Just months after the upsurge in Black struggle against police murder during the aftermath of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Ezell Ford the police in the U.S. have taken center stage once more with another heinous crime in the video recorded execution of Eric Harris in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Harris was entrapped in an undercover operation, ran from the police, was tackled to the ground and then shot in the back by “reserve deputy” Robert C. Bates, a 73-year-old insurance executive, with his own personal .357 snub nose pistol. One officer can be heard telling a dying Harris, “F— your breath!” as he gasped in desperation that he couldn’t breathe.
Reserve deputy forces
Currently there are over 400,000 reserve deputy police in hundreds of departments across the country. Reserve deputies are typically required to take less than a third of the total training hours as standard police. The case of Robert C. Bates, reserve deputy since 2008, illustrates the danger of opening armed positions to the general public.
Bates had apparently donated thousands to the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office in the form of multiple police vehicles, technology, and other equipment in a ‘pay to play’ approach to police work. Bates was also a financial contributor to Sheriff Stanley Glanz’s election campaign, who has come out publicly to defend Bates’ right to serve as a reserve deputy and the reserve program more generally in spite of the killing of Harris.
Arrest all Tulsa County Sheriff’s involved in Harris’ murder
Of course, since Bates is not a sworn officer there was no problem arresting him for the charge of manslaughter. In spite of Bates’ arrest the internal investigation by the Tulsa Sheriff’s and FBI has cleared the two officers in the video of any wrongdoing and denied federal civil rights allegations. While the arrest has some hoping for justice, the Black community and their allies are waiting to see the outcome of the verdict after multiple let downs in such recent and clear cases as those of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. These two cases proved that whether in uniform or not, white men can typically get away with murdering Black men.
An ensuing dialogue throughout the country has pointed solely to the role of untrained reserve deputies as if to say that this peculiarity of circumstance is to blame for Harris’ death. While its sickening that rich racists like Bates can live out their deeply held fantasies of murdering people of color for a small fee and a few hours of orientation, the truth is that the majority of these racist executions are carried out by “well-trained,” “veteran” sworn officers of departments across the nation. All reserve police forces should be immediately disbanded for their dubious legality and implications of Klan-style vigilantism.
All progressive people, however, must reject any call for additional sworn police and additional training under the guise of correcting the “problem” presented by reduction in reserve deputy forces. The truth is that all of the police involved in the shooting death of Harris belong behind bars as accomplices.
From, ‘I can’t breathe,’ to, ‘F— your breath’
A second officer in the recording aside from Bates can be heard blaming Harris for his own shooting because he ran. This officer clearly believes they have the right to steal a person’s constitutional right to a jury trial at their own discretion. The officer goes on to finish by telling an asphyxiating Harris, “F— your breath!”
This statement stings with special significance as the last injustice against Black people around the country was explained using Eric Garner’s three simple words, “I can’t breathe.”
The movement became emboldened with this slogan as it seemed to explain succinctly the complex dynamics of being treated as worthless due to the color of your skin and having an unbearable, occupying police presence in your community at all times.
The Tulsa County Sheriff’s are proof that body cameras cannot resolve the deep seated racism that is built into every police department across the country. The reply of that deputy to Harris in his final moments is, in many ways, the reply of police across the country to the new and explosive liberation struggle of Black people in the U.S.
