. The Palestinians understand this. The Kurds understand this. But we don’t. Or at least we don’t want to, probably because deep down, we’re still scared of what “massa” might decide to be done with it and kill us all if we did.
So that’s why you won’t see a black man pull a Timothy McVey and drive a truck full of fertilizer and explosives into a crowded stadium or an elementary school in a wealthy part of town. Because we’re scared sh*tless that whites everywhere might declare Open Season on our collective arses.
Not that they haven’t, already. We’re just too damned scared. Like the battered woman in an abusive relationship, we’ll just eat the abuse and do the same ol’ things we’ve been doing in hopes that the abuser might suddenly “change,” until the abuse finally kills us or we finally get the stones to leave. And we still might get killed for trying.
At this point, I’m no longer interested in neither hearing white people shrug us off like we’re nothing nor black people crying the same damned tune and doing the same damned things while nothing changes.
LikeLiked by 7 people
Back to work, Abagond. Just turned on TV. Another unarmed black man killed by police in N Carolina.
LikeLiked by 1 person
All this is sad, very sad. Not the first time. Not the last time for sure!
A few days ago I was suggesting Abagond to write something about the Tyre King killing and now I watch in disbelief the emergence of two more killings of Black Americans by cops (Terence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott).
A few thoughts about this situation from afar (outside the United States):
* It’s clear that President Obama has failed almost totally to address this problem; it’s true that his administration tried to intervene earlier in a few cases and, even today, at the Crutcher killing case, but, in general, its attitude can be characterized by one word: apathy; looking back, when Obama tried personally to intervene in the case between Professor Henry Gates and a police agent, and the way said agent revealed then little respect for the President, I can only conclude, in retrospect, that Obama became, from that episode on, paralyzed by fear of the White Power Structure, despite the fact that he is – at least formally – its Commander-in-Chief; he fears that “entity” as much as an unarmed Black American driver when in a face-to-face with White cops somewhere in a remote alley; it’;s sad but true!;
* I’ve not been able yet to understand, why the Police in the USA, has not, as a rule, been able to distance itself from such killings; this would be what people everywhere would expect it to do; one thing is a inexperienced, fearful or rogue agent doing something wrong – it happens everywhere once in a while – and another thing is the whole corporation to stand always behind him/her, especially when the killing of a human being – oft, the killing of an innocent human being is at stake; protecting said agents puts the honor and dignity of the corporation at stake; for the corporation to pay such a price should be viewed as unacceptable; they should let the normal ways of delivering of justice work and send a strong signal to every agent that if you do this or that, we will let you fall, if needed!;
* At this blog I noticed that most commentators view the source of this abnormal behavior of police agents in racism, White racism; I think that racism could play a role in those episodes, but I think that something else is at play also; one individual can be racist, but to kill another human being requires something extra – not every racist has killer instincts; in reality, only few racists are potential killers, in my opinion; a general pattern in many cases is fear, fear of Blacks, especially Black teens or men; that fear probably originates in a general unfamiliarity of White individuals regarding Black persons, what Abagond labels as “Black brute stereotype”; Whites – not only Americans, but also Europeans – know little concrete about people of other races directly, probably because the type of upbringing they receive in their families and the society at large do not expose them to other races; this is true not for all Whites but the majority; if you ask even a Black African from a modern village you will discover that, at least he/she has always seen some White persons in television and from conversations (with members of family or friends who have contacts with Whites) and he/she can cite specifics about certain White individuals; those people know that White people are normal people, that they can love, be happy, unhappy, be angry, satisfied, etc because they have already see them displaying the whole spectrum of human reactions at different contexts; on the contrary, many Whites only have a scratchy direct information about individuals of other races; therefore, for them, it is easier to fall prey to stereotypes, and react accordingly when in direct encounters with said people;
* As an example of said unfamiliarity and resorting to stereotypes to assess others – something that is also displayed in the behavior of the agent that killed Crutcher – I remember one episode that happened to me in my country. My country’s institutions have bilateral contact with similar institutions of the Nederlands. In this context, people who work here, at times are invited to go to the Nederlands and vice-versa, normally following some specific assignment. Three years ago a group of a few experts from the Nederlands came to carry out a task in a remote village here. I remember vividly how a Dutch female worker became very anxious, and, in fact, almost paranoid, when our car was following the car of a local leader to his place and at a turn near the bush the female start screaming that she didn’t know in advance about that route and we should go back instead of following other car; the reaction was so strong that we decided to abort our mission at that day; on the contrary, I don’t remember me or any of my co-workers who went to the Nederlands to become anxious at whatever situation there. Maybe, that Dutch woman thought that a kidnapping process was in progress and better to react promptly! After all, nobody knows what those dark-skinned creatures are capable of!;
* I think that it’s time to extract some lessons from the situations that ended with the killing of a Black civilian by the Police; this is necessary to minimize the probability of repetitions; the details of the later case of Crutcher let me thinking that he should have tried to answer the questions of the agent, and not remain in silence, whatever the reasons he had to do so; this specific detail is at the source of the escalation of the situation a few moments later, because it feed the stereotyped thoughts inside the head of the agent, to grow astray, with deadly consequences; the victim is innocent, no doubt about it; but his reactions could have been better and have saved his life!
