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I am so tired of yet another brother being shot because of the cell phone looking like a gun excuse...Please read story below...
Shreveport Black Community Says Justice is Due Following Shooting Death
By Ed Wiley III and Alex P. Kellogg, BET.com Staff Writers
Posted July 11, 2003 -- Black leaders in the city of Shreveport, La., said Thursday that they have been able to make some progress with city officials four months after an unarmed Black man was shot dead by police. But the true test of justice, they say, will come after federal investigators issue their report on whether the policemen acted outside the law.
In March, Shreveport Police officers shot Marquise Hudspeth dead following a high-speed chase. The 25-year-old local resident had pulled into the parking lot of the convenience store and began walking away from the officers. Two officers blasted away at Hudspeth, emptying eight shots in the suspect's back. Police say they mistook his shiny, metallic cell phone for a handgun and believed he was aiming it at officers when they shot him.
However, Black community leaders, including ministers and the head of the local NAACP, argue that even if Hudspeth had pointed his cell phone at police, officers did not fire until he had begun walking away and heading into the store. The fact that all of the bullets that hit Hudspeth entered his back is proof that he was no threat, they say.
A local police review board and the District Attorney, after examining the videotapes, ruled that the shooting was justifiable, and all three officers involved -- Denver Ramsey, Michael Armstrong and Steven Hathorn -- were cleared of any wrongdoing.
Angry members of the Black community, following citywide marches and talk of a potential economic boycott, have seen their persistence begin to pay off. There are regular meetings with Mayor Keith Hightower and members of the City Council, and in recent weeks, Police Chief Jim Roberts has been forced to resign. The next immediate goal, say members of a Black ministers' alliance, is the firing of the three officers involved in the shooting. Three of the seven council members are Black.
"We are hoping to get these officers on administrative leave," said the Rev. Richard Hardy, senior pastor of St. Mary Baptist Church in Shreveport. "We have major concerns about the police explanation of what happened. Why shoot the man in the back? One of the officers was close enough and in position to grab him and hold on to him."
Hardy said that aside from removal of the officers, residents of Shreveport are demanding overall justice. They would like to see the FBI and the Justice Department lodge criminal charges against the officers, and ultimately see the officers jailed. "We are still waiting for the Justice Department to bring some closure to this," Hardy said, noting that Hudspeth's family is also likely to file a civil suit.
But several White citizens of this racially divided city of over 200,000 residents say they believe the police and are tired of hearing them bashed by the Black community. They formed an ad hoc group, Back the Badge, to stand by city police following the Hudspeth shooting. They too have held rallies and marches, supporting the officers. Some Black residents expressed anger that Mayor Hightower attended the Back the Badge rally but was a no-show for their march for justice.
Veronica Harris a member of Back the Badge, said, "People want to support and encourage [the police]. They want to tell them how much they appreciate them."
The Rev. Artis Cash, fired back: "We back the badge, but we back the badge when it's not killing us! Suicide by cops, we don't do that in our community."
Shreveport, which is centered between Jackson, Miss., and Dallas, may be divided equally in its racial makeup -- 51 percent Black and 49 percent White -- but it is also deeply divided in its racial attitudes, a holdover, Black residents say, of its Southern plantation past.
"When you understand the geographical setting of Shreveport, and the fact that these Black communities are near plantations and farms, then it helps you understand why White residents in those communities find it the hardest to yield," said Rev. Hardy. "The average White pastor here can't join the Black ministers in our efforts, because their deacon and trustee boards wield an incredible amount of power. For them, joining our cause would be like committing treason."
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