Jemel Roberson (c. 1992-2018) was a security guard at Manny’s Blue Room Bar in Robbins, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. At 4.00am on Sunday November 11th 2018, after subduing a shooter, saving the lives of everyone at the bar, the police arrived – and shot Roberson dead.
Eyewitnesses:
Mark Harris:
“The security guard that got killed, he caught somebody and had his knee on him the whole time, just waiting on the police to get there. I guess when the police got there, they probably thought he was one of the bad guys, cause he had his gun on the guy and they shot him.”
Adam Harris:
“Everybody was screaming out, ‘he was a security guard,’ and they basically saw a black man with a gun and killed him.”
Roberson was in uniform. His uniform said “SECURITY”.
Roberson had kicked out some drunks, but then one of them returned with a gun and started shooting. He shot three people. Roberson returned fire and was able to subdue him.
The Midlothian police:
“Upon arrival officers learned there were several gunshot victims inside the bar. A Midlothian Officer encountered a subject with a gun and was involved in an Officer involved shooting. The subject the Officer shot was later pronounced deceased at an area hospital”
President Trump and the NRA, both champions of gun rights, have been silent. Gun rights only seem to apply to White people.
Investigation: At least the Midlothian police are not investigating themselves:
“It is the policy of the Midlothian Police Department to utilize the Illinois State Police Public Integrity Task Force for any officer-involved shootings so we can ensure transparency and maintain public trust.”
Yet they are not giving out the name of the officer, who is on paid leave. Nor is the press despite the officer being named in a:
Lawsuit: The family is seeking over $1 million in damages from the Midlothian police. They say the shooting was “excessive and unreasonable” and that there was a racial element.
Race: Just the other week police in Pittsburgh took Robert Bowers alive, a White neo-Nazi who had killed 11 people at a synagogue.
Video: None so far. There was a security camera in the parking lot where Roberson was killed. There might be some citizen video too. It is unclear whether the Midlothian police have bodycams or dashcams.
Criminal record: None. We know that because the police and the press would have been quick to point that out if Roberson had one. Instead they picked on the fact that he did not have a concealed carry permit for his legally-owned gun.
Roberson was an organist at the New Spiritual Light Baptist Church in Chicago. He played the keyboard and drums at other churches too. He was the light of his mother’s life. He was also a father. Avontea Boose, his son’s mother:
“This was going to be my baby’s first Christmas with his dad and now he’s going to miss out on everything.”
Roberson was getting ready to train to be a police officer.
– Abagond, 2018.
See also:
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White cops shoot off-duty Black cops that are helping out, so why not security guards? Ridiculous.
I’ve been following this all week and I doubt the officer will be charged. Still so many inconsistencies in the coverage, but it really sounds like they’re going to go with Jemel Roberson being armed and not following commands so the cop assumed him to be the shooter and thought he was saving the victim.
I’ve read:
He was in uniform or he was dressed in all black with a “security hat” or he was wearing a bulletproof vest and a hat. All from different witness accounts.
I’ve read:
Cop showed up and shot him or cop showed up and repeatedly instructed Roberson to drop the weapon and get on the ground or that the cop showed up and began to shout “drop the gun and get on the ground” but fired before he finished the sentence.
This is also irrelevant because Jemel Roberson did not deserve to die either way, but I’m also confused about his weapon. I’ve read that he was licensed or that he wasn’t licensed to carry but the gun was licensed. Illinois is not an open carry state, so my understanding is that he would need to have a concealed license in order to carry.
None of that is me trying to justify his shooting. I just wish we could get some accurate reporting. 100%, he should be alive and being honored as a hero in the media right now for quite probably stopping what would have been another mass shooting and apprehending the shooter. Outstanding work!
If I’m ever a witness to something like this in the future, I swear to God I’m forming a human shield between the good samaritan and arriving forces until the cops slow down and processes what people are telling them.
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“Gun rights only seem to apply to White people.”
True.
However, this case is not about Mr. Roberson’s gun. This case, like many others before it, is about out-of-control cops who kill Black citizens with impunity.
The issue of Mr. Roberson’s gun and its legality is a smokescreen the Midlothian PD is using to derail and delay questions about why a Black security guard was killed within seconds of the police’s arrival. A Black security guard who was performing his lawful duties. A Black security guard who saved the lives of many people in Manny’s Blue Room Bar that fateful morning. A Black security guard who was working with the police, not against them.
This has echoes of Tamir Rice’s senseless murder and we will likely see the same enraging result.
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At most the officer will be terminated and six months later hired at another precinct. I do feel there was a racial component to this tragedy, they saw a black man first and accessed the situation later. This is a tragedy of epic proportions.