LikeLike
Getting hard to keep track. If only we had a black president and a black attorney general to put a stop to this shit.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“the details of the later case of Crutcher let me thinking that he should have tried to answer the questions of the agent, and not remain in silence, whatever the reasons he had to do so; this specific detail is at the source of the escalation of the situation a few moments later, because it feed the stereotyped thoughts inside the head of the agent, to grow astray, with deadly consequences; the victim is innocent, no doubt about it; but his reactions could have been better and have saved his life!”
.
It seem you’re blaming the victim of a murder for his own death. Can you share a link to the specific information that you’re basing your statement on?
LikeLike
Carry on Black folks, keep trusting in oppression (voting for Billary or Mr. Rump) and in the alternative, continue to hate freedom. The shooting of unarmed Black Americans isn’t going to stop.
When will we learn as a people that white folks will NEVER be our friends or be able to be trusted?
LikeLiked by 5 people
@ fan
No. I’m not blaming the victim. It’s crystal clear that this victim is INNOCENT! Period.
In fact, in many of the cases related at this blog, most victims are innocent too.
I’m more concerned in what the living can do to minimize damages to themselves at such close encounters with that kind of police.
Justice should be given to the dead: he is totally innocent!
But more important is what can we, who are alive at this point in time, do (or NOT do!) to not become victims in the near future.
For that we must learn from past examples!
In this specific case I think that the victim could (probably!? who knows?) be alive today if he had cooperated a little bit more with the police agent. To remain silent is not a crime but can be deadly if you are dealing with that type of police agent. That is my point.
The description where such details about Crutcher’s silence and pother specifics before his dead can be found here,
(edition.cnn.com/2016/09/20/us/oklahoma-tulsa-police-shooting/index.html)
P.S.:
I’m not implying with the above text that somewhere “a specific set of procedures exist which once followed will guarantee your sure safety“. Certainly there is not such a thing in this environment. But there are rules that can minimize the probability of damages (deadly damages)(like aviation safety rules, for example). And when our life is at stake this is of vital importance!
LikeLike
“When will we learn as a people that white folks will NEVER be our friends or be able to be trusted?”
And some black folks will NEVER be our friends or be able to be trusted. I’m looking at you President Obama and AG Lynch and CBC.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I take it as personal insult that our black elected officials have not raised hell about this.
LikeLike
@ blakksage
And what you suggest as a way out?
As a philosopher of the past said once:
I would like to see more and more commentators coming with reflections about solutions for the various problems presented by the White Power Structure.
I’ve seen some thoughts, in that direction, from Afrofem, in another thread, but less from others.
LikeLike
@munubantu
Thanks for your response. I understand what you’re saying.
LikeLike
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd0nwaIIdEU)
LikeLike
“I would like to see more and more commentators coming with reflections about solutions for the various problems presented by the White Power Structure.”
For as much as it’s possible, self -segregation.
As for relocation outside of Amerika? Where could we go – as a fairly large population??? Antarctica? Too cold!
“And some black folks will NEVER be our friends or be able to be trusted. I’m looking at you President Obama and AG Lynch and CBCT
Don’t forget uncle Clarence Thomas! And their civilian counterparts, Larry Elders, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, etc …
And what would we do with these collaborators if they wanted to come with?
LikeLike
Relocation outside of America? Please. There is no escape from people determined to rule and destroy the world. We’d be just like Haiti.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mack Lyons (@DDSSBlog)
Mighty strong words dude. Now are you man enough to back it up ?
You lead the charge then big man ? You be the Nat Turner of our Era.
Don’t talk all that BOSS talk unless you yourself are prepared to lay your life on the line because your disrespectful to the many black men and women WHO DID lay their lives on line for freedom and justice and equality
And no offence bro. But Timothy McVeigh’s attack was that of a f*cking pussy. Dropping a bomb on people and then hiding ? You’re talking about him like he’s some O-G. The same too of Palestine and Kurds. They bomb children
To say black people are scared when we have been the main ones who have lead the charge against white supremacy, facing tanks, guns, dogs, riot gear, mace, taser, baton and clubs.
