The substantial difference in the way police officers treat Black Americans versus white Americans continues to be exposed, and this time, there’s proof.
A new video has gone viral of a white man trying to escape police apprehension while harming them in the process. The man is seen trying to get away from officers as he drags one with his vehicle after allegedly hitting him with a hammer, per TMZ.
The suspect, Luke Alvin Oeltjenbruns, refused to wear a mask at a home improvement store in Hutchinson, Minnesota. He then hit an employee with a piece of lumber and fled the scene. The police were called and caught up with Oeltjenbruns in a mall parking lot moments later.
The Hutchinson PD claimed as Oeltjenbruns tried to flee the scene yet again, he hit an officer with a hammer and took off at a high rate of speed while the officer held on to the driver’s side of the vehicle. Officer Steven Sickmann, a 31-year veteran of the Hutchinson Police Department, was taken to the hospital but is now in stable condition while recovering at home.
Oeltjenbruns has been arrested on first-degree assault with great bodily harm.
This incident of white civilians receiving somewhat fair treatment from police officers after committing crimes is not isolated. Back in March, NewsOne created a list of white men who were violent but apprehended peacefully.
Robert Aaron Long was recently peacefully arrested after being accused of shooting and killing eight people in Atlanta back in mid-March. In Florida, a man named Nicholas Arnold Schock was also peacefully apprehended by police despite him making violent threats against customers at a restaurant and hitting a woman.
In West Hollywood, a white man was arrested peacefully after being accused of double murder and other violent crimes. His name is Peter Manfredonia.
Meanwhile, victims like George Floyd, Daunte Wright, Eric Garner, and countless others died at the hands of police. These men specifically were Black, unarmed, and not perceived as a threat.
Read More: In the fight for Black lives, police remain arbiters of the truth
As per theGrio, 2020 was 2nd deadliest year of police violence.
Campaign Zero released a study that revealed police killings were at an all-time high last year. Researchers discovered that many of the killings came out of non-violent offenses.
2020 was the second deadliest year since they started tracking data in 2013.
Out of the 1,127 people killed by an officer, 96% of the incidents involved guns, tasers, police vehicles, and excessive force, although many of the victims didn’t commit any crimes.
“The data demonstrates the need for comprehensive solutions to address the persistent and glaring lack of accountability for police violence in America,” said Samuel Sinyangwe, one of the organization’s founders.
“Police have killed more than 1,000 people every year since we began tracking the data – and as the 2020 data shows, hundreds of these deaths occurred during routine or non-threatening encounters.”
Campaign Zero’s mission is to “encourages policymakers to focus on solutions with the strongest evidence of effectiveness at reducing police violence.” The organization was founded by Black Lives Matter activists, DeRay McKesson, Johnetta Elzie and Samuel Sinyangwe.
Another key finding in the research was that Black people, despite being only 13% of the country’s population, were more likely to be killed. Black people made up 27% of the killings, 36% were unarmed or not perceived to be threatening.
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