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@Mary
“they saw a black man first and accessed the situation later”
Without a doubt. And you’re right, even if fired, they just get hired somewhere else. The threat of getting jammed up never enters their mind. They’re shooting on instinct and those instincts are fundamentally flawed. The true solution is to make lethal force less accessible. But, that will never happen.
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Seriously, my questions above were me venting my frustration over inaccuracies of coverage. Make no mistake, there is no such thing as a perfect hero. We don’t go around saying, “Yeah he saved a bunch of lives but he really should’ve worn a more convincing costume.” Jemel Roberson died a hero.
Part of the tragedy is that he’s only being remembered as yet another innocent Black man gunned down by police. The press, the police, the pundits, everyone just playing games with his story to fit their narratives. There’s a GoFundMe for funeral expenses… the damned Federal Order of Police should be picking up that tab. They owe him that and a burial with full honors would be a nice touch too. When are the “good apples” going to step up? They owe him!
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@Open Minded Observer: “When are the “good apples” going to step up?”
One always hears about the vast majority of police being “good apples,” but one thing I’ve noticed is that let a cop be found to be corrupt, and the whole brotherhood in blue pointedly turns their backs on him. He’s a pariah. But let a cop be found to be a brutal, racist killer and the whole force, with few exceptions, stands behind him. They seem to be very selective in their “goodness.”
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@ Richard_III
I found the police (along with firefighters, professional military, doctors and lawyers) operate in their occupations like a lodge. They place great emphasis on “us” and “them”. They think they are best at providing sanctions (both positive and negative) to their members. Therefore, they resist all efforts at public accountability, even when they are completely financed by public dollars.
I disagree with this statement: “…let a cop be found to be corrupt, and the whole brotherhood in blue pointedly turns their backs on him. He’s a pariah.”
I have read and observed that shunning within the lodge is not triggered by corruption. Social death (and sometimes, physical death) in lodges is most often triggered by revealing the inner workings of the lodge. The other lodge members feel betrayed when:
➤ a cop reveals structural corruption, like arrest quotas or mishandling of evidence.
➤ a firefighter reveals lack of readiness or bad decisions by fellow firefighters.
➤ a soldier reveals atrocities agains civilians or rape within the ranks.
➤ a doctor reveals malpractice at a hospital or by a colleague.
➤ a lawyer reveals corrupt practices, such as widespread financial malfeasance by other lawyers.
…and so on.
Like you, I don’t buy into the “bad apples/good apples” argument. The police and others would all rather rot together, than reveal the misbehavior of a fellow lodge member.
To them, it is the lodge über alles.
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Firstly, I used the term “good apples” in quotes on purpose because it equates to the opposite of the “bad apples” argument we hear so often. The reality is that all of the occupations listed by Afrofem are obviously made up of humans and we all have different proportions of good and bad within us. No doubt the issues are not with individuals, but they are systemic. In one way or another, no matter how you slice it. Studies that show racial bias exhibited by minority officers would seem to indicate that racism is part of the indoctrination. Further, the culture of not airing the department’s dirty laundry in public is also systemic.
The level of trust you must have in someone who may literally need to risk their life to save yours at some point is not easy to understand unless you’ve lived it. Honestly, that’s part of where the “us and them” mentality begins. The general public may logically understand the words, but they fail to understand just how overwhelmingly powerful that level of trust is. The pressure to accept many flaws that won’t prevent them from saving you (even at the expense of others) is real when you lack the authority to discipline an individual of equal or greater rank and nobody in leadership want’s to hear about it. Those feelings, that ability to overlook red flags comes from within. Any wall or code of silence is partly a manifestation of the common knowledge that everyone else battles with that same thing. Extreme issues are dealt with internally because shining too bright a light on one individual risks illuminating the flaws in everyone.
So, in that sense, you’re right, there absolutely are no “good apples”. I disagree that the lodge is above all though. That may be true from a practical sense but I don’t think most put it on some kind of pedestal. It’s definitely not above family. In fact, I’d guess that duty to family is so important that allowing the lodge to fester becomes necessary in order to continue providing for one’s family.
That’s not to say that it cannot be changed however. Top down leadership that changes what is acceptable vs what causes members to be alienated would go a long way. It is certainly possible, even within that type of power structure, to ostracize a truly “bad apple” that exhibits behavior that will ultimately lead to harm. Combine that with leadership truly taking accountability and corrective action would also, slowly, improve community relations. There are people who want to do right within the ranks. Leadership must create a path for them to get there. That presents a challenge in itself. It is difficult to remove leadership from below. It can be done, but unions make it nearly impossible.