We are the original David and Goliath story
Even today. Micah Johnson knew he was gonna die. Those protesters in Ferguson and Baltimore knew they are outgunned
But did that stop them from getting up in the faces of law enforcement ?
If we are these feeble scaredy cats then why do the Police come dressed as Robocop when they deal with unarmed black protesters ?
You can say a lot of things about black people but scared is not one of them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Remember your own words.
LikeLike
@nomad
Soon after I put up this post, I turned on the news and then I saw Charlotte….
LikeLike
I know, man. It’s crazy.
LikeLike
@abagond/@nomad…“I turned on the news and then I saw Charlotte….”
Same here. I’m with Akilah Hughes — PTSD is real Family, and we’ve been suffering from it for a very long time. When I read about Mr. Scott in Charlotte, I was numb — and then I just began to scream, “Not again!!!” as tears rolled down my face.
LikeLiked by 2 people
So the terrorist with the bomb and the dude with the meat cleaver get to live but a black man who’s vehicle breaks down and he gets a bullet in the chest.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Glen Ford:
http://www.blackagendareport.com/murder_by_occupation_tulsa_baghdad
LikeLiked by 3 people
Since I only watch the NFL when the husband’s in town (and he wasn’t this weekend), I missed what young Mr. Kaepernick had to say about Mr. Crutcher’s death — but here it is:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/09/21/colin-kaepernick-on-death-threats-if-something-happens-youve-proved-my-point/?wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1
LikeLike
“Looks like a bad dude” It’s always about the big scary black man they always like to play the black brute stereotypes.
LikeLike
@Joe…Thanks or that link, Man. And after I watched it, I meandered on over to Scott Wood’s video (attorney for Betty Shelby) and after being in radio silence trying to deal with a whole ‘nother kind of PTSD moving home — I was inspired!! I’ve just got to write about this shit! But until I do, please listen to this liar:
(https://youtu.be/84gnJhzKraY)
LikeLike
@Deb: It’s crazy Sis I can imagine what you guys are going through in your city. We barely just got over the trauma of this past Summer with Philando Castille and Alford Sterling only to get traumatized all over again every day it’s a new name to add to the list of dead black people. It’s very traumatic because we don’t know if it could be us just trying to go about the business of our daily lives.
LikeLike
New dog whistle ….”bad dude”
No wonder (we know who) had a hissy fit over the word, “dude.”
LikeLike
[…] Source: Terence Crutcher […]
LikeLike
Now Colin Kaepernick has received death threats i am not surprised because this is who these beasts are masquerading as patriots who are nothing but white supremacist hiding icons that are held as sacred. But these so called patriots got it twisted the military fights for Americans to have the right to protest as one sees fit even if they don’t agree with the form of protest. We live in a democratic society in this country and Kaepernick and others should have the right to protest peacefully. And if something happens to Kaepernick then his point with his protest will be made valid. Black Lives don’t matter in this country we don’t live in a dictatorship and we should be able to conduct our lives as such that’s the real reason the military fights for us to have freedom of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But black folks in this country are not experiencing any of that.
LikeLike
*hiding behind icons *^^^typos
LikeLike
“it could be us just trying to go about the business of our daily lives.”
that’s what I’m sayin
LikeLike
@ Mary Burrell
“We live in a democratic society in this country and Kaepernick and others should have the right to protest peacefully. And if something happens to Kaepernick then his point with his protest will be made valid. Black Lives don’t matter in this country we don’t live in a dictatorship and we should be able to conduct our lives as such…”
I respectfully disagree.
Americans have not lived in a democratic society since George W. Bush stole the 2000 election. We live in an oligarchy (literally government by the few; a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes). They kept all of the outer forms of democracy but hollowed out the government—–like a house without furniture, heating or air conditioning…looks good on the outside but not very comfortable to live in.
Peaceful protest is most feared because it inspires others to do the same. That is why the White Power Structure is trying to undermine Black Lives Matter and the Movement for Black Lives with smear tactics and innuendo (lies like the “Ferguson Effect”). That is why Kaepernick is receiving death threats.
P.S. I see you already read and commented on the latests about Kaepernick.
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Mary Burrell…“It’s crazy Sis I can imagine what you guys are going through in your city. We barely just got over the trauma of this past Summer with Philando Castille and Alford Sterling only to get traumatized all over again every day it’s a new name to add to the list of dead black people. It’s very traumatic because we don’t know if it could be us just trying to go about the business of our daily lives.”
