By Muhammed Bilal Kenasari
WASHINGTON
Michael Brown’s death at the hands of a police officer turned the tragedy into a symbol that represents the killing of all black teenagers by police officers.
Brown’s killing was not the first such case of an unarmed black male killed by a white police officer, and it certainly was not be the last in a country that still struggles to deal with racial inequalities 150 years since its former slaves were freed.
Since that fateful day in August, there have been at least 6 black teenagers who were shot and killed by police officers in the United States, according to The Daily Beast.
The FBI's "justifiable homicide database" shows between 2005 and 2012, an average of 96 blacks were killed each year by a white police officer, and 2013 saw these deaths increase for a third consecutive year.
Recent studies have shown that young black males are 21 times more likely to be killed by police than their white teen counterparts.
University of California, Berkeley professor Hatem Bazian said blacks killed by police is a phenomenon that has become commonplace.
"The numbers are just constantly piling up, and that can be seen in the newspapers daily, as African-Americans have been shot by the police for a variety of reasons,” he said. These killings have turned into “routine” news, he added.
Of the 6 black teens who have been killed by police since Aug. 9, the victims ranged in age from as old as 19 to as young as 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
Tamir was shot and killed Nov. 22 by a Cleveland police officer who mistook the toy gun Tamir was holding for a real gun. After the shooting he radioed that the victim was approximately 20 years old.
A snapshot of the other victims of deadly police shootings include:
Fourteen-year-old Cameron Tillman who was shot dead Sept. 21 after police received a call about trespassers armed with weapons entering an abandoned home in Terrebonne, Louisiana. A gun Cameron had in his possession was a toy.
Laquan McDonald was 17 when he was shot dead by a Chicago police officer for breaking into cars and refusing to drop a knife he was holding.
VonDerrit Myers Jr. was shot in the head in early October, just miles from where Michael Brown died two months earlier. An off-duty officer said the 18-year-old fired three rounds at him before the officer returned with 17 shots. Myers’ family contends he did nothing wrong and was carrying only a sandwich in his hand.
Qusean Whitten, 18, was killed for trying to rob a store in Ohio in October.
Roshad McIntosh from Chicago was killed at the end of August after reportedly pulling a gun on officers. The 19-year-old’s family claimed he was kneeling on the ground with his hands in the air.
McIntosh's family's claims are eerily similar to those of some of the witness accounts of the Brown shooting.
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