I say all that, not to excuse anyone, but to give perspective. Each and every person I have spoken with… people I know privately to be similar to me in their good/bad mix… Each of them has told me that it’s not simple. I tell them that it has to be easier than losing your life and they’ll nod in agreement. But, to them, that’s exactly what is at stake and they feel powerless to change anything. So, as soon as the discussion moves on, apathy returns.
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@Afrofem: I disagree with this statement: “…let a cop be found to be corrupt, and the whole brotherhood in blue pointedly turns their backs on him. He’s a pariah.”
Maybe I should’ve clarified the statement with “personally corrupt” such as a cop on the take. Your examples of lodge thinking–what I call “wearing the unifom”–point to systemic rot and corruption. There is no real disagreement in our thinking, just semantics. The racism, brutality, and trigger happiness in the department is systemic, seen as just a part of the job, not seen as a personal failing. That is why the so-called good ones stand in solidarity with the savages. It is also what gives lie to police claims of non-bias: which is it, a messed up individual or a messed up system?
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@ Open Minded Observer
You make some interesting points. I think the chasm between us on this issue is that you seem to view members of the police lodge as individuals. I see them as part of an overarching system that includes:
❖ the media lodge that creates and maintains a worldview inimical to non-European descent people and virtually erases the poor and working classes.
❖ the legal lodge of the State that is so anti-democratic that up to 95 percent of convictions are the result of plea deals. They have effectively shredded the constitutional right to a jury trial in their efforts to maintain high conviction numbers.
❖ the political lodge that comforts the comfortable and afflicts the afflicted. The political lodge includes both major parties and all levels of government. They have created more and more unjust laws over the past few decades. The paradox is that as they punish the poor and the powerless for-every-little-thing, they let the rich and the powerful run riot.
I see the police lodge as just another interlocking portion of an unjust system. I am less concerned with the motivation of individual members and more concerned with their group behavior and lack of accountability to the public that funds them.
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@ Richard_III
“The racism, brutality, and trigger happiness in the department is systemic, seen as just a part of the job, not seen as a personal failing.”
Agreed. If anything those attributes can lead to promotions within the lodge.
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@Afrofem
“Chasm” may be too strong a word. I tried to state that I completely agree that the issues are systemic, the lodge is without a doubt almost completely rotten. You’re also right that I also see the lodge as being made up of individuals. I see them as both. I have to. The system as an entity will not change on it’s own. It can’t. It has no vested interest in changing because it’s very existence is based on maintaining the status quo. However, throughout history, it is individuals that cause change. So, I feel like I might get farther engaging with individuals.
I also completely accept that my experience, and the experiences of those I speak with, are likely different from you and Richard_III. So, my comments aren’t meant to voice disagreement, just a different perspective. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate yours and beyond “thanks”, all I have to offer in return is my own.
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@ Open Minded Observer
I think disagreement is fine as long as it leads to learning. There are people I deeply disagree with who still open doors of learning for me. Disagreement can turn raw carbon into diamonds.
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This case is a great study point to why aren’t tasers deployed. The truth is even most hardy commercial aren’t durable enough and even then it comes down to simple economics. In bulk, super high durable engineered tasers would cost significantly way more than the finest hand guns and still have a high failure rate. It would be nice for the day to come though.
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@Afrofem
I agree! LOL No, seriously, we could debate individual impact on systemic institutions elsewhere someday. In the meantime, I do hope we agree that Jemel Roberson is a hero and all my original post was trying to say was that I believed he should be honored as such.
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Well you can add that 21 year old soldier to the list in the Alabama shopping mall. That the cops made a mistake and shot.
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There needs to be a conversation about when the good guy who happens to be black and has the gun and is shot by police.
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@Mary
Absolutely! The 2nd amendment has never applied to Black people. Think back to the Black Panther Party and how quickly open-carry laws changes in California. There’s countless other past examples and these two back-to-back killings of Black “Good Guy With A Gun” are bringing it to the forefront again.
Report: “Respond to a report of an White male with a gun.”
Police Response: “Is there a description? What is he wearing? That might be him. Let’s approach and interrogate.”
Report: “Respond to a report of an African American male with a gun.”
Police Response: “There’s one! Kill him!”
Right now, it’s the police with that reaction. The more “Good Guy With A Gun” we have, the more we’re going to see armed racist citizens having those same gut reactions and “saving the day” by making those same mistakes. Until eventually, one criminal uses a weapon in a public space and everyone draws guns and starts shooting everyone else around them in a chaotic melee of “self-defense”.
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Adam Ruins Everything addresses this issue and uses white people as characters to learn about it.
Adam Ruins Everything – Black People Are Left Out of the Gun Control Debate
(https://youtu.be/31ZoH5P6UIE)
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