Mary, my young Sister, what’s going on in my city is so much bullshi*t, all I’ve been able to be is mute since I moved back. I keep trying to write about it — but I’ve just not been able to.
It seems one cannot be a critically thinking, WOKE, Black woman here — unless you bow down and pay the Piper — Black, OR white. I can’t/won’t do it. Leaves me feeling empty and alone…
LikeLike
It’s looks bad in downtown Charlotte right now.
LikeLike
@ Mary
I heard someone got killed.
LikeLike
@Abagond: I heard the same thing watching the news it’s pandemonium they don’t know who shot the man they are saying they don’t know if it was a civilian or law enforcement. It looks scary.
LikeLike
“Everyone wants peace in Charlotte and everyone wants peace across the nation. Many people do not have peace in Charlotte or across the nation, so it’s foolish to expect your own peace will win out. Don’t want riots anymore? End the conditions that lead to riots. You don’t have to be down with the cause of Black Lives Matter to understand this. You can be as apathetic about social and political issues as you want, until the consequences of those social and political realities are at your doorstep. You’re faced with a choice to law-and-order your way out of every flare up or to strike at the root causes. Your tranquility is not the standard by which the world is ordered. Imagine how desperate you’d be if violence and civil unrest was what you had to face for the foreseeable future. Imagine how desperate you’d be to end it. You wouldn’t let some riot police get in your way, not forever, not for long. You and people like you would continually get sick of it and you wouldn’t behave as though the peace of mind of others dictated how you should act. You’d do what was necessary, because the people blind to your suffering don’t get to sleep forever. You’ll wake them up one way or another. And that’s what these protesters are trying to do to you now.” Ryan Christopher
LikeLiked by 1 person
@MJB
Stirring words, but you know they have no qualms about using extreme violence against citizens. As far as the US government is concerned, the American taxpayer is the enemy.
They have been marshaling their forces against ordinary citizens for more than a decade now.
It could get very ugly.
LikeLike
@michaeljonbarker: Great post it reminds me of that poem Then They Came For Me. Until the dominant society is affected by the same things black people in America are affected by then they will know what black people are going through. As long as they aren’t being affected white people are’nt going to care about what happens to black people in this country.
LikeLike
They charged the officer with manslaughter. Just manslaughter!!!
LikeLike
@sharinair…Crumbs to shut folk up far as I can see. From the OK statute:
Homicide is manslaughter in the first degree in the following cases:
1. When perpetrated without a design to effect death by a person while engaged in the commission of a misdemeanor.
2. When perpetrated without a design to effect death, and in a heat of passion, but in a cruel and unusual manner, or by means of a dangerous weapon; unless it is committed under such circumstances as constitute excusable or justifiable homicide.
3. When perpetrated unnecessarily either while resisting an attempt by the person killed to commit a crime, or after such attempt shall have failed.
I’m betting she’ll get off based on #2 — and if she doesn’t the minimum penalty is 4 years in the penitentiary for a man who’d lived 10 times that long before running into her. {SMMFH}
LikeLiked by 1 person
Funny how our big black men are not scary or look like “bad dudes” when they are dribbling a ball or running touchdowns for white Americans entertainment and amusement.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Quite.
I say let the athletes and entertainers go on strike for a couple of months, see how America fares when it doesn’t have its negros chasing balls or grinning on camera.
LikeLike
On a positive note, maybe – just maybe – Sister (of the dead): ‘The chain breaks here’, where the chain referred to the chain of impunity that is accompanying the killings of civilians by cops!
See following link,
(http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/23/us/tulsa-officer-booked-released-on-bond/index.html)
Not only the authorities moved swiftly to try to deliver justice but also the killer cop received threats! People are becoming increasingly angry with these misdeeds.
LikeLike
However, I’ve seen a suggestion that it would be “something” if the cop that does jail time for a murder is a woman. Shades of Peter Liang…
LikeLike
[…] On Tuesday, 9/20/2016, Keith Lamont Scott was shot in Charlotte, North Carolina. On 9/16/16, Terence Crutcher was shot and killed in Tulsa. Tulsa is the same city where the historic Tulsa Riots occurred. In […]
LikeLike
[…] Terence Crutcher (Tulsa, OK) 2015: Jamar Clark (Minneapolis, MN) 2015: India Kager (Virginia Beach, VA) 2015: […]
LikeLike
Betty Shelby found not guilty in shooting of Terrence Crutcher.
LikeLike